Spartans Kick Off 2007-08 Season at North Dakota

10/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Oct. 11, 2007

Game Notes vs. North Dakota

Audio: WJIM 1240 AM msuspartans.com
Scott Moore (PBP) and Rob Woodward '00 (Analysis)
Television: The game will be televised live Midcontinent Cable in the Grand Forks area on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network.
Live Video Webstream: Fans can view the game online by purchasing a 24-hour pass to SiouXtra for $5.95. Click on the "Sign Up Now" button. Click here to access SiouXtra

in brief
MSU opens its season on the road at top-ranked North Dakota in the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game. MSU's record in the all-time series is 35-61-2; the last meeting of the teams came in October of 2005 in the Lefty McFadden Tournament in Dayton. The Spartans won that game, 3-0, to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Sioux.

for starters
Michigan State has won its season opener in each of the last two seasons, is 2-3 in curtain-lifters under Rick Comley, 4-4-2 in the last 10 years, and 38-25-3 all-time (not including exhibition games). This will be the 15th time that North Dakota has served as the Spartan season opener - MSU owns a 3-10-1 record in the previous games. The teams last met in a season opener in 1977-78, a split of a two game set (W, 5-3; L 4-8).

series history
Michigan State and North Dakota will face off Saturday in the 99th meeting between the teams, with UND holding a 61-35-2 advantage in the series. The Sioux hold a 33-11-1 record against MSU in its home building.
The two teams last met in the title game of the 2005-06 Lefty McFadden Invitational, with MSU prevailing, 3-0, for its first shutout of the Sioux in 47 years. Prior to that win, MSU had dropped 11 straight contests with North Dakota, dating back to 1980.
The teams have met five times in the NCAA Tournament - including twice in the national title game, with North Dakota prevailing in both 1959 and 1987. MSU and UND last met in postseason action at the 2001 Frozen Four in Albany, N.Y., with the Sioux blanking MSU, 2-0. They also clashed in the consolation game in 1967 and 1984.

hall of fame weekend
Saturday's game is part of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction weekend. On Friday evening, the US Hall will enshrine Aaron Broten, Bobby Carpenter, John MacInnes, and John Vanbiesbrouck.
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame was dedicated in 1973 as the "National Shrine of American Hockey", to be America's hockey showplace to honor the legends of the game with the "Great Wall of Fame" of Inductees, and to preserve the precious memories of ice hockey in the United States. To date the Hall has honored 130 outstanding coaches, players, builders, administrators and two Olympic teams who have contributed to the success and pormotion of American hockey. In 2007, USA Hockey reached an agreement with the Hall to continue being the exclusive enshrinement museum for American hockey.
Former Spartan mentor Amo Bessone was enshrined in the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992.

last time out
Michigan State played its only exhibition contest of the season on Tuesday night, and rolled to a 6-0 victory over Windsor at Munn Ice Arena. Freshman Corey Tropp had a pair of goals, and both Daniel Vukovic and Tim Kennedy had a goal and an assist for the Spartans. Netminder Jeff Lerg picked up the victory, with 11 saves in 50 minutes before being spelled by sophomore Bobby Jarosz, who played the remainder of the game in the crease.
MSU held a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. Freshman Dustin Gazley started the scoring on the night, converting on a give-and-go with classmate Joey Shean at 5:19. Brandon Gentile added a goal on a blast from the near point on the power play at 17:50 to give the Spartans the intermission advantage.
Kennedy potted the lone tally of the middle frame while MSU was on the power play, getting assists from Vukovic and Tim Crowder at 15:30. Vukovic extended the lead to 4-0 with his extra-man tally at 3:30 of the final frame, off assists from Kennedy and Justin Abdelkader. Both of Tropp's goals came in the final 11 minutes of the game - the first off a rebound of a Bryan Lerg slapshot at 9:45 that chased Windsor starting goalie Jim Watt, and the second at 18:54 off a setup by Chris Mueller.
Jeff Lerg made 11 saves in his 50 minutes of work. Watt was tested all evening, making 35 saves in nearly 50 minutes. Keaton Hartigan went the final 10:14, making seven saves.

scouting the fighting sioux
North Dakota is coming off its third straight Frozen Four appearance under fourth-year head coach Dave Hakstol. UND reached the 2007 national semifinals behind a potent offense which averaged 3.55 goals per game, sixth-best in the country. Its power play was also among the nation's elite, clicking at a 23.8 percent mark - best in the WCHA and third in Division I. The Sioux was selected first in the preseason WCHA survey and was the consensus No. 1 selection in both national polls.
The offense is led by junior Ryan Duncan, who finished with 57 points (31g, 26a) in 43 games a year ago to capture the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Classmate T.J. Oshie had a 52-point campaign a year ago, while senior Robbie Bina ranks third in scoring among returning players (10-22-32). Netminder Jean-Philippe Lamoureux owned a .913 save percentage and 2.42 GAA last season, sporting a 21-12-4 overall record with three shutouts.

preseason honors
The Spartans were selected first in the CCHA pre-season media poll, and second in the CCHA coaches' pre-season survey. The Spartans earned 25 first-place votes in the media poll and 701 total points, followed by Miami (21 and 667). In the coaches poll, the Spartans had a slight edge in first-place votes, slotted first on six ballots, but Miami (five first-place votes) finished with 114 points, one ahead of Michigan State, to earn the top spot in the poll. Defending CCHA regular-season and tournament champion Notre Dame was selected third and Michigan fourth in both polls.
Four Spartans earned spots on the CCHA pre-season All-Conference team. Jeff Lerg was one of two consensus selections, and was the first team goaltender; Tim Kennedy earned a spot on the second team as the fourth-highest vote-getter among forwards. Both Bryan Lerg and Justin Abdelkader were honorable mention picks.

more preseason kudos
Jeff Lerg has been named a pre-season first team All-American by InsideCollegeHockey.com

law of averages
MSU's roster averages: 6-0, 188 lbs., and the average age is 20 years 11 months.

high-yield returns
Michigan State is one of four teams in the CCHA that returns 20 letterwinners this season, the highest number in the CCHA. The Spartans return 83.9 percent of their goal scoring from a year ago (115 goals), tops in the league. MSU returns 73.9 percent (263) of its points from a year ago, which ranks second in the CCHA behind Miami (81.5%). The Spartans return five of their top six forwards: seniors Bryan Lerg and Chris Mueller and the all-junior line of Tim Kennedy, Justin Abdelkader, and Tim Crowder.

if it was baseball, they'd win the cy young
Michigan State has won 20+ games in 15 consecutive seasons.

let's end this streak
The Spartans will look to snap a rather inauspicious streak: neither of the last two NCAA titlists made the tournament the year after they won the championship: both the Denver Pioneers (2005 champions) and Wisconsin Badgers (2006 titlists) failed to qualify for the 16-team field.

home sweet home
In 2007-08, MSU will play 20 regular-season games at Munn Arena, compared to 15 a year ago. Seventeen of the 20 will be televised.

second-half surges
During the Rick Comley era, the Spartans have traditionally been a second-half team. The first three months (October, November, December) of the previous four seasons (2002-06), the Spartans went 37-34-7 (.519), then compiled a 55-27-8 mark in January, February, and March (.656). The trend of second-half surges continued into 2007, as Michigan State went 19-6-2 its final 27 games.

cardiac kids
On 20 occasions in 2006-07, the Spartans scored a goal in the first or final minute of a period. MSU scored four times in the opening 60 seconds, and the Spartans tallied 16 goals in the final minute of play in a period. Eight of those goals were empty-netters, but one - Justin Abdelkader's at Northern Michigan on Dec. 9 - stood as the game-winner in a 3-2 MSU win.
Michigan State owned a record of 10-1-1 in games in which it scored a goal in the final minute of a period, and 2-2-0 when it scored a goal in the opening minute of a frame.

oh-so-special
Special teams were crucial to the Spartans' postseason success, particularly its prowess on the penalty kill. MSU's man-down unit was an impressive 16-for-17 in the NCAA Tournament; the PK extinguished 42 of its last 46 chances against (91.3 percent), and did not allow a man-advantage goal in seven of its last 10 games. On the year, the penalty kill executed at 86.7 percent (170 of 196).

netminding workhorse
Jeff Lerg started all 42 games last season and played 2465:06 in the Spartan net, which calculated to 96.9 percent of the time possible - the highest percentage of any netminder in the CCHA and the second- highest percentage in the country. Cory Schneider of Boston College topped the list having played 99.2% of available minutes (2516:33).

in the annals ...
Jeff Lerg has moved into the top 10 in several netminding categories at Michigan State: Career wins (43), ninth; career games played (73), T-10th; career GAA (2.22), third; career save percentage (.920), T-second; career shutouts (6), T-fifth; Wins in a season (26), T-fifth; games played, season (42), T-first; saves, season (1,042), fourth.

one stops `em, the other puts `em in
Bryan Lerg emerged as one of the most dangerous - and exciting to watch - forwards in the CCHA. His 23 goals led the Spartans and bettered his single-season career high by eight markers. The senior led the country last year with eight game-winning goals, and in addition, he has also assisted on five other Spartan game-winners. His eight game-winning goals is tied for the highest single-season total all-time at Michigan State, shared with Mitch Messier (1986-87) and Steve Beadle (1989-90).

iron men
Only five Spartans appeared in all 42 contests last year, and four of the five return to the roster this season: alternate captains Chris Mueller, Daniel Vukovic, Tim Kennedy, and Jeff Lerg. The fifth was graduated senior Tyler Howells.

player streaks
Tim Kennedy ended the season on a career-best seven-game point streak (5g, 5a)... Justin Abdelkader closed out the season registering a point in five of six games en route to being named MVP of the Frozen Four (goal, six assists)... Chris Mueller ended the season registering a point in nine of 10 games dating back to Feb. 22 at Bowling Green (6-6-12). MSU never lost when Mueller scored a goal, going 14-0-0, including a 5-0-0 mark in the 2007 postseason.

2007 career superlatives
Bryan Lerg's 23 goals bettered his previous single-season best of 15, set as a sophomore. Justin Abdelkader's 15 goals pushed him past the 10 he netted as a freshman, and Chris Mueller topped his career best of 11, with 16 on the year.
Daniel Vukovic scored six goals after netting just one in his first two collegiate seasons combined and had 12 points on the year after a combined five in his freshman and sophomore campaigns. Jeff Dunne, who had six assists as a freshman and no points in an injury-shortened sophomore year, netted 10 helpers. and scored his first career goal in the Spartans' final regular-season game.

firsts
Justin Abdelkader posted the first goal of the 2006-07 campaign, just 1:44 into the opener against Western Michigan. Of course, he also scored the most important of the season, the game-winner in the NCAA title game with 18.9 seconds remaining. That was the latest the Spartans scored a non-empty net goal last year. Abdelkader also scored the first goal of the 2005-06 season, at the 2:03 mark of the first period against Wayne State in the Lefty McFadden Invitational in Dayton, Ohio.

trends
In 2006-07, Michigan State owned an 18-4-0 record when Justin Abdelkader registered a point, was 14-0-0 when Chris Mueller scored a goal, went 8-1-1 when Tim Crowder lit the lamp, 12-0-1 when Jim McKenzie had an assist, and 9-0-0 when Jeff Dunne added a helper.

an even dozen
A total of 12 former Spartans are currently on NHL rosters: David Booth (Florida), Rod Brind'Amour (Carolina), Adam Hall (Pittsburgh), Shawn Horcoff (Edmonton), Duncan Keith (Chicago), John-Michael Liles (Colorado), Ryan Miller (Buffalo), Jim Slater (Atlanta), Bryan Smolinski (Montreal), Mike Weaver (Vancouver) and Mike York (Phoenix).

up next
The Spartans will open the home portion of their scheduled next weekend with a two-game set against ECAC Hockey entry Colgate. MSU will raise its National Championship banner on Friday, Oct. 19 against the Raiders.