Detroit – With nothing to play for except pride in Monday’s Great Lakes Invitational third-place game at Little Caesars Arena, Michigan and Michigan State wore their collective hearts on their sweaters during the first period of an eventual 2-2 tie.
A line brawl involving everybody on the ice except Spartan goaltender Drew DeRidder broke out between the bitter rivals at 13:17 in the first period after a scrum formed in front of the net.
Michigan forward Nick Pastujov (Islanders draft pick), who tied the game with a power-play goal in the third, said “both teams were looking to just kind of kill each other.