Spartans Welcome Alaska for CCHA Opener

10/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

No. 16/RV Michigan State vs. No. 9/9 Alaska
Dates	Friday-Saturday, Oct. 22-23
Times	7:05 p.m. (Fri.) \| 5:05 p.m (Sat.)
Location	East Lansing, Mich.. \| Munn Ice Arena (Cap. 6,470)
Televison	Friday: Comcast (Digital Ch. 900 in Mid-Michigan) Saturday: BigTenNetwork.com
Radio	Friday: WJIM AM 1240 \| Saturday: WVFN AM 730
Tickets	Seating Chart \| Ticket Info
Game Notes	Download PDF
Live Streaming Coverage	Video Stream (Fri. Only) \| Live Stats \| Live Audio
Social Media	@MSU_Hockey \| Facebook
Press Conference Video	Head Coach Rick
Press Conference Audio	Rick \| Torey \| Brock
Promotions	Four Seats, Four Treats (Fri.) \| Chuck-A-Puck (Sat.)

storyline
Michigan State prepares for its first CCHA series of the season, welcoming ninth-ranked Alaska to Munn Ice Arena. Games will be played Friday (7:05 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m.). The Spartans are 37-12-2 all-time against the Nanooks, and own a 23-5-0 record against Alaska at home.

media darlings
Comcast will carry Friday's game with a 7:05 p.m. puck drop, while BigTenNetwork.com will carry the Saturday game from Munn Ice Arena, a 5:05 start. Fred Pletsch and Lyle Phair will call the action with Rob Otto on rinkside duty for Comcast.
On the radio, Friday's game will air on WJIM 1240 AM, and Saturday's will be carried on WVFN 730 AM. The radio call can also be heard on www.spartansportsnetwork.com. Scott Moore and Rob Woodward begin their sixth season together on the call of Spartan hockey.

series history
The Spartans are 37-12-2 all-time against the Nanooks, and own a 23-5-0 record against Alaska at home.
The Nanooks took a win (2-0) and a tie (1-1) in the 2009 series, played at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. In the last series at Munn, the teams split - MSU won 2-1, and Alaska won 3-1).

last time out
Michigan State opened the season last weekend at Munn Ice Arena with a 4-4 tie and 3-2 victory over No. 6/8 Maine. The Spartans started their season a week after much of the remainder of the country, as they only played an exhibition game the prior weekend.

honorary "c"
Michigan State will take part in honoring its past in its present with the introduction of Honorary Captains. In selected games this season, former MSU skaters will come back to campus to serve as an Honorary Captain for one game. The Honorary Captain will attend pre-game meal with team, address the Spartan squad prior to the contest, and stand on the bench during the game. This allows the program not only to honor former players, but also to share with current team members what donning the Green and White meant to those who came before them.

Oct. 15 - Bill Sipola (1970-73)
Oct. 23 - David Gandini (1978-79)

for starters
In each of the last four seasons, Michigan State has gotten no worse than a split in its first CCHA series of the season. Last year, MSU went to No. 1 Miami and won on Saturday after a heartbreaking Friday loss. In 2008-09, MSU tied and beat Northern Michigan, and swept the Wildcats in the previous season's opening conference series.

historical significance
MSU skated to a tie in its opening game of the season for the first time in the nine-year tenure of head coach Rick Comley. The Spartans are 3-5-1 all-time in openers under the team's current mentor. MSU last tied its season opener in 2001-02, a 3-3 deadlock with archrival Michigan in "The Cold War" - an outdoor game played across the street at Spartan Stadium.
Speaking of the "Cold War" game ... that outdoor game captured the attention not only of the college hockey world but of sports fans around the globe. It was the first outdoor game in the modern era of college hockey, and it was the beginning of a decade of outdoor games which have become large-scale events not only in college hockey, but in the NHL as well. The NHL's Winter Classic is now played annually on New Year's Day, and MSU and Michigan will play "The Big Chill at the Big House" - an outdoor game at Michigan Stadium - on Dec. 11. The Big Chill game has already sold more than 105,000 tickets, which will once again make MSU-Michigan the world-record holder for hockey attendance.

traditionally strong
In 25 of MSU's 28 seasons in the CCHA, it has finished fourth or better. MSU has won six regular-season titles, finished second eight times, third eight times, and fourth three times.

survey says ...
The 2010-11 CCHA Pre-Season polls find picked fourth by the conference coaches and third by the league's media.
For the third time in four years, the coaches and media disagree over who should own the No. 1 position in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's annual preseason polls. The conference's 11 head coaches ranked defending playoff champion Michigan first, while 75 media members named defending regular-season champion Miami as the preseason favorite.

roster preview
The Spartans return 19 players from a 19-13-5 team a season ago, including Second Team All-CCHA selection Drew Palmisano. Seventeen of the 19 returnees were letterwinners a year ago. MSU is quite "middle-classes" heavy - the roster features just two seniors and five freshmen on a roster of 26 student-athletes. The Spartans lost four players to graduation and three would-be seniors to professional hockey in the off-season. Sophomore Derek Grant is the team's top returning scorer (12-18-30), followed by junior Dauyltan Leveille (6-19-25). Palmisano boasted a 2.44 GAA and .917 save percentage in his first season as a starter.

the mentor
Rick Comley is beginning his 38th season behind the bench of a college hockey program, and his ninth season at MSU. With 768 victories entering the season, Comley ranks among the top five coaches all-time in wins and top three among active coaches.

gaining ground
Comley owns a 769-596-107 (.559) career overall coaching record, good for fourth place on the all-time wins list.
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 853 and Jack Parker of Boston University has 836.

season in review
Michigan State finished the 2009-10 CCHA season in second place. MSU's improvement of eight spots in the league standings from the previous season tied the all-time best jump from one year to another in conference history (Ferris State was ninth in the 2002-03 season, then captured the league title a season later.) Michigan State finished in a tie for 10th in 2008-09, but was the 11th seed in the playoffs due to losing the tiebreaker.
A year ago, Michigan State was picked eighth and ninth in the pre-season polls by the media and coaches, respectively. Michigan State was the CCHA team in 2009-10 which finished the most spots ahead of its preseason projection.

homebodies
Michigan State will play six straight home games in the month of October. MSU welcomes Maine, Alaska,and Alabama-Huntsville to Munn Ice Arena in that span.

he's honored
Junior defenseman Brock Shelgren was named the CCHA Defenseman of the Week, announced by the League office on Monday. It is the first CCHA weekly honor in his career.
Shelgren, typically a steady, stay-at-home defenseman, got to show off his offensive abilities in a win and tie against Maine. He had a goal and an assist and was +5 in the weekend series; he set up Dustin Gazley's game-winning tally on Friday, and also scored the opening tally of the same contest. Shelgren also blocked four shots in the series.

they like our d
Sophomore captain Torey Krug was named to the CCHA Preseason All-Conference Team. Krug received the third-most votes of any blueliner in the conference, garnering three first-place votes and 30 points. Junior goaltender Drew Palmisano was an honorable mention selection, garnering 14 points and one first-place vote.

non-conference
Rick Comley owns a 39-28-6 record in games against non-conference teams since coming to Michigan State prior to the 2002-03 season. (This includes regular-season, tournament, and NCAA Tournament games) Only once has a Comley team been sub-.500 in games against non-conference foes in a season (2003-04), and is 26-17-4 over the last five seasons (2005-10.)
Michigan State was 5-3 against non-conference competition in 2009-10, going 1-1 against Hockey East, 3-0 against ECAC Hockey, and 1-2 against the WCHA. MSU's 2010-11 schedule has one independent (Alabama-Huntsville), up to four games against WCHA competition (Minnesota, Wisconsin, MIchigan Tech, and possibly Colorado College in the GLI) in addition to the two-game set with Hockey East entry Maine.

consistency
Michigan State scored four goals or more only 12 times in its 38 games last season. The Spartans averaged 3.03 goals per game, third in the CCHA. Only once last season, however, did MSU score four goals or more and lose - that happened in MSU's tilt against Michigan at Joe Louis Arena (Jan. 30) when the Spartans fell to their archrival, 5-4.

three is a magic number
Three seemed to be the magic number when related to wins and losses for the Spartans in 2009-10. MSU was 16-4-3 when scoring three goals or more in a game. When allowing three goals or less, the Spartans were 15-4-5.
That has carried through the first weekend of 2010-11, as MSU scored four and three goals in its two games and came out 1-0-1.

first & last words
In 2010-11, Michigan State scored in the first or final minute of a period 12 times, compared to just four times for their opponents (excluding empty-net goals).
In the first or final two minutes of a period, MSU scored 21 goals (excluding empty-netters), while allowing just 13.

jump the gun
The Spartans scored a goal in the first two minutes of a period 13 times last season.

critical to get it going first
Michigan State was 15-3- 4 when scoring the first goal, and 4-10-2 when allowing the opponent to do so last season. MSU scored first in each of its first two games of the season against Maine.

win `em close
27 of MSU's 38 games a year ago were settled by two goals or less, and 12 were one-goal affairs. Of the eight that were two-goal margins or more, four involved an empty-net goal.
MSU was 8-4-0 in one-goal games in 2009-10.

you miss 100% of the shots you don't take
Michigan State was outshot in 25 of its 38 games, but on the season was outshot only by a 1099-1051 margin, a total of 48 shots over 38 games. MSU averaged 27.7 shots per game, and allowed an average of 28.9. MSU was outshot in both games last weekend, by three and nine shots.

deadlocks
MSU had six ties last season, and four were home games. MSU went 11-5-4 at home, and 6-6-2 on the road. The Spartans were 2-2-0 in neutral-site games.

home sweet (conference) home
In conference games in 2009-10, MSU lost just once at Munn Arena - on Jan. 23 to Ohio State (4-2). A last-minute wraparound goal (and an empty-netter in the waning seconds) was the difference in that contest.

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 eight seasons in East Lansing, the Spartans have been a combined 81-71-17 (52.9%), then compiled a 87-45-17 mark in the second half (64.1%). With MSU's a 14-6-2 first-semester record last year it surpassed the 2007-08 squad for most wins under Comley in the opening semester. That team had the then-best first-half record (12-5-2, 68.4%), and were 13-7-3 in the 2008 portion of the schedule (63%).
Last year appears to be a juxtaposition of seasons past in the Comley regime - MSU jumpd out to a 14-6-2 first-half ledger (.681), and its second-semester record was 5-7-4 (.438).

more consistency
Michigan State, along with Alaska and CCHA regular-season champion Miami, were the only teams to take points out of each of their conference weekends in 2009-10.
MSU was also one of two teams to trip Miami in conference play - Nebraska-Omaha was the only other team to give Miami a conference loss.

free hockey
Michigan State played nine overtimes last season, with an official record of 2-1-6. In the six ties, MSU lost the shootout four times (to UNO, Notre Dame (Nov. 19), LSSU, and Bowling Green (Feb. 27); MSU first got a shootout win on Jan. 16 against the Irish, then a 2-1 shootout win at Alaska, its first road shootout of the season. Michigan State played to a 4-4 deadlock with Maine in the first game this season, but the teams did not do a shootout.

lock down on the PK
In the six goals MSU allowed to Maine last weekend, only one came while skating five-on-five. All three of MSU's scores in the Friday game were even strength, and in Thursday's tilt, the Spartans got two on the power play, one shorthanded, and one five-on-five.

maiden voyage
Freshman Lee Reimer is the first freshman to get on the board this season, his first collegiate point coming on Brett Perlini's second-period goal on Friday.

smart kids
Drew Palmisano was named as Michigan State's CCHA Scholar-Athlete. One player from each team is selected, from which the CCHA Scholar Athlete of the Year is chosen. Palmisano is a finance major.
Two players - defensemen Tim Buttery and Brock Shelgren - were named Big Ten Conference Distinguished Scholars. The pair, along with Palmisano, Trevor Nill, Dustin Gazley, and Matt Crandell, were Academic All-Big Ten picks.

hot hand
Drew Palmisano finished 14th nationally in save percentage (.917), and was 18th in GAA (2.44). In the opening weekend, he stopped 65 of 72 shots.

early impact
Michigan State freshmen won three of the five CCHA Rookie of the Month awards in the 2009-10 season. Derek Grant was the Rookie of the Month for October, while Torey Krug earned the honor in both December and January. Krug is only the second freshman in league history to record back-to-back Rookie of the Month honors - Miami's Carter Camper was the first in December and January during the 2007-08 season, the first year the award was given by the conference.

goalie u
Since the 1980-81 season, all but one Spartan starting goaltender has earned all-league honors (the Spartans have competed in both the Western Collegiate Hockey Association or Central Collegiate Hockey Association during this stretch). The list reads like a who's who in Spartan hockey - Ron Scott, Bob Essensa, Norm Foster, Jason Muzzatti, Mike Gilmore, Mike Buzak, Chad Alban, Joe Blackburn, Ryan Miller, Dominic Vicari and Jeff Lerg. Scott, Alban, Blackburn, Miller and Lerg were All-Americans. The only starting goalie who didn't make an all-star team or win an award during this stretch was Matt Migliaccio in 2002-03. Drew Palmisano kept the streak alive with his Second Team All-CCHA honor in 2009-10.

you go to the box, two minutes by yourself, and you feel shame
Torey Krug was MSU's most-penalized player last season. At 5-9, he is MSU's smallest-stature defenseman - but was whistled for 27 penalties for 65 minutes. In two games this season, Krug has been whistled for three penalties for nine minutes - team highs in both categories.

waiting on the call
Only one sophomore - winger Kevin Walrod - has yet to score a goal.

for comparison sake
Derek Grant had 29 points on the season, (11g, 18a) and was the team's top-scoring freshman, the most since Tim Crowder had 17 goals and 13 assists for 30 points in the 2005-06 season. In the Comley era, only one freshman had more points than Crowder: David Booth had a 17-19-36 line in 2002-03. Grant finished currently tied for third on the list of Comley freshmen behind Booth and Crowder, tied with defenseman AJ Thelen, who had 11-18-29 in 2003-04.