Spartans Trek To Alaska for CCHA Set

10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Oct. 31, 2007

in brief
Michgian State heads to the CCHA's furthest outpost this weekend, traveling to Alaska for a two-game set with the Nanooks.
MSU has won four straight games, recording home sweeps of Colgate and Northern Michigan after opening the season with a loss at North Dakota. Alaska has two losses on its ledger from a series with Alaska-Anchorage on Oct. 19-20.

Date/Time: November 2-3, 2007, 11 p.m. ET; Fairbanks, Ala.

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Audio: WJIM 1240 AM/ msuspartans.com
Scott Moore (PBP) and Rob Woodward '00 (Analysis)
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series history
MSU has won seven of the last eight games against its conference rival, and owns a 34-10-1 mark against Alaska all-time. MSU is 12-5-1 against the Nanooks in Fairbanks, and is 12-5-1 since Rick Comley took over as head coach before the 2002-03 season.
MSU took a pair of wins from Alaska last season, 3-2 and 4-3, at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans' last trip to Alaska came in the 2005-06 season, but that trip was in December that year - the Spartans and Nanooks have met seven times at Munn since, with the Spartans winning six of the matchups. The lone Alaska win was a 2-1 decision in the first game of the 2006 CCHA Tournament - MSU took the next two games to advance in the tournament, and went on to capture the Mason Cup.

curtain-lifters
MSU has opened its conference record at 2-0 for the first time under head coach Rick Comley and the first time since the 1999-2000 season. Twice in that stretch (2001-02, 2005-06) MSU has tied its league debut - and both games were 3-3 ties with Michigan.

last time out
Michigan State opened CCHA play with a sweep of Northern Michigan last weekend (5-4, 3-2).
Tim Kennedy and Corey Tropp each had a goal and an assist, and Daniel Vukovic had a pair of helpers to guide the Spartans to the 5-4 Friday victory. NMU jumped on the board at the 2:38 mark when Nick Sirota ripped a shot over the right shoulder of Jeff Lerg from the bottom of the right circle.
Justin Abdelkader tied the game midway through the opening frame while skating on the power play. Abdelkader had the puck at the half wall, and fed Kennedy below the goal line; Kennedy passed right back to Abdelkader, who roofed the puck for his third goal of the season. MSU exploded for four goals in the second period - three within a span of 3:41 - to blow the game open and take a 5-1 lead into the second intermission.
Andrew Rowe's first collegiagte goal at 3:19 gave the Spartans their first lead of the night. Rowe dished the puck to Jay Sprague on a give-and go as they streaked up the left side, and Rowe buried Sprague's return pass for the go-ahead goal. Matt Schepke followed suit at 5:28, as his shot from the high slot caromed off the endboard and into the net off the back of Stewart's skate.
Tropp got his first collegiate tally at the seven-minute mark. Vukovic sent a rocket netward, and Tropp tipped the rebound at the right post.
The Spartans added to their lead at 15:04. Jeff Petry took a pass across the blueline from Vukovic, and put a rocket on net from the left point. Stewart made the save, but the rebound shot 12 feet into the air, and then fell at his right heel. Kennedy was there to bury the puck, his second goal of the season.
After goalie Brian Stewart was replaced by backup Derek Janzen, Northern scored twice in the first 15 minutes of the third period to turn an apparent blowout into a two-goal game. NMU first cut into the lead at 8:10 on a goal by sophomore Ray Kaunisto, who carried the puck into the zone and put a shot on net from the high slot - Jeff Lerg made the stick save, but the puck trickled through his five-hole and into the back of the net. At 14:19, Alan Dorch ripped a slapshot from the right point that was tipped in the low slot by Tim Hartung past Lerg.
With Janzen pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Wildcats pulled within a goal with a tally by Kauninsto - his second of the night. Northern could not come any closer however, and the Spartans held on for the win.
All five goals in Saturday's 3-2 Spartan win came on the power play - MSU was 3-for-4 with the man advantage, while NMU was 2-for-5.
MSU wasted little time getting on the board, posting their its goal of the night at 1:39. Michael Ratchuk had the puck at the blue line and dished it off to Sucharski in the left circle. Sucharski pinched, and got goalie Derek Janzen to commit - the winger then passed off to Bryan Lerg in the right circle, who had a wide-open right side to deposit his first goal of the season.
Kennedy added his second goal in as many nights at 13:34. Kennedy tucked the puck past the left leg of Janzen.
Jeff Lerg was sharp in the early part of the middle frame, stopping Hanson a two-on-one break after a turnover in the defensive zone, stopped a mini-breakaway by Phil Fox, then halted Hanson again with a shot on the power play to keep the Wildcats off the board.
The Wildcats got on the board at the 16:05 mark of the second period, converting on a nice cross-slot pass. Matt Butcher took the pass from TJ Miller on the right side, and sent a laser into the left circle for Sirota, who one-timed the puck past Jeff Lerg.
Northern got a tying goal at the 7:43 mark, when Jared Brown's slapshot from the left point made its way through a screen in front and into the back of the Spartan net. However, Michigan State regained the lead less than a minute later - Tropp corralled the puck low and moved it to Sucharski on the right point, who passed off to Ratchuk in the high slot. Ratchuk took a stride to his left and ripped a shot over the shoulder of Janzen for his second point of the night and first goal of the season.
NMU, which scored extra-attacker goals in each of their previous two games, tried for a third, but could not get Janzen off with eough time to mount a comeback. Janzen finished with 23 saves, while Jeff Lerg had a season-best 33 for his fourth victory of the season.

scouting the nanooks

Alaska is under the tutelage of Doc DelCastillo, who is in his first season as a collegiate head coach. The former Nebraska-Omaha assistant inherits a team which went 11-22-6 last season and finished 11th in the CCHA standings with a 7-16-5 mark.
In the season's first two games, junior defenseman Tyler Eckford, a second team preseason All-CCHA pick, has paced the offensive efforts as well, with a goal and two assists. Freshman Landon Novotney has scored twice, while Adam Naglich has recorded three assists to tie for the team lead in points. Both Wylie Rogers and Chad Johnson have had a turn in net - Rogers gave up five goals on 35 shots to UAA, and Johnson four on 29 attempts.

the number ones

The loss to North Dakota snapped a two-game winning streak for the Spartans against teams ranked No. 1 in the national polls. In last year's NCAA Tournament, the Spartans defeated both Notre Dame (2-1) and Boston College (3-1) when they held the top ranking.

home cooking

Dating back to Oct. 19, Michigan State plays 10 of 12 games in the friendly confines of Munn Ice Arena. This is the lone road trip, yet a significant one. MSU owns a 12-5 1 mark in road games in this series.
After this weekend in Alaska, MSU will host two-game sets with Mercyhurst and Miami before hosting the College Hockey Showcase the weekend after Thanksgiving.

wide sheet
This weekend's games will be MSU's first this season on an Olympic ice sheet (200'x100'). Only two conference schools have the big ice - Alaska and Northern Michigan, which both appear on MSU's road schedule this season. The Spartans went 2-2 on Olympic ice last year.

tight squeezes
MSU has won each of its last three games by one-goal margins. MSU was 8-6-0 in one-goal games in 2006-07.

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 titleists 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.

oh-so-special
Special teams were crucial to the Spartans' postseason success in 2007, 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).
Michigan State's power play was an impressive 4-for-6 (.667) in the weekend set with NMU, and has improved to 29.2% on the season (7-for-24). MSU's kill has allowed five PPG in 24 chances this season, however (20.8%).

tough thirds
The third period has been a tough one for the Spartans, as the squad has been outscored 9-2 in the final frame this season. Twice this year an opponent has scored three goals in the third - at North Dakota on Oct. 13, and Northern Michigan on Oct. 26. MSU owns advantages in the first (8-4) and second (6-3) periods.

netminding workhorse

Jeff Lerg has minded the crease in 60 straight games, tying the school mark of 60 set by Joe Selinger from Jan. 15, 1957-March 14, 1959.
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). He has played every minute of every game so far this year.

in the annals ...

Jeff Lerg has moved into the top 10 in several netminding categories at Michigan State: Career wins (47), eighth; career games played (73), T-10th; career GAA (2.28), third; career save percentage (.917), third; career shutouts (6), T-fifth; Wins in a season (26), T-fifth; games played, season (42), T-first; saves, season (1,042), fourth.

stopper
Jeff Lerg stopped a second-period penalty shot on an attempt by Colgate's Tyler Burton (Oct. 20) to preserve a 2-1 MSU lead that held up as the final. It was the first time an MSU goalie had stopped a penalty shot since Chad Alban denied Brendan Concannon of UMass-Lowell in the 1996 NCAA West Regional.

schep-ping up
Junior Matt Schepke Schepke is enjoying an early breakout to his junior season, as he has already surpassed his MSU goal total from a year ago (3) and is one point shy of tying the five points he put on the board as a sophomore (2-3-5).

collegiate debuts
The freshman class is finding ways to make an impact in the early part of the season. Freshman Dustin Gazley had an impressive home debut, netting a pair of goals in his first home game (Oct. 19 vs. Colgate). Corey Tropp shared the team lead in points last weekend (1-2-3) with Tim Kennedy. Defenseman Jeff Petry had a pair of assists in the weekend set against Northern Michgian (+2), and currently leads the team in penalty minutes through five games (5-10). Andrew Rowe played in his first game in green and white last Friday (Oct. 26), and recorded a goal. Joey Shean has played in two of MSU's games as well.

double dips
Gazley and Schepke's two-goal outings on on Oct. 19 vs. Colgate was the first time that MSU had two, two-goal scorers in the same game since Dec. 1, 2006 against Ohio State when Tim Kennedy and Chris Mueller each scored twice in a 4-1 victory.

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. Lerg recorded four assists on Oct. 19 against Colgate, tying his career best that he set on Oct. 29, 2005 at Cornell. It also tied his single-game high for points, set in the same game.
A year ago, 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 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).

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).