Before he would go on to become a national championship-winning quarterback at the University of Michigan, J.J. McCarthy's first love was hockey. The native of La Grange Park, Illinois started playing the sport at five years old, but chose to give it up as a high school freshman in order to focus on his football career.

Michigan State hockey traveled to Ann Arbor for their first game of two against the Wolverines this weekend. Despite a valiant effort, and borderline dominating performance from the Spartans, they fell just short on Friday night, losing 3-2 in overtime.

No. 1 Michigan State (19-3-2, 10-2-2 Big Ten) navigated a penalty-ridden game to earn a 4-1 win over No. 10 Michigan. The Spartans’ power play went 2-for-7, while the penalty kill blanked the Wolverines on four out of five deployments.