Spartans skate past Northern Michigan Into CCHA Championship Game
3/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
March 16, 2002
DETROIT, Mich. - Junior defenseman Brad Fast (Fort St. John, B.C.) recorded his first goal in eight games to break a second-period tie as Michigan State defeated Northern Michigan 2-1 in a CCHA Super Six Championship semifinal match at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
The win propels the Spartans (27-7-5 overall) to the conference championship game for the third straight season. MSU faces Michigan, a 2-1 overtime winner in the other semifinal, for an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament tomorrow.
Fast's goal with 3:31 left in the period started when freshman center Ash Goldie (London, Ont.) won a draw back to the Spartan rearguard, stationed just inside the blue line. Fast skated the puck from center ice to the top of the near faceoff circle, paused to freeze a Wildcat defender and unleashed a snap shop that zipped over the glove of NMU netminder Craig Kowalski.
"I was just trying to get it off as quickly as possible," said Fast. "I saw a little opening up top and that's where I aimed. I was just trying to get it on net because I knew we had guys scrambling around the crease for a possible rebound."
Kowalski was the star for the vast majority of the second period as the Spartans outshot the Wildcats 10-2 during a six-minute portion of the middle stanza that included 3:43 of State power-play time and a snap shot off the post by freshman center Jim Slater (Lapeer, Mich.)
Senior wing Adam Hall (Kalamazoo, Mich.) gave the Spartans an early 1-0 lead 3:56 into the opening period. Slater set up behind the NMU net and hit Hall with a pass as he drove toward the crease. Kowalski stopped Hall's first shot but couldn't control the rebound, and the Spartan captain backhanded the fluttering puck out of midair for his team-best 19th goal of the season.
While the Spartans controlled the flow of the game through the first portion of the first period, outshooting Northern Michigan 6-1, the Wildcats (26-12-2) peppered MSU goaltender Ryan Miller (East Lansing, Mich.) through the latter stages of the frame. The 2002 Hobey Baker Memorial Award candidate was equal to the task, however, stopping all nine shots he faced en route to a 23-save night and his 11th consecutive CCHA postseason victory
NMU finally solved Miller early in the second period thanks to a Spartan defensive breakdown. Wildcat defenseman Sean Owens caught MSU's blueliners flat-footed and sprung forwards Dave Bonk and Alex Sawruk on a two-on-none break with a perfect outlet feed. Bonk received the pass and gave the puck to Sawruk, who beat Miller top shelf for his seventh goal of the season at 3:08.
"We kind of played in spurts, but we didn't play 60 minutes of hockey," said coach Ron Mason. "But we're where we want to be tomorrow."
Tomorrow's CCHA Super Six Championship final gets underway at 3:05 p.m. EST. The Spartans will learn their NCAA postseason fate later tomorrow when the pairings for the national tournament are announced on ESPN News at 9 p.m.
