By Matt Mackinder/Michigan & Michigan State Beat WriterNot since the 1997-1998 season has Michigan State taken both ends of a weekend set with Michigan, but with a home-and-home sweep last weekend, the 14th-ranked Spartans pulled off that feat and now lead the country with nine wins.
The Spartans took a 3-2 win Friday night in Ann Arbor and then blanked the No. 6 Wolverines, 2-0, Saturday night in East Lansing.
"We have a long way to go," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "But this is a good step."
Chris Forfar and Andrew Rowe scored Saturday night to back Drew Palmisano's 31 saves as part of his second career shutout.
Friday night, Matt Crandell handed out two assists for his first career multi-point game and Rowe, Daultan Leveille and Corey Tropp scored for MSU.
Palmisano finished with 17 saves.
For the Wolverines, Lee Moffie (first NCAA goal) and Carl Hagelin scored and Bryan Hogan made 21 stops in net. Hogan kicked out 17 Saturday night.
"There are some times where your defense isn't playing well and they're turning the puck over; you saw that tonight with two costly goals," UM head coach Red Berenson said. "And there are times where your forwards can't score and you saw that again tonight. We're in that dilemma. It's easy to pinpoint why we're losing. What you want to do is get to the point where you're talking about why you're winning because they're [giving you] good goalkeeping, good defense. This is a team thing and we've all got to work hard to get out of it."
The Spartans, in first place in the CCHA with a 6-1-1 league mark (9-2-1 overall), are back in action on Thursday evening when they host Notre Dame in the first half of a delayed home-and-home at Munn Ice Arena. The teams will complete the series on Sunday in Fort Wayne.
Michigan, now 4-6-0 overall and 2-3-0 in the CCHA, has a home-and-home of its own with Bowling Green beginning Friday night at Yost Ice Arena and concluding the next night on the road.
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