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Thursday, Feb. 27
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Hoosiers squander lead once again

For 2nd week in a row, IU hands opponent late win

For the second straight weekend, the IU hockey team was unable to hold on to a third period lead, as it blew a 5-3 advantage in the second game of its weekend set. The Hoosiers settled for a tie after winning 5-2 Friday night against the defending Division II American Collegiate Hockey Association National Champions Michigan State Spartans in Bloomington.\nIn perhaps one of their best games of the season, the Hoosiers attacked on all cylinders Friday night. Taking a 2-1 lead into the second period, junior forward Reed Schafer put the Hoosiers ahead for good scoring his 11th goal of the season just five minutes into the period. After MSU got within one, the Hoosiers finished off the Spartans on third period goals from junior forward Mike Casper and sophomore forward Dan Karlander, who racked up his team-leading 16th goal of the season. \nFiring 43 shots on goal, the Hoosiers stayed active all night and put constant pressure on MSU, never letting up. IU coach Rich Holdeman thought his team stayed alert at the task at hand. "We got them down early and kept them down," he said. "(MSU was) so tied up in trying to hit us and smack us that they weren't really focused on trying to win."\nKarlander felt his team came out in attack mode from start to finish.\n"We were a lot more physical in our fore checking," he said. "We got to them, stayed on them and forced many turnovers."\nIn game two of the weekend series, after letting a 6-2 lead slip away last weekend against Ohio State, the Hoosiers once again let a late advantage disappear.\nThings looked good early on as IU took a 4-2 lead going into the second period. IU senior forward Pete Johnson led the charge tallying his second goal of the weekend just four minutes into the game. As the two teams traded off scores in the second period, IU still maintained a 5-2 advantage going into the last intermission, but MSU got right back into the game with two goals. Senior forward Jon Laughner noticed his team making too many mistakes late in the game.\n"We're taking ill-timed penalties," he said. "We got to learn how to close out a game. Two weeks in a row we let teams back in the game and both times it was because of ill-timed penalties."\nMSU eventually tied up the contest with about six minutes remaining after IU junior goalie Jimmy Hugill made a save on a breakaway for one of his 36 stops on the day. However, he couldn't corral the rebound as an MSU offender was there for the score.\n"Everyone came out in the third period and kind of played on their heels a little bit," Karlander said. "We kind of started playing passive and that's not what we should do."\nDuring the entire game, Holdeman felt his team didn't play with the energy needed to win.\n"I thought throughout this game MSU seemed a little hungrier than us," he said. "They played with more intensity."\nThe Hoosiers, 5-4-3 in the Great Midwestern Hockey League and 12-9-3 overall, are tied for third place in the GMHL with Ohio State. Schafer said he feels his team is better than what they have shown.\n"It's nobody's fault," he said. "It's a team game. We win as a team and lose as a team ... We're happy with the three points but we strive for excellence and not getting the entire four points is disappointing"

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