Members of the Michigan hockey team celebrate their win over Michigan State on Saturday at Joe Louis Arena.

AP photo

DETROIT - The comfortable cushion had been wiped out. Once again, Michigan's hockey team was in a roller-coaster reality.

The Wolverines could either finish an effort that started with so much promise or squander a chance to end a season-long losing streak against Michigan State.

Chris Brown clearly had the latter in mind. The Michigan freshman's put-back goal with 2:07 remaining rescued the Wolverines in a dramatic 5-4 win over the No. 13-ranked Spartans in front of 18,146 Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The win snapped the Wolverines three-game losing streak against the Spartans and salvaged a weekend split in the NCAA-record 278th hockey meeting between the two schools.

"Any time you play a rival like Michigan State or anyone else like that, it's going to come down to the last 30 seconds," Brown said. "We had to play 60 minutes and that's what we did."

The final seven minutes proved to be the most heart-stopping as the Wolverines and Spartans combined for three goals. Brown's rebound game-winner came more than two minutes after U-M's Matt Rust knotted the game at 4, snapping Michigan State's run of four unanswered goals.

Dean Chelios registered the Spartans' go-ahead goal with 6:09 remaining, wiping out the final remnants of the 3-0 lead the Wolverines had initially built. Once behind, the Wolverines (15-12-1, 10-9-1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) knew they'd have to respond if they were to salvage a weekend split.

"We knew from (Friday) night that we're a team that's going to go a full 60 minutes," Michigan senior captain Chris Summers said. "That's what we did - just relentless, relentless pressure and it paid off tonight."

After Rust's goal at the 15:12 mark of the third period wiped away Michigan State's short-lived lead, Brown kept chipping away at the puck at the goal mouth, finally pushing it past Michigan State goalie Drew Palmisano.

Brown had what would have been a game-tying goal waved off in the final 32 seconds of Friday night's 3-2 loss in East Lansing.

"I thought the ref was going to blow the whistle, but fortunately, he held off for a couple seconds," Brown said of his game-winner. "I was able to put it in."

Michigan used a first period offensive flurry to build its lead, leaving the Spartans to deal with the same deficit the Wolverines faced in Friday night's loss.

A.J. Treais tapped in a short rebound after Summers maneuvered through Michigan State's defense and fired a shot from point-blank range, giving U-M its 1-0 lead.

Summers followed at the 17:51 mark of the first period, firing a shot from the wing and using a deflection off a defender's skate to double the Wolverines' lead. Brian Lebler finished off an impressive first period, taking a perfect centering pass from Brown with only 26 seconds remaining to finish off the offensive flurry.

The Spartans (17-9-4, 12-6-4 CCHA) needed only 50 seconds of the third period to tie the score when Jeff Petry scored on a power play. Chelios then beat Hogan to give Michigan State its first lead before Rust tied the game, rebounding a Carl Hagelin shot before Brown tallied the game-winner.

"We hung around and hung around," Michigan State coach Rick Comley said. "We were in position to win the game, but we just couldn't get it done."

For the Wolverines, the win not only wiped away a chance at losing all four games to Michigan State, but provided some momentum Michigan will need to make a push in the stretch run of the season.

Michigan is only one point out of the pivotal fourth-place position in the CCHA standings heading into a week when the Wolverines travel to struggling Bowling Green Thursday night before facing No. 2-ranked Wisconsin in the outdoor Camp Randall Classic on Saturday in Madison.

"We came to the rink ready to play," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "We had a big edge in the game on the scoreboard and then we lost it, so there was no use crying about it. We just had to move on and start again, and win the rest of the game, and that’s what it came down to."

Jeff Arnold covers Michigan hockey for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at jeffarnold@annarbor.com or 734-623-2554. Follow him at Twitter @jeffreyparnold.