Hockey Kicks Off Season With Green And White Game

Thursday, October 6

East Lansing, Mich.

7:05 PM

Michigan State University

Green and White Game (EX)

Chris Mueller score a shorthanded goal in the Green's 5-2 win on Thursday.

10/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Oct. 6, 2005

Box Score

The Michigan State hockey team kicked off its 2005-06 season on Thursday night, Oct. 6, with the annual Green and White intra-squad scrimmage. The teams played two 25-minute periods and ended the night with a shootout.

The Green team won the game, 5-2, but the White team put on a scoring display during the shootout, putting six shots behind netminder Dominic Vicari (Clinton Township, Mich.), while freshman Jeff Lerg (Livonia, Mich) only let two Green goals slide past him.

"As a coach, I was just anxious to see if anything we have worked on in the first week of practice would show up out there," head coach Rick Comley said. "We should be fine. We know we have three lines that contribute, and we know that we are a little thin a defense right now, but I feel pretty good going into this weekend."

A pair of newcomers connected for the first goal of the evening, putting the Green up 1-0 at the 14:44 mark of the first period.

Freshman Kirk Kovisto (Milford, Mich.) fired a quick wrist shot that beat White netminder Lerg high glove side. Dan Sturges (Verona, Wis.) was awarded the lone assist on the goal.

Last year's leading goal scorer Colton Fretter (Harrow, Ont.) put the Green up 2-0 on a power play goal just 2:14 later. Fretter received a perfect pass from Peder Skinner (Isle-aux-Morts, Newfoundland) and solved freshman Steve Mnich (Northville, Mich.) with a one-timer.

David Booth cut the Green's lead in half at 19:49 of the first, putting a shorthanded goal past Vicari.

The Green team extended its lead back to two goals with another power play goal with just 59 seconds left in the period. A slap shot from the point by Chad Hontvet (Warroad, Minn.) found its way through traffic and over Mnich's left pad for the 3-1 lead.

The margin was closed to 3-2 on another shorthanded goal by the White team 5:53 into the second frame. Bryan Lerg (Livonia, Mich.) stole the puck in the neutral zone and attacked the net, solving Mnich, who switched teams at the intermission, through his five-hole.

The Green team tallied a shorthanded goal of its own at 21:15 of the second period.

After an impressive steal and display of puck handling, Chris Mueller (West Seneca, N.Y.) slid the puck past Lerg for the 4-2 lead.

Junior captain Drew Miller (East Lansing, Mich.) rounded out the scoring for evening, putting the Green team 5-2 at the 23:51 mark. From just inside the blue line, Miller turned and blindly fired a shot that beat a screened Lerg.

The Spartans open the regular season this Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Lefty McFadden Tournament in Dayton, Ohio against Wayne State. MSU closes out its opening weekend the next day, when they clash with 2005 national finalists North Dakota. Game time for Saturday's contest is scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT, and Sunday's game is slated for 2 p.m. EDT.