Icers Welcome Big Ten Rival Ohio State
2/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Feb. 12, 2009
Michigan State hosts Ohio State in its final two-game home weekend of the season. The Spartans and Buckeyes are clustermates this season, and OSU earned two home victories over the Spartans back in early November.
Date/Time: Feb. 13/14, 2009; 7:05/5:05 p.m..
Tickets: A limited number of tickets remain for the weekend. Purchase Tickets
Gametracker: |
Audio: WJIM 1240 AM. A live video stream with game audio can also be watched at msuspartans.com. All-Access Subscription required.
Television:(F) Big Ten Network: (Comcast-65 (East Lansing), ATT - 650; DirecTV-610, DISH-439) (S) FSN Detroit (Comcast-34 (East Lansing), DirecTV-663, DISH-430)
Download MSU Hockey Notes (PDF)
Podcasts: Rick | Matt | Kurt
series history
MSU owns a 77-22-7 mark all-time against Ohio State, which includes a 37-6-2 record when the teams meet in East Lansing.
recent history
The teams have split each of the last two series at Munn Arena (2004-05 and 2005-06), and MSU was swept by the Bucs in the 2003-04 meetings in East Lansing.
The teams have faced off the last two times in Columbus. Back in November, the Buckeyes swept MSU by 3-0, 3-1 scores. Last season, MSU was the one doing the sweeping, with 4-1 and 4-0 victories over its Big Ten rival.
when we last left our heroes
The Spartans are coming off of a three-point weekend against Ferris State. The teams tied, 2-2, on Friday night in East Lansing, but MSU lost the shootout, 2-1, in five rounds. The Spartans rebounded with a big 1-0 victory on Saturday in Big Rapids. Saturday was MSU's second shutout of the season.
a tough go
At the end of 2008, the Spartans stood at 5-12-3, the lowest number of wins at the holiday break since the late 70's. in 1977-78, MSU was 4-12-0 at the holidays, and was 5-13-0 a year later in the 1978-79 season. MSU is 4-7-1 since it's early-December Michigan series.
on an upswing
Michigan State has taken points in three of its five CCHA weekends in 2009, beating two ranked teams along the way: No. 18 Alaska, and No. 9 Miami.
maybe just play on friday
Michigan State owns a 5-7-2 record in Friday night games, but is 3-9-2 in Saturday evening tilts.
a chance to get back in it
MSU's February schedule sees two of four weekend series against teams that the Spartans will be battling with head-to-head to earn home ice in the first round of the conference playoffs. This stretch, which featured a three-point weekend against Ferris State, now turns to a home series with Ohio State and a home-and-home series with Bowling Green, will go a long way in determining MSU's postseason fate.
losing ledgers
MSU had a winless November (0-7-2), its first losing month in more than a year. The last sub-.500 month for Michigan State was in Feb. 2007, going 3-4-2. Incidently, the Spartans were also sub-.500 in November that season as well. MSU is 1-0-1 in February.
gaining ground
Rick Comley owns a 747-578-97 (.560) career overall coaching record, and recently moved ahead of Bob Peters (744) for fourth place on the all-time wins list. Peters coached from 1964-2001 at North Dakota and Bemidji State.
Former MSU coach and athletic director Ron Mason finished his career behind the bench in 2002 with 924 wins, while Jerry York of Boston College has 816 and Jack Parker of Boston University has 803.
The Feb. 7 victory over Ferris State (1-0) served as the 150th victory for Comley at Michigan State.
traveling road show
Michigan State just wrapped up a rather daunting stretch of the schedule - between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31, the Spartans played 21 games - and only five of them were played at home. The Spartans have five home games in the month of February.
road warriors?
Two of MSU's last three victories have come on the road (at Miami and Ferris State), and are MSU's only road conference victories this season.
around the league
The CCHA has six series on tap this weekend. Ferris State is at Bowling Green, Miami travels to Lake Superior State, Western Michigan hosts Alaska, Nebraska-Omaha will be at Michgian, and Northern Michigan will play at first-place Notre Dame.
roster shuffles
Head coach Rick Comley announced two roster changes at the end of the first semester: freshman forward Mike Merrifield will return to junior hockey to play the remainder of the season, while defenseman Ryan Turek has been dismissed from the squad for failure to meet team expectations.
Merrifield will return to junior hockey for the spring semester, and will play for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. His coach in Green Bay is John Cooper, who coached Merrifield last season in the North American Hockey League with the St. Louis Bandits. Merrifield will return to the Spartans in the fall of 2009 as a sophomore.
On Jan. 26, Comley suspended Corey Tropp and Andrew Conboy for the remainder of the season for their actions in a Jan. 24 game at Michigan. Conboy has since signed a professional contract with the Hamilton Bulldogs, the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens.
ccha outlook
The Spartans, who finished third in the 2007-08 season, are projected fifth in the CCHA's preseason coaches poll (96 points), while the media surveyed had MSU third, with two first-place votes and 776 points. The groups were split on their decisions - the coaches selected Notre Dame (128 pts., eight first-place votes) as the favorite, followed by Michigan (122 points, three first-place votes), Miami (108 points, one first-place vote), Northern Michigan (102 points), and the Spartans. From the media poll, the Wolverines were selected as the front-runner (945 points, 43 first-place votes), then Notre Dame (915 points, 35 first-place votes) and the Spartans. In the media poll, Miami was fourth (746 points, two first place votes) and Northern Michigan fifth (700 points, one first-place vote). Ferris State was the consensus sixth-place finisher.
compete with the east
The Spartans opened the 2008-09 season with four straight games against Hockey East competition: the Spartans went 1-1 at the season-opening Icebreaker Tournament, as MSU defeated Massachusetts, 3-1, in the season-opening game, then fell to host Boston University, 2-1, in the championship tilt. In the season's second weekend, the Spartans split a home series against UMass-Lowell.
law of averages
MSU's roster averages: 6-0, 175 lbs., and the average age is 20 years, six months. Among CCHA schools, MSU is one of seven that averages 6-0, the Spartans are the lightest team on average, and are tied with Notre Dame as the second-youngest. (Michigan's roster averages 20 years, five months.)
if it was baseball, we'd win the cy young
MSU has won 20+ games in 16 consecutive seasons, and has won at least 25 in three straight.
quite the cluster
Michigan State and Michigan are paired with Miami and Ohio State in the 2008-09 season as clustermates; the schools will all play four times, and face off with the remaining eight schools in the conference twice.
Michigan, Miami, and Michigan State were the top three teams in the CCHA a year ago, and combined for a 91-26-10 record overall; MSU and Miami reached NCAA regional finals, and Michigan advanced to the Frozen Four. Both MSU and Michigan were eliminated in the NCAA Tournament by Notre Dame.
strong second halves
During the Rick Comley era, the Spartans have traditionally been a second-half team. The first three months (October, November, December) of his first six seasons (2002-07), the Spartans have been a combined 60-48-10 (55%), then compiled a 82-40-13 mark in the second half (66.3%). The 2007-08 Spartans had their best first-half record under Comley (12-5-2, 68.4%), and were 13-7-3 in the 2008 portion of the schedule (63%). This year, MSU finished the first half 5-12-3 (.325), and are gunning for marked improvement as the calendar turns to 2009. So far, the team is 3-7-1 since Jan. 1, with wins over two ranked teams: Alaska, and Miami.
strong starts
MSU scored the first goal of the game in 19 of its final 28 games a year ago and in 25 games overall. The Spartans owned a 22-1-2 record when scoring the game's opening tally, and were 3-11-3 when letting their opponent get on the board first. MSU's only loss when netting the first goal of the game came against Providence in the GLI (Dec. 29).
MSU is 5-6-1 this season when netting the game's first goal, and 1-12-2 when allowing its opponent the first strike. MSU had scored first in five straight games until the Alaska series, and Matt Schepke had three of those "first" tallies.
you miss 100% of the shots you don't take
Michigan State has been outshot in 21 of its 30 games this season, with its largest shot disparity coming in the game at Miami on Jan. 18, when the Red Hawks outshot MSU, 60-13. Jeff Lerg tied his career high with 54 saves in that contest.
The Spartans are averaging 24.07 shots per game this season, which ranks 58th of 58 teams nationally. The Spartans allow 35.73 per game, which is the second-highest total in the country behind Brown (39.26).
specialties
Michigan State's penalty kill is 15th in the latest NCAA statistics, extinguishing 134 of 154 chances against on the season (.870). The Spartans have been perfect on the penalty kill in 15 of 30 games this season, including a perfect 11-for-11 series last weekend against Ferris.
seeing the spectrum
MSU's offensive average of 1.67 goals per game (50 goals in 30 contests) ranks 12th in the CCHA and 57th nationally.
playing with fire
MSU allowed (and killed off) a season-high nine power play chances against on Nov. 29 against Wisconsin, bettering its previous single-game high of eight allowed against Miami on Nov. 15. The Spartans allowed nine chances to Michgian on Dec. 28, but allowed two goals to the Wolverines.
pk success is continued success
The Spartans have allowed just 20 power-play strikes in 30 games, and has allowed more than one in a game just six times in 54 games dating back to last season.
Michigan State allowed just seven power play goals in its final 24 games a year ago, and earlier in the season had a streak of 32 consecutive kills over eight games. The kill was 9-for-9 in its two NCAA Tournament games. In those 24 games, the Spartans killed 102 of 109 chances against (93.6%). The penalty kill finished at 87.3 percent for the season (165/189) and ranked seventh nationally. The MSU power play ranked 10th nationally (48/230, 20.9 percent).
finally!
Matt Schepke's Dec. 5 shorthanded goal was the first of the season for the team. MSU has surrendered four in its first 30 games tying last year's total of four.
assert yourself
Only nine times last season was MSU assessed more penalty minutes in a game than its opponent (and was 7-2-0 in those games).
Just seven times in its last 24 games has MSU been whistled for more penalties, and four times the teams have been called for the same number of infractions.
block party
On the season, MSU has blocked 606 shots, compared to 338 for its opponents. Leading the way in this category for MSU is defensemen Brandon Gentile (54) and Tim Buttery (51), while Jeff Petry has 46. Kurt Kivisto has added 48; he had a season-best seven when he dropped back to play defense against Miami on Jan. 17. He has played back on the blueline ever since (seven games).
in-season honors
Jeff Lerg and Jeff Petry were named to the Icebreaker All-Tournament Team. They were joined by Darcy Zajac of North Dakota, Alex Berry of Massachusetts, and Nick Bonino and Kevin Shattenkirk of Boston University. BU's Colin Wilson was named Tournament MVP.
Matt Schepke was the lone Spartan named to the Great Lakes Invitational All-Tournament team on Dec. 29. Schepke had three goals in two games.
didn't take long
The CCHA has introduced the shootout for the 2008-09 season, and Michigan State jumped right into action, skating to a 2-2 tie with Northern Michigan in its first conference game of the season. MSU is one of two teams to have a pair of shootouts already (Western Michigan), and is the only team to have won more than one. MSU has won each of its two shootouts by a 2-1 margin.
Kurt Kivisto and Matt Schepke have each scored two shootout goals for Michigan State, and Jeff Lerg and Drew Palmisano each have a shootout victory on their resume this season.
so much for home cookin'
The Spartans are only being outshot by an average of 2.3 shots per game (29.1-31.4) in home tilts, but by an average of 16.6 (20.8-37.4) in road games. MSU has been outscored 51-23 on the road (-28), but only 26-19 at home (-7).
season high
Michigan State recorded a season-best 38 shots on net in the Jan. 31 game at Lake Superior.
shoot `em up
MSU is now 2-1 on the season in shootouts. All three tie games ended in a 2-2 score. In the Feb. 7 shootout against Ferris State, Kurt Kivisto missed his first shootout attempt in three tries this season. Matt Schepke is now a perfect 3-for-3.
get them early
The Spartans are 3-5-2 in the first game of a CCHA set this season, and just 2-7-1 in game two.
honor among peers
The CCHA's captain's poll results were released on Tuesday, Jan. 13. Jeff Lerg led all players in the conference with four individual honors, including "Most Respected Player", "Best Difference-Maker", and both goaltending honors, "Best Glove Hand" and "Best Shootout Goalie".
Tim Crowder was the CCHA captain's selection as the "Most Accurate Shot". Crowder was the second runner-up for Most Dangerous in the Slot" to Justin Mercier (Miami) and Ryan Thang (Notre Dame).
Sophomore defenseman Jeff Petry was a runner-up in three categories: first runner up in both "Hardest Slapshot" (Ian Cole of Notre Dame) and "Best 1-on-1 Defenseman" (Teddy Ruth, Notre Dame) and was tied as the second runner-up (with Erik Gustaffson of NMU) as the "Best Power-Play Pointman" behind Eddie DelGrosso of UNO and Chad Langlais of Michigan.
goal support
The Spartans tied their season high with four goals on Jan. 17 in a 4-1 win over Miami, tying the four scored at Minnesota on Dec. 29. It was also the most it had scored in front of Jeff Lerg all season: In Lerg's 25 games, the Spartans have scored just 36 goals - an average of 1.44 goals per game. In Drew Palmisano's five starts, the Spartans have scored 12 goals - an average of 2.4 per game.
He's No. 1 ... and No. 2
Jeff Lerg became Michigan State's all-time saves leader at MSU on Oct. 31. Lerg broke Dave Versical's career record of 3,108 set from 1975-78. Versical and Lerg are the only goaltenders to ever serve as captains of the Spartans.
In the CCHA, Lerg ranks second all-time in career saves. Western Michigan's Glen Healy owns the all-time mark of 3,932, At his current pace of 32.96 saves per game, Lerg could surpass Healy before season's end - he enters the Ohio State series 3,780.
closing the door
On Saturday, Jeff Lerg recorded his 12th career shutout, and second this season. It is his third by a 1-0 score in his career: the first was against New Hampshire in the NCAA Tournament as a freshman, the second was a win on Jan. 25, 2008 at Yost against Michigan.
picking up where he left off
Jeff Lerg earned CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors twice in the first four weeks that the conference awarded weekly honors this season.
His first weekly honor came on Oct. 13. He posted a .955 save percentage and 1.50 GAA in the weekend tournament; Lerg's 63 saves (on 66 shots) was the second-most of any goaltender on opening weekend (Juliano Pagliero of Niagara had 68).
He won the award again on Oct. 27, stopping 52 of 54 shots in a four-point weekend against Northern Michigan. He had 24 saves in a 2-2 tie on Friday, but won the subsequent shootout with two saves. On Saturday, he recorded his 11th career shutout (2-0) over the Wildcats.
he's good at hockey
Jeff Lerg tied his career high with 54 saves in the Jan. 18 game at Miami, and posted an additional 35 the previous evening in MSU's convincing 4-1 win.
Lerg ranks second in the country in total saves (824) and is tops in saves per game (32.96). He has recorded 29 or more saves in each of his last 12 games, and the Feb. 6 Miami game was also his fifth game this season of 44 or more saves.
records, records, and more records
Lerg's 54 saves against Miami on Jan. 18 is the single-game high in Division I hockey this season. He also is tied for the second-most saves (50), which he had on Nov. 28 at Wisconsin. (Andrew Loewen of Canisius made 50 vs. Ferris State on Oct. 10, and Jerry Kuhn of Western Michigan replicated the feat on Oct. 18 vs. Minnesota-Duluth.) Lerg's 49 saves against Michigan in the GLI final (Dec. 29) gives him three of the top-five single-game performances by a goaltender this season.
in on the action
Drew Palmisano made a career-high 46 saves in the Jan. 24 game against Michigan. His previous high had been 33 in a 3-1 loss at Nebraska-Omaha. Six times this season, MSU has had a 44+ save performance: Jeff Lerg has had 54, 50, 49, and 46, and 44--save efforts.
tight squeezes
On Feb. 7, Jeff Lerg recorded his 12th career shutout, a 1-0 win at Ferris SState. He moved into a tie for third place with Chad Alban, and sits behind Ryan Miller (26) and Dominic Vicari (16).
In his career (139 GP), Lerg has 12 shutouts, and 33 games in which he has allowed a single goal. He has allowed just two goals on another 36 occasions - a grand total of 81 of 139 games that he has allowed two goals or fewer.
death, taxes, and Jeff Lerg
Jeff Lerg is consistently a workhorse for the Spartans, and has been for his two previous seasons as the full-time starter. Despite playing in only 25 of MSU's 30 games this season, he still ranks 15th nationally in minutes played (1497:32, 82.3% of the team's available minutes).
He ranked fourth in the nation in minutes played a year ago (2464:14), and ranked sixth in percentage of team minutes played, (96.3 percent).
In 2006-07, Lerg logged 96.9% of available minutes for MSU (2465:06), which ranked second only to Boston College's Cory Schneider.
a lot of actual miles
Jeff Lerg became MSU's all-time goaltending leader in games played in the Spartans' Jan. 2-3 series against Alaska. He passed Chad Alban, who played in 131 games (1994-98)
Lerg collected his 74rd career victory on Feb. 7 at Ferris State, moving ahead of Ryan Miller to claim sole possession of fourth place in the all-time victories list. Chad Alban (88) is the career leader.
shooting gallery
Jeff Lerg currently ranks second in the country in saves (824), an average of 32.96 shots faced per game (first nationally).
Last year, he ranked second among all Division I goaltenders in saves (1,136) and faced an average of 27.7 shots per game, the second-most of any CCHA netminder and 13th nationally. Last year, only three goalies ranked in the top 15 in saves per game played for teams that are better than .500: Lerg, Alex Kangas of Minnesota, and Kevin Regan of New Hampshire.
shooting gallery, part deux
Michigan State allowed 23 third-period shots to Miami on Jan. 18, single-period season high. MSU's previous season high was 18, set in the first period against to Wisconsin on Nov. 28 and again to Michigan on Dec. 28. MSU allowed its season high twice in the same game, as it had allowed 19 shots to the RedHawks in the second period of that same game.
Jeff Lerg's 21 third-period saves against Miami in that Jan. 18 game set his career record for saves in a period, which he had last recorded on Feb. 10, 2007, against Michigan. In that game, Lerg made his career-best 54 saves. He tied that 54-save performance against Miami.
a peek beyond the present
Michgian State is quite confident about its goaltending, with perhaps the best netminder in the nation (Jeff Lerg) and the top first-year baskstop in Drew Palmisano, according to InsideCollegeHockey's preseason rankings.
Drew Palmisano won his first collegiate start on Oct. 17, a 2-1 victory over UMass-Lowell. Palmisano, who had 21 saves, is the 14th netminder (of 20) since 1980 to win his first start at Michigan State. All three of MSU's current goaltenders have won their debut: Jeff Lerg had 22 saves against Cornell (a 4-3 victory) in October of 2005, Bobby Jarosz had 24 saves in a 5-2 win over Mercyhurst a year ago.
Palmisano has made five starts, the most recent on Jan. 24 at Michigan. He owns a 3.02 GAA and .908 save percentage with a 1-2-2 overall record. He owns one shootout victory, over Western Michigan on Nov. 1.
a road warrior
Four of freshman netminder Drew Palmisano's five starts this season have come in road tilts. His lone home start came on Oct. 17 against UMass-Lowell. Three of his four road starts have come in hostile, spirited road venues: Western Michigan, Minnesota, and Michigan.
in the annals
Jeff Lerg has moved into top-10 positions in several netminding categories at MSU:
Career records:• Wins: 74, fourth (record: 88)• Games Played: 139, first (Previous record: 131)• Consecutive Games Played: 61, first• GAA: 2.33, third (record: 1.54)• Saves: 3,780, first• Save Percentage: .922 second (record: .941)• Shutouts: 12, T-third (record: 26)*complete goaltending records can be found on pgs. 110-111 of the Michigan State media guide
Single-Season records:• Wins: 26, (2006-07), fifth; 24, (2007-08), eighth• Games: 42, (2006-07) ; first; 41, (2007-08), third• GAA: 1.96, (2005-06), seventh; 2.22; (2007-08), ninth• Saves: 1,136 (2007-08), third; 1,042 (2006-07), fifth• Save Pct. .928 (2006-06), fourth; .926 (2007-08), sixth
a hot hand
Matt Schepke had a pair of goals in MSU's Dec. 27 victory over North Dakota, his first multiple-goal game since Nov. 24, 2007 against Wisconsin. It was his third career two-goal game.
He leads the Spartans with 13 scores. He was MSU's lone representative on the Great Lakes Invitational All-Tournament Team.
a trio of firsts
Brock Shelgren had his first career multiple-point game in the Jan. 17 in a 4-1 win at Miami, with two assists.
Adam Henderson scored his first collegiate goal at 1:13 of the third period of the Jan. 24 game against Michigan at Yost Ice Arena. He was the second freshman that weekend to pot his first collegiate tally, as Tim Buttery got his on the previous night against the Wolverines.
hey, newbie
Senior Shaun Fulton made his debut for the Green and White in the Lake Superior State series (Jan. 301-31). A former club player, Fulton was pulled up to the varsity after a rash of injuries left MSU with 21 healthy players.
m.a.s.h. unit
Several Spartan veterans have missed time with injuries this fall. Senior Nick Sucharski, who suffered two shoulder injuries this fall, will be taking a medical redshirt this season and will return as a senior next fall to complete his eligibility. Sophomore blueliner AJ Sturges is also out for the season. The most recent additions to the list are senior Tim Crowder, who suffered a shoulder injury at Miami and is out for the remainder of the season, while freshman blueliner Matt Crandell has missed five of the last eight games, and returned last weekend. Andrew Rowe missed three games with injury in October. Shaun Fulton, who joined the team in mid-January, also suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
rookie kudos
Daultan Leveille was named the CCHA Rookie of the Month for October, as released by the league office on Nov. 5.
Leveille led the Spartans over the course of the month with a 3-2-5 scoring line. He had his first career two-goal game on Oct. 31; two of his three goals on the season have been game-winners, tying him for second in the CCHA in that category.
Leveille's two goals against Minnesota (Nov. 29) were his first scores since a two-goal outing against Western Michigan on Halloween.
worth the wait
Kurt Kivisto's first-period goal against UNO on Nov. 22 was his first of the season and second of his career; he scored the first on Oct. 28, 2006 vs. Sacred Heart at Munn Arena. He had his first multiple-point game on Jan. 31 when he had a shorthanded marker - the first of his career - and an assist in a 4-2 loss to the Lakers.
Classmate Dan Sturges' first-period goal against Minnesota on Nov. 29 was his first since Dec.29, 2006 against Harvard at the Great Lakes Invitational.
Joey Shean recorded his first collegiate point on Matt Schepke's first period power-play marker against North Dakota on Dec. 27. He then scored his first collegiate goal at 4:21 of the second period of the Feb. 6 game against Ferris, tipping a Brock Shelgren shot from the right point.
milestones reached
Alternate captain Brandon Gentile reached the 100-career games mark on Oct. 16 vs UMass-Lowell.
Dustin Gazley's two assists on Oct. 24 against Northern Michigan tied his single-game career high, set in Nov. 2007 against Wisconsin in the College Hockey Showcase. His two goals against Michigan on Dec. 6 also tied a career single-game best, first set against Colgate in his second collegiate game.
Jeff Lerg surpassed Dave Versical's school record in career saves on Oct. 31.
Tim Crowder recorded his 100th career point, an assist on a Matt Schepke power-play goal on Nov. 22. He scored his 50th goal as a Spartan on Jan. 17 in a 4-1 win at Miami.
multiplicity
Sophomore Andrew Rowe had his first career two-goal game on Oct. 24, and has four goals through the first 18 games of the year. Rowe had three goals in all of his freshman year. Daultan Leveille has had a pair of two-goal games through the first two months of the season.
Matt Schepke is the latest with a two-goal effort, scoring twice against North Dakota on Dec. 27.
Kurt Kivisto had a goal and an assist on Jan. 31 at Lake Superior, with his shorthanded tally opening the scoring in the game. It was Kivisto's first career multiple-point game
the young ones
Inside College Hockey has ranked MSU's freshman class fifth nationally, behind Boston College, Minnesota, Boston University, and North Dakota. Daultan Leveille was ranked sixth among incoming freshmen forwards, and Drew Palmisano was the top-ranked freshman goalie recruit.
graduation comes early
Senior Kurt Kivisto has completed his requirements for his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and graduated in December. He begins graduate work this spring.
academic kudos
MSU's hockey program recorded a 3.05 cumulative grade-point average in the fall semester, an all-time best. Seventeen players recorded a semester GPA of 3.0 or better, highlighted by a perfect 4.0 semester for first-year blueliner Brock Shelgren.
more kudos for Lerg
Jeff Lerg is among 10 collegiate hockey players who have combined excellence in athletics, academics and community service were announced on Feb. 11 as candidates for the men's hockey division of the 2008-09 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The winner will be announced at the Frozen Four on April 10.
The award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I student-athlete in nine sports based on achievements in the "Four C's" of classroom, character, community and competition. CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School.
The Lowe's Senior CLASS Award was launched in 2001 to honor the attributes of college basketball seniors who fulfill their entire athletic eligibility and pursue the many rewards of a senior season and complete college education.
uh, yeah ... and even more kudos
Jeff Lerg was among the 21 nominees for the BNY Mellon Hockey Humanitarian Award. The award honors college hockey's finest citizen. The 10 finalists for the award will be announced in mid-February.
feeling a draft
Two of Michigan State's freshmen were selected in the last two NHL entry drafts. Forward Daultan Leveille was the only Spartan taken in 2008, but did not wait long to hear his name called as he was selected by Atlanta in the first round, the 29th pick overall. Trevor Nill was selected in the 2007 NHL draft as the seventh-round selection (190th overall) of the St. Louis Blues. Overall, the Spartans have six players who have been drafted by NHL teams. The upperclassmen are Tim Crowder (Pittsburgh, 2005, 5/126), Nick Sucharski (Columbus, 2006, 5/136), and Corey Tropp (Buffalo, 2007, 3/89).
powerful influences
Former Michigan State hockey standouts Ryan Miller and Tom Anastos were recognized on the Hockey News' annual list of the 100 People of Power and Influence. Miller, a goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres, was listed at No. 25 while Anastos, the current commissioner of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, was slotted at No. 86.
Ten in the show ...
Ten former Spartans are currently on NHL rosters, the second-most in the CCHA behind Michigan. They are: Jim Slater (Atlanta), Ryan Miller (Buffalo), Rod Brind'Amour (Carolina), Duncan Keith (Chicago); Andrew Hutchinson (Dallas); John-Michael Liles (Colorado); Shawn Horcoff (Edmonton); David Booth (Florida); Mike Weaver (St. Louis); and Adam Hall (Tampa).
... and a dozen more in the A
Twelve Spartans are currently on American Hockey League rosters, with Justin Abdelkader's return to Grand Rapids after a two-game stint in Detroit Others are: Drew Miller (Iowa Chops); Jim McKenzie (Binghamton Senators), Jared Nightingale, Corey Potter and Ethan Graham (Hartford Wolfpack), Chris Mueller (Lake Erie Monsters), Michael Ratchuk (Philadelphia Phantoms), Colton Fretter and Tim Kennedy (Portland Pirates), Bryan Lerg (Springfield Falcons) and Mike York (Syracuse Crunch).
pro notables
• Drew Miller appeared in seven games since joining Anaheim on Jan. 3. At the time of his callup, he led the Iowa Chops in scoring with 14 goals and 11 assists. He was returned to the Chops prior to the All-Star break, to participate in the AHL All-Star Game.
• Tim Kennedy (Portland Pirates) ranks third in the American Hockey League (AHL) in rookie scoring with 37 points, and leads all first-year players in assists with 29. He made his NHL debut with the Sabres on Dec. 27 against the New York Islanders. He was selected to the AHL All-Star game on Jan. 26, but could not participate due to losing six teeth in an on-ice incident a week prior.
• Justin Abdelkader ranks fifth in AHL rookie scoring with 16-19-35 in 49 games for Grand Rapids. He recently had a two-game stint in Detroit.
• David Booth's 20 goals lead the Florida Panthers, and he ranks second on the team with 34 points.
• John-Michael Liles is the top scoring defenseman (7-19-26) for the Colorado Avalanche.
next up
The Spartans entertain Bowling Green in a home-and-home series next weekend. The teams face off on Friday at Munn Arena, then on Saturday at 5 p.m. in a game televised from the Bowling Green Ice Arena.
