DETROIT – After its power play unit struggled Tuesday in a loss to Michigan, the Northern Michigan University special teams came through when it counted Wednesday against Michigan State.

Down 1-0 late in the third period, forward Dominik Shine put in the game-tying goal with the man advantage and sent the game into overtime. Shine’s seventh goal of the season set the stage for fellow winger Robbie Payne’s game-winning tally during the extra session, which gave the Wildcats a 2-1 victory in the third-place game at the Great Lakes Invitational.

Both players got their goals in front of family and friends who took in the game at Joe Louis Arena. Shine’s grandmother, who has battled cancer, was in attendance to watch her grandson come through in the clutch.

“It was exciting to score in front of my family and friends that were here,” he said. “It’s been a rough year for my family. My grandma’s gone through cancer and she was here. I saw her in warm-ups and that kind of gave me some motivation. I was excited to play in front of her and she hasn’t seen me play in a while.”

Payne’s goal sent the bench into a frenzy and helped Northern (7-7-6) earn a confidence boost as it enters conference play next weekend at Minnesota State. A Gaylord native, Payne had a large contingent there to watch him play.

“To get down here and see there are 20 people watching, it was pretty good to see them,” Payne said. “To be able to score in front of them at the end of the game was pretty cool.”

The Wildcats also got a strong performance from goalie Mathias Israelsson, who earned his second straight win in net.

For the Spartans, they were dealt a heartbreaking OT loss for the second straight day after blowing a two-goal lead against Michigan Tech on Tuesday. MSU came into the GLI reeling after the Spartans went 1-8-1 in their past 10 games. Tough back-to-back losses definitely hurt them.

“We’re going to have to do some soul-searching,” Michigan State head coach Tom Anastos said. “It’s a tough way to start the second half of the season, without a doubt. Giving up late leads and losing in overtime the way we did, it’s going to be a character check for us and I think the world of the guys in our locker room.”

The Spartans got off to a good start as they scored just 1:06 into the game on a goal by Joe Cox. He knocked the puck out of the air with his hand, controlled it and beat a sprawling Israelsson to his left side.

That’s all the Spartans could manage, though, as Israelsson kept them at bay for the rest of the game, which was key as the Wildcats struggled to generate offense in the first period. Northern’s best opportunity came when Shine broke away from two defenders and got a good look at the net, but MSU goalie Jake Hildebrand got a piece of the puck with his glove to keep the Wildcats off the scoreboard.

In the second period, Northern had more scoring opportunities, but Hildebrand continued to shut out the Wildcats. Both Shine and defenseman Zach Urban had shots that just missed the net, and Northern had a nice two-man rush that had Hildebrand beat to his right side. However the pass was just a little late and the shot went wide of the net.

The Wildcats had three power play chances in the third, but couldn’t capitalize until Shine scored at the 15:45 mark. Forward John Siemer skated around the Spartan net and passed the puck to an open Shine, who tapped it past Hildebrand. Northern could’ve won the game in regulation as it had the puck in the Spartans zone several times before the buzzer went off, but couldn’t get it past Hildebrand.

In overtime, Payne broke through at the 3:38 mark. A shot by Ryan Trenz went off of Zach Diamantoni’s skate and right to Payne, who beat Hildebrand blocker-side. As a result, Northern left Detroit with some momentum going into the second half of the season.

When asked what he thought of his team’s performance, NMU head coach Walt Kyle said he was pleased that the Wildcats turned things around after the bad start.

“I thought the game was sloppy early,” he said. “I thought as the game went along, we got better.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.