'They can't play with us': UM tops MSU in penalty-filled hockey battle

East Lansing — Hate is back on the menu.

After years of a hockey rivalry gone dormant, Michigan and Michigan State started to get out a decade's worth of animosity in their meeting at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing on Friday night.

In the precursor to Saturday night's "Duel in the D" at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the Spartans and Wolverines combined for 67 penalty minutes, 17 penalties and three ejections — in the second period alone.

Oh, and they played a hockey game, too.

Michigan took a 3-0 lead in the first period and withstood a late push from the Spartans that cut the Wolverines' lead to 3-2, escaping East Lansing with a 4-2 win after adding an empty-netter with 1:01 remaining.

"Like, they can’t play with us. They can’t play with us unless they goon it up," Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato said.

The win pushed Michigan (19-9-1, 11-8 Big Ten) into sole possession of second place in the Big Ten. The Wolverines entered Friday night in a four-way tie with Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State. Ohio State lost to Notre Dame, 2-1, on Friday night. Penn State is on a bye week.

Brindley scored twice, and Mackie Samoskevich and Fantilli each added one of their own for Michigan. The Wolverines jumped out to a 3-0 lead to start the game, scoring twice on its first three shots to silence the road crowd.

Tiernan Shoudy scored for Michigan State (15-14-2, 9-10-2) to open the second period at 4:54, and after a hectic 15 minutes put offense on hold the rest of the way, Nicolas Müller made it a game with his goal at 5:32 in the third period.

Michigan freshman Adam Fantilli, a projected top-three pick in this summer's NHL Draft, was ejected along with Michigan State defenseman Nash Nienhaus after the two got into it following a whistle in the second period. Earlier in the same period, Michigan sophomore Ethan Edwards received a game misconduct for delivering a hit to the head of Spartan defender Matt Basgall.

"I have a hard time calling any of that 'fighting,'" Nightingale said. "I know they called it fighting, but they were scrums. That's emotion, right? And that's good. I mean, I think you gotta play the game with emotion."

Because Fantilli and Nienhaus were ejected for fighting, they will each be suspended for Saturday's "Duel in the D", per NCAA rules. Michigan State defensemen Cole Krygier and David Gucciardi, plus Michigan's Brindley, received game misconducts for their roles in a scrum that ensued after the final goal.

Michigan ended the night with 13 penalties for 48 penalty minutes. Michigan State had 15-for-57, respectively.

"You can ask any guy in that room. We hate these guys and we always say you can't beat these guys enough," Michigan captain Nolan Moyle said. "So yeah, it was good to coming out with a road win. It's a huge win and a huge three points for us."

Wolverines head coach Brandon Naurato said he thought his team got the short end of the stick regarding how the game was called.

"The game changes when...we have the puck the whole game, and we’re chasing the game, because we’re in the box," Naurato said.

Nightingale saw things differently. Aside from not thinking that any player on either side should have been ejected for fighting, he thought his team kept their composure reasonably well, given the wire-to-wire intensity.

"We gotta play the game hard, play between the whistles. I thought our guys did a great job of not running their mouths," Nightingale said. "We want to play between the whistles, and emotions boil over at times, and scrums, and it’s part of our game. I think the guys did a good job today."

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @nolanbianchi