Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State 4, Western Michigan 2
2/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Feb. 16, 2008
Michigan State Head Coach Rick Comley
Overall impressions...
It's a relief. They're a dangerous team for us to play. They always play well against us, and last year they beat us three out of four. We were 2-10-1 in the last ten years in this building coming in to tonight. This is something we wanted to accomplish, so we're very pleased. Western is in a tough stretch right now, we were able to get a goal early, but they battled back. I thought that mistake we made in the third might come back and haunt us.
On the third period...
There were some stretches in the game where they started pinching everybody and hitting like crazy so we thought "Here we go again", but we kept telling the guys to chip it and keep it simple. So they never really threatened much and Jeff made a couple of good saves.
On taking this momentum into the Michigan series...
Coming off two road losses last weekend you struggle a lot emotionally. Now, I think this week we can have a positive practice and get ready for Friday.
On the Abdelkader line...
They played very, very well. Kennedy looks like he's back and has his confidence back. Abdelkader always plays well and Mueller has complimented them very well. I thought McClellan and Kivisto were very good today as well.
Michigan State Senior Forward Chris Mueller
On getting a win at Lawson Ice Arena...
Some of our goals for this season have been to win at Yost and to win at Lawson and we were able to do both. More importantly, it gets us back on track. We've been struggling the past couple of weekends, and we needed four points this weekend to get us back in the right mindset and we were able to do that.
On using this weekend as momentum for the Michigan series...
We don't really need much help getting up for Michigan, but as far as feeling good about ourselves and showing what it takes to win in a place like this, this is really going to help us in the long run.
On playing at Lawson Ice Arena...
After three years we've figured out that you can't get into penalty trouble here because the crowd will get all over you. They feed off of their crowd here and they're a different team here than they are on the road. The mindset was to get the crowd out of it, get an early goal and stay out of the box.
Michigan State Senior Captain Bryan Lerg
On the seniors getting their first win at Lawson Ice Arena...
This is something we've talked about all year. We marked off Yost and Lawson as two places we haven't won yet so I thought it was a great victory for the team. It was a great team effort and that's something we stressed all week.
On the difficulties playing at Lawson Arena...
They bring a great atmosphere here. They do a "black-out" every time that we're here and they're loud. The team plays so physical, too. They're a tough team to play against. I'm shocked that they don't have more than three wins in the league. I think our guys just stuck it out and we got the win that we needed.
On the final goal...
We were able to get it past their defense and they were jumping down low. Once we finally got it past their defense I just heard Mueller screaming so I passed him the puck. I was just praying he was going to put it in the net because there was still a minute left.
