Spartans Kick off Six-Game Homestand

1/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

Jan. 5, 2012

No. 15/15 Michigan State vs. Miami
Dates	Friday-Saturday, Jan. 6-7, 2012
Game Times	7:05 p.m.
Location	East Lansing, Mich.; Munn Ice Arena (Cap. 6,470; 200x85)
Televison	none
Radio	WJIM 1240 AM
Tickets	Seating Chart \| Ticket Info
Game Notes	Download PDF (MSU) Download PDF (Miami)
Internet Coverage	(F) MSU All-Access (Video Stream) Live Stats \| Live Audio
Social Media	@MSU_Hockey \| Facebook
Press Conference Video	Head Coach Tom \| Players Drew Perlini
Promotions	(F) Family Four Pack (S) Chuck-a-Puck, junior class signs autographs post-game.

STORYLINE
Michigan State, the consensus No. 15 team in the country this week, returns to action at Munn Ice Arena with a two-game series against Miami. These are the first two of six straight home games for the Spartans, all against conference foes.

MEDIA DARLINGS
On the radio, all games will be carried by the Spartan Sports Network. Both contests will air on WJIM 1240 AM. Scott Moore and Rob Woodward are in their seventh season together on the call of Spartan hockey.
There will be no television for MSU's games against Miami, but both will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com.
Live audio on the internet can be found at www.spartansportsnetwork.com.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES
The Spartans hold a 68-27-5 overall mark against the Red Hawks all-time, and an impressive 36-16-3 record in games played in East Lansing.
The two teams have split the last three series, the first two played in Oxford before the teams met last year at Munn. In the series last season, MSU pasted the RedHawks 7-4 in game one before Miami rebounded with a 4-0 victory on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Michigan State lost in the finals of the 47th annual Great Lakes Invitational on Friday evening in Detroit.
Senior Drew Palmisano made a season-best 45 saves to backstop the squad to a 3-1 victory over Michigan Tech in the semifinals. Greg Wolfe and Chris Forfar had MSU's goals in the first two frames, and Brett Perlini iced the victory with an empty-net tally in the waning seconds.
In friday's tilt Palmisano made 45 saves for the second straight night, but Kevin Clare's game winner 11:44 into the extra period gave Michigan a 3-2 overtime victory.
In the championship game, Tanner Sorenson and Perlini had the Spartan markers, but an ill-timed penalty late in the game gave Michigan the game-tying goal with less than a minute to go in regulation, and Kevin Clare's heroics gave Michigan their 15th GLI title.
Clare's game-winner came after both teams had their chances in the first half of the extra frame. Lee Moffie got around the defender as he carried it up the left side. He sent a cross-slot pass that made its way through traffic to Clare at the right post, who had an open net to work with as Palmisano was screened at the left post.
Palmisano made 90 saves in two games, and broke the record for saves in the two-game tournament. Geoff McMullen of Colgate had 89 saves in 1970 for Colgate, which beast Brown (4-3 ) in the consolation game after losing to eventual tournament champion Michigan Tech 11-6 in the first game.

SCOUTING THE RED HAWKS
Miami enters the opening series of a new calendar year with a 9-9-2 overall record and 5-7-2 mark in CCHA play. The RedHawks, coached by program alumnus Rico Blasi, have dropped three of their last four contests. Miami was swept by Northern Michigan before splitting with Ohio State on Dec. 9-10; those were Miami's last games before this Friday's tilt with the Spartans.
Junior Reilly Smith is leading the offensive attack with a 12-5-17 scoring line, followed by freshman Austin Czarnik with 7-9-16 and Alden Hirschfeld with 5-9-14 to round out the double-digit scorers. The senior goaltending duo of Cody Reichard (.901 Sv%, 2.52 GAA) and Connor Knapp (.896 Sv%, 2.70 GAA) are patrolling the Miami crease for the fourth straight season.

INJURY REPORTS
Freshman Justin Hoomaian (leg injury) has missed the last 10 weeks. He has been cleared for full practice this week.
Senior Mike Merrifield has been out of the lineup after leaving the Michigan game with an injury (Dec. 10). Merrifield is hoping for a return for the Northern Michigan series next week.
Freshman Branden Carney sustained a serious neck injury in practice on Thursday, Nov. 3. Carney returned to campus in late November to finish the semester, and is also enrolled for spring semester. He remains under the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Bill, and will not return to play this season.
On Oct. 25, coach Tom Anastos announced that junior Zach Golembiewski had decided to end his competitive hockey career on the advice of medical professionals. Golembiewski, a winger, had appeared in 56 career games, but was advised to end his hockey career after the discovery of an underlying issue that was hindering any improvement after a back injury.

NEW FACE
MSU has added freshman Nathan Phillips to the roster for the spring semester. The 6-1, 165-pound goaltender most recently played for Winnipeg South Blues. He will be the third goaltender, behind Drew Palmisano and sophomore Will Yanakeff.

SMART KIDS
The Spartan hockey team turned in a combined semester grade point average of 3.0613, the highest single-semester GPA since the department's Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) started keeping records in 1997. Additionally, the team now has a cumulative GPA of 3.0805, the second-highest cumulative GPA in the same time frame.
Ten current players received Academic All-Big Ten honors in spring 2011 for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
MSU had 17 of its 25 varsity athletic teams achieve a 3.0 GPA in the fall 2011 semester.

THIS WEEK'S POPULARITY CONTEST
The Spartans check in at No. 15 in both the USCHO.com poll and the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today survey.

IN THE STANDINGS
The Spartans begin 2012 in a sixth-place tie (with Northern Michigan) in the CCHA standings, but have games in hand on the other 10 teams in the league.
The Spartans have played just 12 conference contests, while all the other teams have played 14. Ohio State leads the confernce with 32 points, Notre Dame and Western Michigan each have 27, followed by Lake Superior (23) and Ferris State (22). MSU has 20 points, but has those games in hand, as well as two contests remaining against all but one team that sits ahead of them in the standings. The Spartans have gone 5-2-1 in CCHA contests since starting the season 1-3-0 in conference games against Lake Superior and Ohio State. The Spartans are 3-1-1 in CCHA games played at Munn.

MILESTONE
MSU recorded its 10th victory of the season on Dec. 3. It is the earliest MSU has owned 10 victories since the 2007-08 season, when win No. 10 came on Dec. 1 vs. LSSU.

MAIDEN VOYAGE
Former Spartan skater (1982-85) and assistant coach Tom Anastos takes the reigns of the MSU hockey program for the 2011-12 season, becoming just the sixth head coach in program history. Anastos spent the previous 13 seasons as the commissioner of the CCHA.
Anastos is one of nine new head coaches in college hockey in 2011-12, not including Penn State (which will begin play next season with Guy Gadowsky at the helm).
Of those nine new coaches, Anastos is one of the three that faced a ranked team in his coaching debut with his new team. Providence's Nate Leaman's maiden voyage was a win over No. 17 Boston University, while Princeton's Bob Prier skated to a 2-2 tie with then-No. 3/6 Yale.

THE RACE TO TEN
Of MSU's four head coaches in the modern era, it took Tom Anastos the fewest games of any of them to reach his first 10 wins. Win #10 for Rick Comley came in game #20, a January game vs. Alaska. It took Ron Mason 27 games to get to 10 wins, and it took Amo Bessone 34 contests - he did not get his 10th career victory at MSU until his second season as the head coach.
Among college hockey's nine new coaches this season, Anastos was also the first to 10 victories, on Dec. 3. The only other first-year mentor to reach 10 wins is Norm Bazin at UMass-Lowell - he got win No. 10 on Dec. 9 over Boston College.

STICKING IT OUT FOUR YEARS
MSU has nine seniors on the roster this season, the largest senior class since the 1977-78 campaign under Amo Bessone, which had 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). Last year, MSU went 4-2-2 against non-conference teams, and is currently 5-1-1 this season against teams from the other four leagues. MSU played one non-conference game, the GLI final, against league archrival Michigan.
MSU's 2011-12 schedule has a three games against WCHA competition (two against Minnesota, and against Michigan Tech in the GLI) in addition one against Hockey East frontrunner Boston College. The Spartans also had a two-game set against Robert Morris at Munn, and one game against Air Force for three total games against Atlantic Hockey.

WE'LL PLAY THE BEST
This season, MSU will play 20 games against eight teams in this week's USCHO Top 20 poll. So far, MSU is 4-6-2 in games played against current Top 20 competition, and 3-1-1 against teams ranked in the top five at the time of the game.

TOUGH ROAD IN ...
The 11 opponents MSU has played this season are a combined 118-81-23 (.583) this season. Seven of them have 10 or more wins, and only two (Bowling Green and Michigan Tech) are under .500. Minnesota, which MSU beat and tied, leads the country with 15 victories. In addition, the Spartans have played the leaders in four of the five Division I conferences (MSU does not have an ECAC team on its schedule this season).

... TOUGHER ROAD OUT
MSU has eight two-game series remaining, all in conference play. Six of those eight opponents are currently among the top 20 in the pairwise ranking, the main tool used in selecting the NCAA Tournament field. Ohio State (1), Notre Dame (4), Northern Michigan (9), Western Michigan (t-10)Lake Superior (t-13), Michigan (t-15), and Ferris State (20) join Michigan State (t-10) as the eight CCHA teams in the PWR top 20.
Miami (21) and Alaska (29) are also on MSU's slate in the balance of the schedule.

HOME SWEET HOME
MSU will have three straight CCHA weekends at home to start January (Miami, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior).
On the season, MSU is 6-1-2 in games at Munn Ice Arena, with the loss coming against CCHA-leading Ohio State.

AHEAD OF THE PACE
MSU is .500 or better in each of the first three months of the season. The Spartans are already at 11 victories, after posting a total of 15 last year. The last time MSU was .500 or better in each of the first three months of the season was in the 2007-08 campaign.

SEARCHING FOR STABILITY
Last year, the Spartans employed 60 different forward line combinations in search of consistent scoring. Through 20 games - exactly the midpoint of the regular season - there have been 20 different combinations, the same defensive pairs have been used in 19 of 20 games, and only six line combinations have been used for a single game.

KEYS TO SUCCESS: SCORE MORE, ALLOW LESS
The Spartans have not only improved their offensive output over the last 14 games (9-3-2), but have significantly improved their defense. In the opening 2-4-0 stretch, the Spartans averaged 2.0 goals for and 3.33 against in those games. In the 9-3-2 stretch since ,MSU has averaged 3.6 goals per game, and cut its goals allowed to 2.3 per contest. In the Robert Morris, Western Michigan, and Northern Michigan series, the Spartans allowed exactly two goals per game to each opponent. Against BG, the Spartans allowed just one goal each night.

MAGIC NUMBER: 3
The Spartans are 0-5-0 when scoring two or fewer goals, and 11-2-2 when scoring three or more.

SHOOTING GALLERY
MSU has been outshot this season in 11 of 20 games, and overall, MSU is -84 in total shots, an average just over four shots per game.
MSU outshot its opponents in just 14 of 38 games last season, including holding its opponents to 20 shots or less four times.

SPECIALS
The MSU penalty kill was perfect in early December prior to the GLI, and overall went 16-of-18 (.889) in six games last month. MSU is now 67-of-76 (.882) on the penalty kill, which is fourth in the CCHA and sixth nationally.
On the man advantage, MSU is 14-of-72 (19.4%), and ranks fourth in the league. In December, MSU was 5-of-17 (.294) on the power play.

BROOMS
Michigan State was swept for the first time this season on the road at Lake Superior (Oct. 14-15). Since then, the Spartans have registered three weekend sweeps of their own, against Robert Morris (Oct. 28-29), Western Michigan (Nov. 11-12), and Bowling Green (Dec. 2-3).
In 2010-11, MSU recorded its first and only sweep of the season in the final regular-season weekend against Bowling Green. MSU had four series sweeps in 2009-10, and none in 2008-09.

FREE HOCKEY
MSU lost its first of four overtime games this season. The Spartans are 1-1-2 in extra frames this season, and are now 4-5-12 in overtime games dating back to the start of the 2009-10 season.

A GOOD SIGN
In its last 12 contests, MSU has scored first nine times; on the season, MSU is 9-3-1 when scoring first and 2-4-1 when allowing its opponent to do so.
In 2010-11, the Spartans were 14-5-3 when scoring the first goal, and an alarming 1-14- 1 when letting its opponent score first.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
Through 20 games, there are 19 skaters who have appeared in six games or more. Of those 19 players, 18 have at least three points and one goal.

OFFENSE AWAKENING
This season, MSU has scored at least two goals in 19 of 20 games. The lone exception is a Nov. 19 loss to NMU (2-1).

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.

CONFERENCE HONORS
Senior netminder Drew Palmisano earned his second CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors earlier this week, his second award of the season.
Palmisano set a new Great Lakes Invitational record by making 90 saves over two games, stopping 90 of 94 shots faced (.957) with a 1.82 GAA. Palmisano made 45 stops each night, as the Spartans dropped the GLI final game in a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime decision to Michigan. Palmisano was one short of his career-best of 46 saves each night; his career high came against Michigan as a freshman.
Palmisano's earlier award came on Nov. 28 for his performance against Minnesota. He stopped 75 of 82 shots against in a win and tie against the No. 2/3 Gophers.
Freshman winger Brent Darnell was named the CCHA Rookie of the Week after a four-point performance in the Spartans' sweep of Bowling Green (Dec. 5). He had a goal and three assists (+3) for the Spartans as they swept the Falcons, their third series sweep of the season and second of a CCHA opponent.
Senior defenseman Brock Shelgren and sophomore goaltender Will Yanakeff were named the CCHA Defensive Player and Goaltender of the Week, respectively, after the Nov. 11-12 Western Michigan series.
Shelgren had a team-best eight blocked shots - including a career-best seven on Friday - in the Spartans' sweep of the Broncos. Shelgren was a +4 on the weekend and contributed three assists, including the helper on the game-winner in Saturday's contest.
Yanakeff made a career-best 38 saves in Friday's victory, and another 28 on Saturday in helping the Spartans to a two-game road sweep WMU. On the weekend, Yanakeff stopped 66 of 70 shots against (.943). The sophomore has won three straight starts.
Lee Reimer was named the CCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 31. Reimer had a hat trick and a five-point night in Saturday's win over Robert Morris (6-2), which came on the heels of a two-assist effort in Friday's 5-2 victory. Reimer's seven-point, +7 effort is far and away his career best for a single weekend's offensive output. Reimer and his linemates combined for nine goals and 14 assists (23 points) on the weekend, and were a +22.

POINT PRODUCTIVITY
The Spartans now have 10 players who have at least 10 points on the season - matching last season's total. Six players have already posted numbers for career-best offensive seasons thus far. A year ago at this time, the Spartans had five double-digit scorers.
Through 18 games last season, MSU was a combined -41, with its best player a +2 (Daultan Leveille, Mike Merrifield, and Trevor Nill). This year, the Spartans are a combined +46, with Greg Wolfe and Torey Krug each a team-best +12, and Lee Reimer a +10.

CONFERENCE SUPERLATIVES
Reimer is second in the league in scoring (23 points), and in assists (15), and ranks 13th in goals (8), while Wolfe is tied for sixth in points (18) and assists (12). Merrifield is tied for 13th in the league in goals (8) and is second in the CCHA in game-winning tallies (3). Brett Perlini is ninth in assists (11) and 11th in points (17), Matt Berry is seventh in freshman scoring (5-6-11).
Torey Krug ranks second among league defensemen in scoring with a 5-9-14 line, and ninth in power-play goals (3). Fellow blueliner Matt Crandell is fifth among blueliners in scoring (13 points), and is tied for ninth overall in the league in assists (11).

LATE BLOOMER
Brent Darnell earned his first collegiate point with an assist on Torey Krug's goal against Northern Michigan on Nov. 18, the 11th game of the season. He turned around and scored his first collegiate tally a week later against Minnesota (Nov. 25).
Tanner Sorenson was the first among the four freshmen to get his first collegiate point, an assist on Oct. 20 against Ohio State. However, he was the third to score his first college goal, against Michigan in the GLI finals.

MAD HATTERS
Lee Reimer's hat trick against Robert Morris on Oct. 29 was the first of the season for the Spartans, and the first since Torey Krug scored three times in a 4-3 overtime victory over Michigan at Munn last January. They are the only two active players with hat tricks.

LEAPS AND BOUNDS
Matt Crandell had a pair of assists in the Great Lakes Invitational to push him to 13 points this season, his single-season career best. He is the seventh Spartan to check in with a career-best offensive season.
With 18 points (6g, 12a), Greg Wolfe has bettered his freshman year total of 11 points, and leads the team at +12. Lee Reimer owns a 8-15-23 scoring line, and has already well eclipsed his freshman season total of seven points (2g, 5a). Mike Merrifield had a 4-4-8 line last season, and career numbers of 6-6-12 in two and a half seasons on the Spartan roster. Despite missing six games this season with injury he has surpassed his career goal total (8) and currently has a 8-5-13 scoring line in just 14 games, better than his junior-season numbers and bettering his career point total. Kevin Walrod's six goals and six assists gives him a 12 points this season. Among defensemen. senior Brock Shelgren owns a 2-8-10 scoring line and is 11th in the league in defenseman scoring; his previous best single-season point total was seven points as a junior, and he has bettered his single-season assist mark (6). Shelgren is on course to surpass his three-season total of 16 points (5g, 11a). Matt Crandell (2-10-12) has his first multiple-goal season in addition to tying his single-season high in points, set as a sophomore. Crandell is tied with Torey Krug for fourth in the CCHA in defenseman scoring.

MULTIPLICITY
Junior Kevin Walrod had his third career two-goal game (and second of the season) on Nov. 25 against Minnesota. The winger has nine career goals, and six of them have come in his three two-goal efforts. He has three games with a single goal.

AT THE DOT
Lee Reimer has been MSU's top faceoff man, with 241 wins and 184 losses (.567).

BERRY NICE
Freshman Matt Berry had his first back-to-back games with a goal, netting the game-winner in the Nov. 25 against the Gophers. He also had the lone MSU score in a loss at Northern Michigan on Nov. 19. Berry is the team's top freshman scorer with 11 points (5g, 6a).

BLOCK PARTY
Torey Krug and Brett Shelgren, who have been MSU's top defensive pair in 19 of 20 games, have a combined 93 of MSU's 299 blocked shots this season, ranking first and second individually (Krug has 35, Shelgren 58). Tim Buttery has 37 blocks, and Matt Crandell 28.

BLANK SHEETS
Drew Palmisano's Oct. 20 shutout of Ohio State was his second straight over the Buckeyes. Alex Szczechura's second-period goal in the second game of the series snapped Palmisano's personal shutout streak of 145:01 against Ohio State, dating back to last season. Palmisano owns four career shutouts: the two of OSU, one of Nebraska-Omaha, and one of Michigan.

BESTS GET RESULTS
Will Yanakeff's 38 saves against Western Michigan on Nov. 11 was a career-best performance for the sophomore. His previous high was 37, which came against Michigan on Jan. 7, 2011.
Drew Palmisano has three 40+-save games this season. He had 45 in each game of the GLI in addition to 40 in a 4-3 win over Minnesota on Nov. 25. His career best is 46 stops, against Michigan on Jan. 29 of his freshman season.

ONE, TWO, OR BOTH?
Head Coach Tom Anastos has been asked several times whether he will pick one of the team's goaltenders as his primary starter, or employ a platoon; he has maintained that he does not have a strict philosophy, and that the play of the goalies during the week and the previous games will determine who gets the start.
Drew Palmisano opened the season with 30 saves against the aggressive, talented Boston College offense, and has had three games this year with 40+ saves. Palmisano has played 11 of MSU's 20 games, and owns a 5-4-2 record, 2.56 GAA and .923 save percentage.
Will Yanakeff played in each of MSU's first four games in November, and was the CCHA Goaltender of the Week on Nov. 7. In nine games this season, he owns a 2.46 GAA and .915 save percentage, and a 6-3-0 mark on the season.

CELEBRATION OF A CENTURY
Brett Perlini played in his 100th career game on Dec. 3 against Bowling Green. He is the fourth player this season to reach the milestone: Trevor Nill skated in his 100th career game on Nov. 18, Tim Buttery played in his 100th career game against Ohio State on Oct. 20, Brock Shelgren did it in the season opener vs. Boston College; Daultan Leveille (124 games) and Matt Crandell (122) registered their 100th last season.
The next likely players to reach the milestone are juniors Torey Krug and Chris Forfar - each have played in 95 games through the calendar year 2011.

CONSISTENT EFFORTS
Four players (Brett Perlini, Lee Reimer, Torey Krug, and Greg Wolfe) have points in 11 of MSU's 20 games this season, a best for the team. Matt Crandell, Kevin Walrod, and Matt Berry all have points in nine games.

MULTIPLICITY
Lee Reimer leads the squad in multiple-point games, with seven; Brett Perlini has five, and Mike Merrifield and Greg Wolfe each have four.

GIVING BACK - WITH CLASS
MSU senior alternate captain Trevor Nill is a nominee for the BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award for the second consecutive year.
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 Hockey Humanitarian 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.

EXTENSION
Olympia Entertainment in partnership with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan announced in November that the agreement which ensures a Spartans-Wolverines game is held annually at Joe Louis Arena has been extended through the 2013-14 hockey season.
The archrivals have squared off in regular season action at JLA in at least once per year since 1990, with Michigan having earned ten victories to Michigan State's nine over that time; four of the games ended in a tie.

FACES OF THE FUTURE
Tom Anastos has announced that three players signed National Letters of Intent in the fall signing period and will join the Spartans in the fall of 2012. Forward Ryan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich./Sioux Falls (USHL), Defenseman John Draeger (Faribault, Minn./Shattuck St. Mary's) and goaltender Jake Hildebrand (Butler, PA/Cedar Rapids (USHL) will join three previous signees - forward Matt DeBlouw (Chesterfield, Mich./Muskegon USHL) and defensemen Rhett Holland (Calgary, Alberta / Okotoks (AJHL) and Travis Walsh (Lansing, Mich./Muskegon (USHL) on the Spartan roster for next season.

PRO ASPIRATIONS
MSU had 11 former skaters on 2011 opening-night rosters in the National Hockey League, and 15 players have played at least one game in the NHL this season: Ryan Miller and Corey Tropp (Buffalo), Drew Miller and Justin Abdelkader (Detroit), Tim Kennedy and Mike Weaver (Florida). Jim Slater (Winnipeg), Shawn Horcoff, Jeff Petry and Corey Potter (Edmonton), David Booth (Vancouver), Duncan Keith (Chicago), Adam Hall (Tampa), Chris Mueller (Nashville) and John-Michael Liles (Toronto).