MSU Hockey and head coach Tom Anastos had one mission in mind going into Halloween weekend.

 “Win tonight, win Sunday, and hopefully that will satisfy their Halloween desires,” said Anastos of his team.

And it held true, as the Spartans clinched the first of their two-game series against American International College by a score of 5-4. But Anastos was not too pleased with the win.

MSU committed a total of five penalties for 10 minutes in the box, with three of the five penalties coming in the third period.

“We need to understand how disciplined we have to be for 60 minutes. The dynamics start to change, and it’s those kind of mistakes (penalties) that we cannot make,” he explained.

MSU forward Michael Ferrantino  broke the game open on a two-on-two rush for a right-side wrist shot, with JT Stenglein adding another goal, shooting to the upper-left side of the net. It was his first goal of the year.

“I feel like since we came home, I got my confidence up and got a couple more shots. And hopefully I’ll be able to find the net a bit more over the next few weeks,” Stenglein said.

“It was good to get that first one, because I kind of had decent stats in juniors. So some of the guys were messing around a bit on why I hadn’t scored yet.”

Play got chippy with 46 seconds left in the first when a puck was poked in the net off of a double-rebound by forward Blake Peake to put AIC on the board at the end of one.

Spartan forward Villiam Haag added a goal three minutes into the second half to give the Spartans a three goal cushion, with Spartans Greg Wolfe and Lee Reimer adding goals to give MSU a four-goal lead.

But scares came in the third with a power play goal, and two late-minute goals within the last ten minutes of the game. But the Spartans were determined enough, and fended off AIC 5-4.

“We won the game which is a good thing. But we got to clean some things up. We don’t feel too good about the finish,” head coach Tom Anastos said.

MSU plays the final game of the doubleheader against AIC on Sunday, with a Puck drop is at 12:00 p.m.

Alex Scharg is the Director of Impact Sports.

Photo: David Defever.