MSU Heads To North Dakota for Icebreaker Tournament

10/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Oct. 5, 2011

Michigan State at the Icebreaker Tournament
Dates	Friday-Saturday, Oct. 7-8
Game Times	(F) 5:05 p.m. \| (S) 5/8:35 p.m.
Location	Grand Forks, N.D... \| Englestad Arena (Cap. 11,634; 200x85)
Televison	Fox College Sports Central (Comcast Lansing Ch. 723 DirecTV Ch. 617 check local listings
Radio	WJIM 1240 AM
Game Notes	Download PDF
Social Media	@MSU_Hockey \| Facebook
Press Conference Video	Head Coach Tom
Press Conference Audio	Tom \| Torey \| Anthony \| Tanner

STORYLINE
Michigan State kicks off a new era on Friday, as Tom Anastos takes the reins of the program as just the sixth mentor in the modern era of hockey. His team's opening weekend is a tall order - the Spartans first face off against No. 5 Boston College, while either Air Force (which received votes in both pre-season national polls) or No. 3 North Dakota await on Saturday.

MEDIA DARLINGS
All four games of the IceBreaker Tournament will be produced by the Fighting Sioux Sports Network and carried live on Fox College Sports Central. In the greater Lansing area, those who subscribe to the Digital Sports Pack can watch the game on Ch. 723; others should check their local listings.
On the radio, all games will be carried by the Spartan Sports Network and will air on WJIM 1240 AM. The weekend tilts can also be heard on www.spartansportsnetwork.com. Scott Moore and Rob Woodward are in their seventh season together on the call of Spartan hockey.

ABOUT THE ICEBREAKER
The Icebreaker Tournament, which annually brings together teams from different conferences, enters its 15th season in 2011. Originally scheduled to be held in St. Louis, the tournament will now be hosted by North Dakota at Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks. vMichigan State will participate in the Icebreaker tournament for the fourth time in tournament history. The Spartans won the inaugural tournament at Wisconsin in October 1997, defeating Boston University (3-1) and the host Badgers (2-1) MSU served as tournament host in 2003, falling to Findlay (3-4) before rebounding with a 5-4 victory over Minnesota-Duluth. In 2008, MSU downed Massachusetts (3-1), but fell to host Boston University in the final (2-1).

SPARTAN CAPSULE
With a new head coach, Michigan State looks to improve upon its 10th-place finish in the CCHA a year ago, when it had a 15-19-4 overall record.
Junior captain Torey Krug returns to the Spartan blueline after earning First Team All-CCHA and the league's Best Offensive Forward honors as a sophomore, and was voted as a Pre-Season All-CCHA selection by the conference's head coaches. He anchors a defense which returns all six starters from a year ago, and three of those players are seniors (Brock Shelgren, Tim Buttery, Matt Crandell) who have combined for 202 games on the Spartan blueline. Further bolstering the MSU defensive efforts are the tandem of goaltenders who both saw significant time a year ago. Senior Drew Palmisano earned All-CCHA honors as a sophomore and has been the team's Perani Cup champion (most post-game three-star distinctions) the last two seasons. Sophomore Will Yanakeff saw action in 14 games as a freshman and was invited to USA Hockey's World Junior evaluation camp.
The largest question mark is who will step up and deliver offense. The Spartans will need to replace the scoring of the team's departed leading scorer Derek Grant (8-25-33; opted to forego final two seasons of eligibility and sign with the Senators) and fourth-leading scorer and 2011 graduate Dustin Gazley (11-15-26). Four of the team's five freshmen are forwards. Seniors Brett Perlini (18-12-30) and Daultan Leveille (8-10-18) are expected to be significant contributors, while Krug was the team's third-leading scorer last season from the blue line. With a new staff and no pre-conceived notions, all 27 players have an opportunity to step in, earn playing time, and settle into roles within the new systems which the Spartans will employ.

SERIES HISTORY - BC
MSU is 16-6-1 all-time against the Eagles, who the Spartans could face twice this season: BC is the fourth team in the GLI in December.
More than a third of the all-time meetings between the teams (9) have come on neutral ice, where the Spartans hold a 7-2 edge; the most recent meeting came on April 9, 2007, when Justin Abdelkader scored the game-winning goal with 18.9 seconds remaining to help the Spartans to a dramatic victory in the NCAA title game. Ten games have been in the NCAA Tournament, and MSU owns a 8-2-0 record against BC. Only seven games between the two teams have not been in either an in-season or post-season tournament.

EAGLE DROPPINGS
Boston College features 18 returning letterwinners from last winter's team which finished the season with a 30-8-1 record and won the Ledyard Classic title at Dartmouth College, the Beanpot title, the Hockey East regular-season championship and the Hockey East Tournament championship. However, the Eagles lost four of last year's top five scorers, 45 percent of its total offense and a 144-game starter in goal.
The 2011-12 Eagles are likely to be built on sound defense. Junior Parker Milner returns as the leading candidate to assume goaltending duties. Also returning are six sturdy defensemen, including 2011-12 team captain Tommy Cross and first-team All-American Brian Dumoulin.
Offensively, the Eagles will look to returning 20-point-scoring Chris Kreider, Pat Mullane and Steven Whitney. The returnees to the BC roster accounted for 48 percent of last year's goals, 59 percent of the team's assists and 55 percent of the team's total points.

SERIES HISTORY - NORTH DAKOTA
MSU is 36-62-2 all-time against North Dakota, which includes an 11-34-1 mark all-time in games played in Grand Forks. Since UND moved into the "new" Ralph Englestad Arena for the 2001-02 season, the Spartans have played in the new building just once, in the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Oct. 2006 (a 6-0 loss). The teams last met in the 2008 Great Lakes Invitational, a 2-1 Spartan victory. Only five current Spartans were in the lineup against the Fighting Sioux that evening - Trevor Nill, Brock Shelgren, Tim Buttery, Matt Crandell, and Daultan Leveille.

LOOKING AT THE SIOUX
The Sioux welcome back 14 letterwinners from last year's team that advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four, including six forwards, five defensemen and all three goalies.
UND, however, must replace six of its seven top scorers from last year, including NCAA goal-scoring leader and Hobey Baker Award finalist Matt Frattin, and two-time All-America defenseman Chay Genoway. The Sioux graduated seven seniors last year, and lost two juniors to the professional ranks.
Despite the loss of significant production to graduation and the professional ranks, the cupboard is hardly bare. Up front, UND returns several key forwards from last year's national semifinalist team, including juniors Corban Knight and Danny Kristo. Knight is the team's top returning scorer after amassing a career-high 44 points (14g, 30a) as a sophomore, while Kristo, the 2009-10 WCHA Rookie of the Year, racked up 23 points (7g, 16a) in his last 17 games.

SERIES HISTORY - AIR FORCE
MSU is a perfect 5-0-0 against the Air Force Academy, but all five meetings came from 1972-73.

AIR FORCE FACTS
The Falcons are coming off a season in which they finished second in Atlantic Hockey behind RIT, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last five years.
Air Force returns nine of its top 11 scorers, five of its top six defenseman and the starting goalie from last season. Juniors Kyle DeLaurell and John Kruse are the top two returning scorers. DeLaurell scored 33 points last season while Kruse had 29.
Senior team captain Paul Weisgarber is the top returning goal scorer with 13 last season (25 points). Seniors Tim Kirby and Scott Mathis pace the defense, as Mathis was a first-team all-league selectionand Kirby was named to the third team. Sophomore Jason Torf started the final 29 games last season between the pipes and was named to the All-Rookie team and the AHA all-tournament team. His 16 wins were the second-most in the nation by a freshman last season. He finished with a 2.87 GAA and a .909 saves percentage.

ONE OF NINE
Tom Anastos is one of nine new head coaches around college hockey, not including Penn State (which will begin play next season with Guy Gadowsky at the helm). In his previous role as commissioner of the CCHA, Anastos played a role in awarding the 2011 Ice Breaker to Grand Forks.

MAIDEN VOYAGE
Former Spartan skater (1982-85) and assistant coach Tom Anastos takes the reigns of the MSU hockey program, becoming just the sixth head coach in program history. Anastos spent the previous 13 seasons as the commissioner of the CCHA.

iNAUSPICIOUS DEBUTS
Of the previous five hockey coaches in the Michigan State program, only one has won his debut against collegiate competition behind the Spartan bench: Ron Mason, college hockey's all-time winningest coach (Mason posted a 7-6 victory over Western Michigan.) In 1925, John Kobs dropped a 6-3 decision to Michigan, Harold Paulsen lost his first game to Michigan Tech (6-2) in 1950, Amo Bessone was on the wrong end of an 11-1 decison against Michgian in 1951, and Rick Comley lost to Denver in 2002 (5-0).

CURTAIN RAISERS
MSU owns a 40-27-3 overall record in its season-opening game, including a three-game undefeated streak in the season opener going back to the 2008-09 season. That is also the last season that MSU opened the year on the road, playing in the Icebreaker in Boston.

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS
The CCHA's annual preseason polls were released on Sept. 28, and MSU was selected eighth in the coaches poll and sixth in the survey of the league's media. For just the second time in six years, the coaches and media agree on who should be No. 1, as Notre Dame received enough points from the conference's 11 head coaches and 72 media members to be named the preseason favorite in both polls.
"I'm not surprised by it - and I really don't give it much thought," said Anastos. "We have higher expectations of ourselves , and now it's up to us to show it.
"I expect the league will be highly competitive. Pre-season projections are based on the previous season -- as such, it's not surprising where we are projected," continued Anastos. "There is always a team each season who outperforms expectations. It's our goal to be that team."

THIS WEEK'S POPULARITY CONTEST
Michigan State was not included in the USA Hockey/USA Today preseason poll, and was receiving votes in the USCHO.com preseason survey.

LEADERSHIP
Junior defenseman Torey Krug is the fifth player in MSU history to wear the captain's "C" on his jersey for two seasons. Last year, he was the program's first solo captain as a sophomore in team history. The alternate captains are senior Trevor Nill and junior Anthony Hayes. Nill is in his second season as an alternate captain, while this is the first captain's role for Hayes at MSU.

IMPRESSIVE EXHIBITION
While only an exhibition game, the Michigan State hockey team made an emphatic statement in the squad's first game for a new mentor, defeating Western Ontario, 6-1, on Monday night at Munn Ice Arena. It was the first game behind the bench for head coach Tom Anastos, who watched his team put on an impressive effort - the Spartans brought both speed and quickness, an aggressive but controlled demeanor, and a blue-collar mentality to their first game for their new head coach.
The Spartans outshot the Mustangs by a 13-6 margin, but had just a Brett Perlini goal to show for it in the 1-0 lead at the intermission. The floodgates opened after that, as MSU poured in four second-period tallies - one from Torey Krug, a pair from sophomore Greg Wolfe, and one from freshman Tanner Sorenson - to take a commanding lead into the dressing room at the second break. Dean Chelios capped the scoring in the third period, shortly after Western Ontario had broken up the shutout midway through the third period. Senior goalie Drew Palmisano made 22 saves. In addition to Wolfe's two-goal outing, Perlini, Sorenson, and Chelios all had a goal and an assist, while blueliner Tim Buttery had a pair of helpers.

STICKING IT OUT FOUR YEARS
MSU has 10 seniors on the roster this season, the largest senior class since the 1977-78 campaign under Amo Bessone, which also boasted 10.

NON-CONFERENCE
In the Rick Comley era, the Spartans owned a 42-32-7 record in games against non-conference teams. (This includes regular-season, tournament, and NCAA Tournament games) Only once was a Comley team sub-.500 in games against non-conference foes in a season (2003-04).
MSU's 2011-12 schedule has a possible four games against WCHA competition (two against Minnesota, against MIchigan Tech in the GLI, and possibly one against North Dakota in the Icebreaker) in addition to a possible twowith Hockey East entry Boston College - in addition to Friday's game, BC is the fourth team in ther GLI, and will play Michigan in the first round. The Spartans also will have a two-game set against Robert Morris at Munn. Last year, MSU went 4-2-2 against non-conference teams.

PLAY THE BEST
In 2010-11, MSU went 7-9-2 against ranked opponents, but was an impressive 4-1-2 against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of the game. The only loss against a top-10 opponent was MSU's 4-0 loss to Michigan at Yost Ice Arena.

SEARCHING FOR STABILITY
Last year, the Spartans employed 60 different forward line combinations in search of consistent scoring.

WIN 'EM CLOSE
MSU was 6-8-0 (with four overtime losses) in one-goal games in 2010-11. MSU lost both of its CCHA playoff games in overtime, including Alaska's double-overtime win that eliminated MSU from the postseason.

shooting gallery, part i
MSU outshot its opponents in just 14 of 38 games last season, including holding its opponents to 20 shots or less four times.

BROOMS
MSU was swept three times during the regular season in 2010-11, and also in the playoffs. Three times it happened on the road - at Western Michigan (Nov. 5-6) and Nov. 19-20 at Notre Dame. MSU was swept at home by Northern Michigan on Feb. 11-12 the first time since 2008 that a visiting team swept the Spartans on home ice. Alaska swept the playoff series at the Carlson center as well.
Michigan State swept their first series of the season, 2-1 and 2-0, over Bowling Green to complete the regular season. MSU recorded its first series sweep since October 2009, when it downed Clarkson. It was the first sweep of a CCHA team since Oct. 26-27, 2007 vs. Northern Michigan.

SCORELESS
Overall, nine of MSU's 38 games last season were shutouts - four for, and a school-record five against.

CELEBRATION OF A CENTURY
Senior Brock Shelgren will appear in his 100th career game on Friday against the Eagles. He is one of three players to hit the 100-game mark - Daultan Leveille (110) and Matt Crandell (108) are the others.

GIVING BACK WITH CLASS
MSU senior alternate captain Trevor Nill is a nominee for the Lowe's Senior CLASS award, presented each year to the outstanding senior NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year across ten different sports. The acronym "CLASS" stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®.
The Lowe's Senior CLASS Award celebrates the loyalty of seniors that honor a four-year commitment to their university. The Senior CLASS Award® recognizes these student-athletes for great achievement during competition and in their community while staying in school.
He is a dedicated student, with a 3.4 cumulative grade-point average as a mechanical engineering major. Last spring, he was among the finalists for 2011 BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award in addition to taking home the CCHA's Ilitch Humanitarian Award.
Nill carved out a significant amount of time to give back to his campus and community in East Lansing. He has been the hockey program's representative for SAAC for three years, and this year, he is serving as the group's president. He is also the vice-president of the MSU chapter of Athletes In Action. Nill has volunteered his time to a wide-spanning list of community service initiatives undertaken by the team. He has never turned down a request to be involved in things like Relay for Life, Children's Miracle Network, March is Reading Month, or programs for the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters chapter.
Nill is an extremely kind and compassionate young man, and there is no further evidence needed than his dedication to children in the local Lansing area. He has been actively involved in Spartan Buddies, visiting children in Sparrow Hospital's pediatric ward. He also is the annual leader during MSU Athletics' "Teams for Toys" initiative, where the hockey team adopts a local needy family for the holidays. He has also worked extensively with hockey ministries camp, volunteered his time with Camp Kesem (for children with parents battling cancer), and volunteered with the Detroit Red Wings Clark Park event in conjunction with Family Day in Detroit.

GOALIE U
Since the 1980-81 season, all but one Spartan starting goaltender has earned all-league honors at one point in their career. (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.

UNCOMMON PATH
Freshman Tanner Sorenson is a rare species in college hockey - the player who enters college directly after playing for his high school team. Sorenson played for Shattuck St. Mary's, winning a 18-U Tier I National Championship in 2011. Since the 1991-92 season, Sorenson is just the third MSU player to skate for his high school team in the season before enrolling at MSU - Brian Clifford (1991-95) and Chris Mueller (2004-08) both played for the Nichols School in their hometown of Buffalo. Both Clifford and Mueller also played a split season, playing for both their high school and the local AAA team during their senior years. Sorenson played solely for Shattuck last year.

PRO ASPIRATIONS FULFILLED
MSU has 11 former skaters on opening-night rosters in the National Hockey League; Ryan Miller (Buffalo), Drew Miller and Justin Abdelkader (Detroit), David Booth and Mike Weaver (Florida). Jim Slater (Winnipeg), Shawn Horcoff, Jeff Petry and Corey Potter (Edmonton), Duncan Keith (Chicago), Adam Hall (Tampa.

NEXT UP
Michigan State opens with a second straight weekend on the road, traveling via bus to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. to play Lake Superior State.