Spartan Icers Close First Half This Weekend

Dec. 5, 2007

Michigan State engages in its final CCHA series before breaking for the holidays, taking on Ferris State in a home-and-home series. The teams face off in Big Rapids on Friday, then again in East Lansing on Saturday.

Date/Time: Dec. 7; 7:05 p.m., Big Rapids, Mich; Dec. 8, 7:05 p.m, East Lansing, Mich..
Tickets: A limited number of tickets remain for Saturday's contest. Purchase Tickets
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Audio: WJIM 1240 AM (Fri.) / WVFN 730 AM (Sat.)/ msuspartans.com
Scott Moore (PBP) and Rob Woodward `00 (Analysis)
Television: (Sat.) Comcast Local
Live Video Webstream: FRIDAY: Ferris State provides a video webstream via the B2 Network.
MSU's Saturday game can be viewed at MSUSpartans.com - an All-Access Subscription is required. Watch
Download MSU Hockey Notes (PDF)

>series history
Michigan State leads the overall series, 62-25-13. The two teams will meet on Friday in Big Rapids, where MSU holds a 24-10-8 edge; the Spartans hold a 37-14-5 advantage in games played in East Lansing, where the teams will play on Saturday in a game televised by Comcast Local.
Last year, the Spartans went 2-1-1 against Ferris, when they were clustermates. In the last ten meetings, MSU holds a 6-2-2 mark against FSU.
scouting the bulldogs
Ferris State, under the tutelage of 1982 Michigan State graduate Bob Daniels, is 7-6-1 on the season, and is tied with MSU for fourth place in the CCHA standings with 12 points (6-4-0). The Bulldogs have won three of their last four games - they earned a split at Nebraska-Omaha two weeks ago, then swept a home-and-home series with Western Michigan last weekend to move up into fourth place.
Junior Brendan Connolly and sophomore Cody Chupp share the team scoring lead with 11 points - Connolly and classmate Justin Lewandowski share the team lead with five goals each, while Chupp paces the squad with seven assists. Eight players have between seven and 11 points on the year, providing the Bulldogs a balanced scoring attack.
Between the pipes, the bulk of the duties have been split between incumbent Mitch O'Keefe and freshman Pat Nagle - each has played in seven games. O'Keefe, a junior, has a .939 save percentage and 1.73 GAA, while nagle a 2.12 GAA and .919 save percentage.
The Bulldogs boast a team defensive effort of 2.07 goals per game, which ranks fourth in the CCHA and seventh nationally. Their power play has struggled in early contests, however, converting on just nine of 75 chances, (12 percent) to rank last in the CCHA.
last time out
The Spartans are coming off a CCHA sweep of Lake Superior State, (3-2, 5-2). MSU's unbeaten streak against the Lakers is now 12 games (10-0-2), and the Spartans have won five straight in the series.
On Friday, the Spartans jumped out to a 3-0 lead, thanks to a pair of power-play tallies in the opening frame. Nick Sucharski scored the eventual game-winner three minutes into the second period on a pretty two-on-one break. The Lakers cut into the lead before the end of the period to trail 3-1 entering the third. With eight minutes remaining in the game, Dustin Gazley was whistled for a five-minute major for checking from behind, giving the home team an extended power play. The Spartans held tough in their own zone, killing the major and holding LSSU off the board for most of the balance of regulation. With their netminder pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Lakers cut the lead to 3-2 with 20 seconds remaining in the game, but could not get an equalizer.
Saturday's game was a bit tighter in the early going. Michael Ratchuk gave the Spartans a 1-0 lead in the first period, then the teams traded goals in the first half middle frame to find themselves at 2-2 at the halfway point of the game. A Tim Kennedy goal at 15:02 sent the visitors into the locker room with a lead at the second intermission, and Bryan Lerg blew the game open with a pair of third-period tallies which sealed the win.
Jeff Lerg stopped 49 of 54 shots on the weekend, and improved to 4-0 in one-goal games this season. The CCHA clustermates will meet again the first week in January.
hottest start
MSU's 10-3-2 record is the best early-season start under Rick Comley. In his previous five seasons, the earliest the Spartans had recorded their 10th victory was during the Great Lakes Invitational (Dec. 28). In Ron Mason's last year as coach (2001-02), MSU earned its 10th victory on Dec. 1.
league kudos
Bryan Lerg was named the CCHA Offensive Player of the Week, while cousin Jeff Lerg was named the Goaltender of the Week. Bryan, the Spartans' senior captain, posted three goals in a two-game road sweep of Lake Superior. He potted an early power play goal in MSU's 3-2 Friday victory, then broke open a 3-2 game with a pair of third-period tallies on Saturday. Lerg has a pair of two-goal games in his last three contests, and has moved into second on the MSU scoring chart with an 8-6-14 scoring line.
Jeff Lerg helped the Spartans preserve their perfect record in CCHA road contests with 49 of 54 stops (.925). He was particularly strong in the Friday game, where he had to help kill off a five-minute major and a furious final three minutes to preserve a victory. On Friday, Lerg improved to 4-0 this season in one-goal games.
an early look at the CCHA race
Notre Dame has overtaken the lead in the CCHA standings (20 points, 10-2-0), with Miami and Michigan trailing with its 18 points (9-1-0). Northern Michigan has played the most conference games, (14), followed by Notre Dame and Nebraska-Omaha with 12 played each.
The Spartans, Alaska, Bowling Green, and Lake Superior, with just eight CCHA games under their belts, have the fewest number of league games played.
With Michigan's split with Ohio State last weekend, the CCHA has two teams with one loss (UM, Miami) and two with two (Notre Dame, Michigan State).
roadies
The Spartans have played 10 of their 15 games at home this season, but own a 4-1 mark in five road contests. All four victories have come as part of CCHA sweeps - at Alaska and Lake Superior.
quite the cluster
MSU has played a third of its cluster games, and is 4-0 with sweeps at Lake Superior (3-2, 5-2) and at home against Northern Michigan (5-4, 3-2). Michigan has also swept both upper peninsula schools, and Northern Michigan swept Lake Superior in a home-and-home.
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 returned 20 letterwinners this season, the highest number in the CCHA. The Spartans returned 83.9 percent of their goal scoring from a year ago (115 goals), tops in the league. MSU returned 73.9 percent (263) of its points from a year ago, which ranks second in the CCHA behind Miami (81.5%). The Spartans returned 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
MSU 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 titleists) 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. Fifteen of the 20 will be televised.
the number ones
The opening-game 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.
Michigan State has three losses this season, but all were to teams which held the No. 1 ranking at the time of the game.
fit to be tied
Michigan State played to a pair of ties in the College Hockey Showcase (Nov. 23-24). The Spartans are undefeated in their last 17 overtime games (6-0-11), and have not dropped an overtime contest since Nov. 12, 2005 against Nebraska-Omaha (3-2).
strong starts
MSU has scored the first goal of the game in each of its last three games. The Spartans own a 8-0-1 record when scoring the game's opening tally, and are 2-3-1 when letting its opponent get on the board first.
home cooking?
MSU is winless in its last four games at home (0-2-2), its longest streak at Munn since an 0-3-2 streak in November of 2005.
The next month brings six games for the Spartans: three on the road, one at home, and two at Joe Louis Arena (Great Lakes Invitational).
oh-so-special
The MSU power play rebounded with a 4-for-13 performance (30.8 percent) in the Lake Superior series from a tough stretch after a tough stretch during which it scored just twice in 26 chances over its previous four games. Before that four-game drought, the power play was 6-of-12 in its previous three tilts and had five games with multiple power-play strikes.
At 24.62% (21-for-85), the power play now ranks seventh nationally and third in the CCHA. The Spartans have registered multiple power-play tallies in eight of 15 games this season.
octane "o"
Michigan State's scoring offense - currently at 3.47 goals per game - ranks third in the CCHA and seventh nationally.
peppered
Michigan State's 52 shots on net against Mercyhurst (Nov. 10) was the most since a 52-shot effort against Wayne State in a 7-2 victory on Nov. 21, 2003. The Spartans had their second-highest shot output of the season last Saturday at Lake Superior State (41 shots)
tough thirds
The third period is the only one in which MSU does not hold a scoring advantage - the Spartans hold a 20-12 edge in the first period and 18-11 in the middle frame, but have been outscored 17-14 in the final frame.
MSU surrendered eight of those 16 third-period markers in their first four games, and an additional two were empty-netters against Miami. In that opening four-game span, the Spartans twice gave up three goals in the third- at North Dakota on Oct. 13, and at home against Northern Michigan on Oct. 26 - and gave up two to Colgate in the final frame on Nov. 19 and to Wisconsin on Nov. 23.
class system
Which class is the most productive for the Spartans? The eight-member junior class has an average of 0.65 points per game. The overall breakdown:

Class (no.)    GP  G-A-P   PPG
Seniors (5) 70  13-25-38    0.54Juniors (8) 99  28-39-67    0.68Sophomores (4)  43  2-13-15 0.35Freshmen (6)    58  9-18-27 0.47

choir boys?
Only twice this season - the Nov. 3 game at Alaska and the Nov. 30 game at Lake Superior State - has MSU been assessed more penalty minutes in a game than its opponent.
In the Nov. 16 game against Miami, MSU was whistled for season-highs in both penalties (10) and penalty minutes (28)
offensive outburst
Tim Kennedy broke out of his two-game scoring drought - tied for his longest of the season - with a goal and an assist on Saturday at Lake State. His second-period goal stood as the game-winner, his nation's-best fifth of the season.
Nationally, he is tied for third in power play (7) and fourth in shorthanded (2) goals, and ranks fourth in goals per game (0.80).
His 12 goals on the year is the third-highest total in Division I .
offensive stay-at-home defenseman?
Senior Daniel Vukovic registered his 13th point of the season on Nov. 30 against Lake Superior, bettering his single-season high set as a junior. Vukovic ranks seventh nationally in points per game by a defenseman (0.87).
offensive D, part 2
Sophomore Michael Ratchuk was a force at both ends of the ice for the Spartans in their sweep of LSSU. He led the team in scoring on the weekend with a goal and pair of assists - he assisted on both first-period power-play tallies on Friday, and helped the Spartans kill a five-minute major in the final eight minutes to preserve a victory. On Saturday, he opened the game's scoring and assisted on a power-play strike in the middle frame. On the weekend, he was a +2 with three of his four points coming on the power play. With two goals and nine assists on the season, he is close to surpassing his freshman year point total (4-8-12).
play the percentages
Kennedy has exactly half of the Spartans' game-winning goals, and a third (7) of MSU's total power play tallies (21).
no. 1s are a streak killer
Kennedy recently had an eight-game point-scoring streak, his career best. Kennedy had scored in seven straight games to end the 2007 season (3/10/07 vs. Nebraska-Omaha - 4/7/07 vs. Boston College;), and had registered 5-5-10 during that streak. His streak was halted by the North Dakota shutout of the Spartans in the season opener, but Kennedy rebounded in the second game of the Colgate series and went on to put up 10-5-15 in the next eight games. He has 17 goals and 11 assists in his last 22 games.
multiplicity
Kennedy leads the Spartans with six multiple-point outings this season, followed by Matt Schepke (5), Bryan Lerg (4), and then Daniel Vukovic and Michael Ratchuk with three each.
Vukovic entered his senior campaign with two career multiple-point games, which he has already surpassed this year. Ratchuk had two as a freshman, and surpassed that total in 15 games.
after the seventh game, he rested
Jeff Lerg recently set the school record for consecutive goaltender appearances and games started, (63). The previous mark was held by Joe Selinger from Jan. 15, 1957-March 14, 1959. Lerg's streak ranks second all-time in the NCAA annals for consecutive starts and third in consecutive games played.
Lerg played in the first seven games of the year, and made his 63rd consecutive start on Nov. 9 against Mercyhurst. The next night, Lerg was relegated to door duty as sophomore Bobby Jarosz got his first collegiate start, and made 24 saves.
back where he belongs
Jeff Lerg made a season-best 33 saves on Nov. 24 against Wisconsin, his fourth game with 30+ saves this season.
in the annals
Jeff Lerg has moved into the top 10 in several netminding categories at Michigan State: Career wins (52), eighth; career games played (87), seventh; career GAA (2.27), third; career save percentage (.918), 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.
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.
The senior captain had a two-goal effort against Wisconsin, (Nov. 24) the second serving as his 100th career point. He added a two-goal effort two games later at Lake Superior State, and is currently riding a three-game goal scoring streak (5-0-5) He has 56 goals and 47 assists in 142 career games.
breaking out
A pair of seemingly snakebitten forwards have gotten it going in recent contests. Senior Chris Mueller has five points (2-3-5) in his last four games.
Tim Crowder skated in his 100th career game on Saturday, the first junior to reach that milestone. He celebrated with a goal and an assist, which snapped a five-game scoreless streak.
at the dot
Michigan State has had significant success this season on faceoffs - Chris Mueller has a 56.47% success rate (106-of-188), and Justin Abdelkader is at 54.3% (175-of-322).
schep-ping up
Matt Schepke has already bettered his sophomore-year point total (2-3-5) with his 7-7-14 scoring line through 15 games. He has had two, two-goal games this season - including a pair of goals against Wisconsin (Nov. 24). He has multiple-point efforts in each of his last three games, and ranks third on the team this season in goal scoring.
collegiate debuts
The freshman class is finding ways to make an impact in the early part of the season. Five of the six MSU freshmen have recorded their first collegiate goal, with blueliners Jeff Petry and AJ Sturges getting their first on Nov. 10 against Mercyhurst. Petry, a regular on the MSU power play, currently has a 1-8-9 line. Dustin Gazley had an impressive home debut, netting a pair of goals in his first home game (Oct. 19 vs. Colgate) and currently has two goals and six assists. Corey Tropp leads freshmen in goal scoring (3-4-7) and is tied for second in points. Andrew Rowe played in his first game in green and white on Oct. 26 against Northern Michigan, and has a pair of goals on the season. Forward Joey Shean has played in four games, and still looks for his first collegiate tally - but has played well in his role when called upon.
double dips
Dustin Gazley and Matt Schepke each had two-goal outings on Oct. 19, a 6-2 victory over Colgate. It 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. Schepke and Bryan Lerg completed the feat again against Wisconsin (Nov. 23) in a 4-4 tie.
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
Michigan State takes a 19-day hiatus for the holidays. The team returns to action on Dec. 28-29 at the Great Lakes Invitational, where it will play Michigan Tech in the semifinals. Providence and Michigan will face off in the other semi, with the winners to meet for the GLI title on the 29th at 7:30 p.m.