Wolverines capture GLI thriller over Huskies

After an 11-year drought, the Michigan Wolverines finally got back on top of the Great Lakes Invitational with a dramatic 1-0 double overtime victory over the Michigan Tech Huskies.

Junior Travis Turnbull redirected a Scooter Vaughan shot at 2:32 of overtime to give the Maize and Blue the hard fought title in the 43rd edition of the GLI at the Joe Louis Arena on Saturday night.

"I cannot tell you that (I have had a tip like that)," Turnbull said. "I just saw Scooter wind up at the point and I just tried to get my stick free and position myself in front of the net. He made the perfect shot and I tipped it and it went in."

Fellow junior Billy Sauer recorded his second consecutive tournament shutout by stopping 37 MTU shots and was named tournament MVP.

"It may not be the toughest game I have ever played in, but it was probably one of the most important," added Sauer. "When you get into the fifth period of a 0-0 game, every save is that much more crucial. If you make one mistake, your team is going home. To have back-to-back games like that and to not make any mistakes, that was a good feeling."

Rob Nolan was nearly perfect between the pipes for Tech in stopping 45 of 46 shots.

The win was the fifth in a row for the Wolverines (18-2-0, 11-1-0 CCHA), who will now get some well-deserved time off before a home-and-home match up with Western Michigan beginning on Jan. 11 in Ann Arbor.

The Huskies (7-9-2, 5-6-1 WCHA) will begin a four-game road trip at Mercyhurst on Friday night.

-- Providence shocks MSU with upset win

The Michigan State Spartans surrendered four third-period goals in the GLI consolation game and fell by a final of 5-3 to the Providence Friars.

Dustin Gazley, Nick Sucharski and Mike Ratchuk all scored and Jeff Lerg stopped 40 shots in the losing effort for MSU.

"There was absolutely zero emotion there today," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "But let me remind you that last night was a good, hard-fought game. But at times, we played today like it was only a consolation game, a game that didn't mean anything. And that's alarming to me, obviously.

"It's an emotional sport - you have to play with emotion. You watched it. You saw the lack of effort that was put in by many players."

The Green and White (12-5-2, 8-2-0 CCHA) will return to conference action with a pair of games against Lake Superior State at Munn Arena beginning on Friday night.