Wolverines fall to BGSU, tie Spartans

After Michigan lost to Bowling Green Friday night, the Wolverines looked to avenge that defeat with a solid game against Michigan State on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

While they didn't play a solid game, Andrew Cogliano salvaged a point for U-M by scoring with 1:51 to go, bringing the Wolverines into a 3-3 tie after being down 3-0.

"We put ourselves in a hole, but I thought our team had more conviction tonight," Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. "They stayed with the game plan; they continued to play hard. There was a sense of urgency; we put pucks to the net, and I thought our whole team just played better. Now, obviously last night's game had something to do with it, but we had something to prove against our opponent tonight, too."

MSU head coach Rick Comley wasn't as cheerful, but still positive.

"We are what we are," Conley said. "We know that we have some flaws on this team, but you have to remember that we're 11-1-2 in our last 14 games. We haven't generated much offense all year, but that's okay. We're not going to go out of here and hang our heads. This was not a national championship game. It was another game and we didn't hurt ourselves, so we'll take the good out of it."

Chris Summers scored twice for Michigan and Justin Abdelkader added a pair for MSU. Bryan Lerg also scored for Michigan State.

Jeff Lerg made 54 saves for MSU and Billy Sauer kicked out 19 for U-M.

"I thought we got real tired, but they had a lot to do with it," added Comley. "They came at us with some pretty good speed, got 57 shots but didn't win the game. The thing you have to remember is that we're sitting in the locker room, getting outshot like that and we still get a point. So the bottom line is to be resilient and find a way to get it done. We just got tired, and they used their speed to take advantage of some situations that we couldn't deal with very well."

Michigan (21-10-1, 16-7-1 CCHA) is at Lake Superior State this Friday and Sunday, while the Spartans (18-8-3, 14-6-3 CCHA) travels to Ferris State Tuesday night before playing a home-and-home set with Western Michigan this weekend starting Friday in Kalamazoo.