Spartans split with Broncos

Michigan State and Western Michigan played a home-and-home set last weekend and the home team won each contest.

Friday at Lawson Ice Arena, Vince Bellissimo's power-play goal 12:36 into the third period gave WMU (10-11-1, 5-10-1 CCHA) a 5-4 victory.

Drew Miller scored three for MSU (12-11-1, 7-9-0 CCHA) with Ethan Graham netting the other.

Paul Szczechura, Jeff Pierce, Brent Walton and Kevin Labatte also scored for Western Michigan, who got a 46-save outing from goalie Daniel Bellissimo. Dominic Vicari stopped 20 shots for MSU.

"I thought that five-on-five, we played great tonight," said MSU head coach Rick Comley. "We generated 50 shots and lots of great scoring chances. Coming in we knew that their power play could score and they showed us how."

Saturday at Munn Ice Arena, Szczechura opened the scoring just 91 seconds into the game, but Colton Fretter, Mike Lalonde and captain Jim Slater rallied the Spartans for the 3-1 win.

Vicari made 21 saves and Bellissimo stopped 29.

"We got up one-nothing, got the jump on them - that's four consecutive games we've scored first - and we had some chances to make it a two-nothing game," WMU head coach Jim Culhane said. "Vicari was there to make the saves, and they were able to respond, tie it, and get the next one to take the lead."

"It definitely was important," Vicari said of the win. "We needed to win this. We needed to come out and split; the guys worked hard and were able to get it done."

The Spartans return to action this weekend (Jan. 21-22) when they open a two-game set at Munn against Lake Superior State.