Tigers take GLI, win 6-3 over MSU

Colorado College equaled their six-goal output from last night tonight against Michigan State and the visitors from the WCHA won the 41st annual Great Lakes Invitational with a 6-3 win over the defending champion Spartans.

The Tigers had a 6-0 lead at one point before the Spartans salvaged some pride by cutting the lead in half.

“Give (MSU) credit,” Colorado College head coach Scott Owens said. “They never gave up and didn’t show any quit. I think maybe they got some new life after the goalie change.”

Dominic Vicari started in goal for MSU, but got the hook for Jeff Lerg after Joey Crabb, the tournament MVP, made it 5-0 6:57 into the middle period. Lerg allowed just one goal the rest of the game.

“Jeff played outstanding,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “But as a team, I think we’re back together. We were down 6-0 and could have lost by ten. (Playing) 5-on-5, we were good. But we gave them a couple 5-on-3’s and against a team like that, you can’t do that. We won the last two periods, but that doesn’t win games.”

Crabb started the scoring for CC 7:58 into the opening period on a Tigers’ man-advantage. Brian Salcido’s shot went wide of the net, but bounced off the end boards right to Vicari’s left and Crabb went top shelf.

Then at 13:31 on a two-man advantage, Salcido put a laser past Vicari from the top of the right circle that beat Vicari cleanly.

Almost three minutes later at 16:19 shorthanded, Crabb and Trevor Frischmon broke out on a 2-on-1 and Crabb passed over to Frischmon, whose shot along the ice eluded Vicari.

But the goals kept coming for Colorado College.

With 17 seconds left in the period, Salcido scored a goal that was a carbon copy of his first and was again on a 5-on-3 power play. Vicari was screened on the play and the shot beat him glove side.

“Brian was more decisive tonight,” said Owens. “When he wanted to shoot, he did.”

“We scored some good goals tonight,” added Salcido. “But I can’t take all the credit; it was a tribute to all the guys out there.”

Crabb’s fluky goal chased Vicari early in the second period. The shot appeared to hit MSU forward Chris Snavely on the way to the net and Vicari fumbled the puck until it went in off his back side.

Brett Sterling showed Lerg no love as he scored off a scramble in front of Lerg at 14:05 on reigning Hobey Baker winner and CC captain Marty Sertich’s fourth assist of the game. Sterling’s goal, a power-play tally, gives him 21 on the season, an NCAA best.

Tyler Howells erased the Spartans’ goose egg at 16:23 when he fired a shot from between the circles past CC goalie Matt Zaba, who was screened, inside the post.

Howells added a power-play goal at 19:08 when he snapped a quick shot from in tight on Zaba.

David Booth made it 6-3 as he was falling to the ice at 11:50 of the third period. His backhand shot went short side on Zaba and suddenly, MSU had a hint of momentum after Booth's power-play goal.

“With the new rules, who knows what could happen out there,” said Howells. “But we feel good going into our next game (next weekend at home against Wayne State).”

“I’d love to meet (CC) again and get a second chance at them,” Booth said. “You get rid of that first period and who knows? But that’s now how it went and we have to learn from our mistakes.”

Zaba made 33 saves and Vicari and Lerg combined for 23.

Aside from Crabb, the All-Tournament Team forwards also included Sertich and Michigan Tech’s Tyler Shelast. Salcido and Howells made up the defensemen and Zaba was the tournament’s top goalie.

“Joey started out slow this year,” Owens said. “But he had 19 shots this weekend and seven points, so I believe the (MVP) award was very well-deserved.”

Next year, Harvard will join MSU, U-M and MTU for the 42nd annual GLI.

The Tigers (17-6-1, 9-4-1 WCHA) host Wisconsin Jan. 13-14. The Spartans fall to 8-8-5 overall (4-5-4 CCHA) and host the Warriors next weekend at Munn Ice Arena.

Photo by Matt Mackinder/MiCHO

Wolverines rally to take third at GLI

Down 3-1 to Michigan Tech, Michigan didn’t panic and instead came back with four straight goals to win, 5-1, and take third place at the Great Lakes Invitational on Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.

“It was important to bounce back after last night,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. “It was an important weekend for us and I liked how Billy Sauer kept us in the game.”

Sauer, the 17-year-old freshman, made 35 saves for the Wolverines, who improved to 42-29-1 all-time at the annual tournament and 8-4-1 in third place games.

Chad Kolarik (pictured above) scored with 3:04 remaining in regulation to complete the Wolverines’ comeback. On the game-winner, Kolarik and Tim Miller were behind the MTU net and on a broken give-and-go, Miller fed Kolarik to left of Huskies’ goalie Rob Nolan and Kolarik put a shot on net that handcuffed Nolan and went in.

“I don’t even remember the pass,” said Kolarik. “I just threw it at the net and I got lucky.”

Tyler Shelast put the Huskies on the board at 4:11 of the first period on an MTU power play. Geoff Kinrade kept in a Michigan clearing attempt at the blue line, dished off to Mike Batovanja, who found Shelast to Sauer’s right. Shelast gloved down Batovanja’s pass and stuffed the puck past Sauer for the early 1-0 lead.

The Wolverines answered at 11:36 on their own man-advantage as T.J. Hensick walked in on Nolan and wired a shot top corner glove side to knot the game at 1-apiece.

Michigan Tech captain Brandon Schwartz then gave MTU a one-goal lead as he poked in an easy goal at 8:25. Chris Conner’s initial shot hit the right post, but Schwartz followed up and had an empty net as Sauer was down and out.

Two minutes later on a 5-on-3 power play, Lars Helminen’s blast from the point beat Sauer stick side and the Huskies had a two-goal cushion.

But as the old hockey cliché goes, a two-goal lead is the most unsafe lead and Michigan exploited that theory.

At 12:37, Matt Hunwick fought off a check pinching in and re-directed a Brandon Naurato pass off Nolan to being U-M back to within a goal.

Jason Bailey tied the game 5:07 into the third period. Hensick gathered a bouncing puck at the left-wing goal line and centered a pass to Bailey who tipped the puck five-hole on Nolan.

“That tying goal gave us life,” added Berenson. “It was huge for us.”

“We’re coming close,” Conner said. “But we have to learn to play with the lead. We have a young team, but we still need to capitalize.”

Miller iced the game with an empty-netter at 19:28.

Nolan finished with 33 stops.

“We came into this game with a bad taste in our mouth and we just wanted to get rolling,” said Miller. “We played as hard as we could and wanted to give the fans a good show from Michigan.”
Maybe not early on, but as the final score will attest to, mission accomplished.

Michigan (12-6-1, 7-3-1 CCHA) hosts Alaska-Fairbanks next weekend. Michigan Tech (4-17-1, 3-10-1 WCHA) travels to Minnesota-Duluth Jan. 13-14.

Wolverines decimated by CC, 6-1

By Matt Bishop, Special to MiCHO

Midway through the second period, it was apparent that it just wasn’t Michigan’s night.

Colorado College senior forward Joey Crabb scored twice in three minutes – once shorthanded and once on the power play – as No. 6 Colorado College routed No. 7 Michigan, 6-1, Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.

It was a dominating performance for the Tigers, who now advance to face Michigan State in the finals of the 41st annual Great Lakes Invitational.

“We knew Colorado was a good team and they proved it here tonight,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. “They were much the sharper team and it cost us. Every time there was a penalty, special teams was a big part of the game. They had the momentum from the start of the game and we couldn’t turn it around.”

The Wolverines were playing without sophomore forward Kevin Porter, freshmen defensemen Jack Johnson and Mark Mitera (Team USA with Porter serving as team captain) and freshman forward Andrew Cogliano (Team Canada), who are participating in the World Junior Championship in Vancouver. The team was also without junior defenseman David Rohlfs (suspension).

“It was obviously a good start for us,” Colorado College head coach Scott Owens said. “We wanted to come out and take advantage that they were a little shorthanded at defense.”

The first period went back-and-forth until Michigan sophomore forward Chris Fragner was called for a five-minute checking from behind penalty, which the Tigers capitalized on, as sophomore forward Jimmy Kilpatrick found the back of the net behind Billy Sauer with 27 seconds left in the period. Freshman forward Chad Rau and junior defenseman Lee Sweatt assisted.

“A five minute major hurts,” Berenson said. “It puts their best players on the ice and puts us on our heels.”

The second period was quite different, as the Tigers caught the Wolverines reeling and took advantage.

Michigan senior defenseman Adam Dunlap, seeing power play time in just his second game of the season, coughed up the puck when he mishandled it off his own foot which Crabb took quick advantage and put it past Sauer.

“It went out to their 'D' and he kind of fumbled with it in his feet," said Crabb. "I just went after it and got the puck and put it on net."

Then, just a few minutes later at the 6:27 mark, Crabb broke in on the power play and put a shot over the glove of Sauer, who was slow to react to the shot to give the Tigers the 3-0 edge.

Colorado College made the game into a blowout at 16:19 when junior defenseman Brian Salcido’s point blast blew past Sauer. Kilpatrick and Sweatt assisted on the power play tally.

Trying to spark his team, Berenson pulled Sauer to start the third period in favor of senior Noah Ruden.

It worked briefly as the Wolverines got on the board first in the period on an unassisted goal by freshman forward Brandon Naurato (pictured above right), but just 1:27 later, Colorado College put the stamp back on Michigan on a goal by senior forward Brett Sterling.

The Tigers added another shorthanded goal late off the stick of senior forward Trevor Frischmon with under two minutes to play to cap a game in which they dominated Michigan in every facet of the game.

With the game in hand, the performance of Tigers junior goaltender Matt Zaba could go undetected, but Zaba was huge in keeping Michigan out of it, making 29 saves.

“It was quick, timely goaltending by Zaba even though it may not look like it in a 6-1 game,” Owens said.

The Wolverines will now go on to face Michigan Tech in the GLI’s third-place game at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

“We really don’t have any excuses,” Berenson said. “We just didn’t have a good hockey game tonight.”

Fretter lifts Spartans in OT, 3-2

By Eric Fish
Courtesy of the State News

MSU head coach Rick Comley didn't even know if Colton Fretter would play in the Great Lakes Invitational semifinal contest Thursday afternoon against Michigan Tech after he missed Wednesday's practice with the flu.

"I always thought I was going to play," Fretter, left, said following the game. "But that was up to the coaches."

After Fretter netted the game-winner 13:59 into overtime at Joe Louis Arena to give the Spartans a 3-2 win and a berth in the GLI Championship game for the third straight year, Comley was more than relieved to have the senior forward in the lineup.

"Believe me, as a coach, it was nice to have our whole team," he said. "(It's the) first time this year that we've had everybody available."

But a full lineup still marked a familiar story for the green and white: the inability to score.

"I thought that was a game we could have gone up by certainly at least two, maybe three (goals)," Comley said. "But we couldn't get the puck in the net."

The Spartans (8-7-5) peppered Huskies goaltender Michael-Lee Teslak with 60 shots in the game, only to light the goal lamp a total of three times.

Teslak finished with 57 saves, a GLI record.

"Their goalie played unbelievable," junior captain Drew Miller said. "He made some big saves on us, but I thought just the chances we were getting were really good."

MSU struck first blood when freshmen forwards Tim Crowder and Justin Abdelkader created a chance in the slot that resulted in Crowder's seventh goal of the season.

The score remained in the Spartans' favor until senior defenseman Corey Potter was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for hitting from behind.

Michigan Tech (4-16-1) capitalized on the power play when forward Tyler Shelast deflected a shot that beat junior goaltender Dominic Vicari.

Shelast scored again less than three minutes later to give the Huskies their first lead of the game.

"I thought we dominated the whole game," Miller said. "To go down 2-1, it was just like, 'All right, we don't need this to happen, we're going to work hard and just get back into it.' "

Abdelkder answered with his fifth goal of the year to tie the game midway through the third period.

Regulation ended in a 2-2 tie.

After trading chances through overtime, Fretter played the role of hero when he patiently waited behind the net, then seeing he was unchallenged by defenders, he skated out front lifted a backhand into the net.

Fretter celebrated his seventh tally of the season by sliding face first on his belly across center ice. It was his second game-winning goal of the season.

"Any time you can get to the finals, it's a great feeling," Fretter said. "We just have to get it done in the finals."

The Spartans won the Great Lakes Invitational on Fretter's goal last season, a 2-1 win against Michigan.

The Spartans will meet No. 7 Colorado College at 8 p.m. Friday for a chance to repeat as GLI champions. Colorado College (15-6-1) beat No. 6 U-M, 6-1.

The Wolverines will meet Michigan Tech in the third-place game.

Can Michigan State defend its GLI title?

LSSU gets verbals from two former Soo Indians

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders forward Nik Sellers (Plymouth) and defenseman Steven Kaunisto (Sault Ste. Marie) have both verbally committed to Lake Superior State University.

"We're very excited for both Nik and Steven," said RoughRiders coach and general manager Mark Carlson "They've come in and done a very good job of working hard every day and filling important roles for us."

Both Sellers and Kaunisto are in their first year with the defending USHL Clark Cup champion RoughRiders after playing for the now-defunct Soo Indians of the North American Hockey League last season.

Sellers, 19, has scored nine goals and totaled 17 points in 26 games with the Riders this season. Sellers is also tied for the league lead with four game winning goals.

Last season Sellers led the Indians in assists (37) and points (48) and finished seventh in the NAHL in assists. This season marks Sellers' return to the United States Hockey League- two years ago he skated in the USHL for the Danville Wings. Sellers was part of Indians squad that finished third at 2005 Junior A National Championship, in which he led the Soo with 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 14 postseason games. Sellers was selected by the Plymouth Whalers in the twelfth round of the May 2002 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection, 240th overall.

Sellers had committed to Wayne State for the current season, but backed out to play another year of juniors in the USHL.

Kaunisto, also 19, has picked up eight assists in 26 games with the Riders this season. He arrived in Cedar Rapids after scoring one goal and totaling six points in 41 NAHL games last season. Kaunisto was also part of the Soo squad that finished third at 2005 Junior A National Championship as he notched three points in fourteen NAHL playoff games. Prior to playing in the NAHL, Kaunisto was a 2002-03 All Big North Conference selection and Honorable Mention All-State while playing for Sault Ste. Marie High School.

Last year, both Sellers and Kaunisto were coached by Joe Shawhan, now an assistant with Lake Superior State.

The Lakers are currently 10-6-2 overall and in third place in the CCHA with a 6-6-2 conference record.

Holiday action aplenty for Michigan schools

All of Michigan's Division I teams are in action this week all across North America.

Michigan and Michigan State will travel to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to compete in the 41st annual Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 29-30, along with co-host Michigan Tech and invite Colorado College. The two semifinal games on Dec. 29, and the third-place and championship games on Dec. 30 will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net Detroit. Michigan State pulled double-duty to capture the tourney title last year, defeating New Hampshire in the semifinals, 4-3, and Michigan, 2-1, with both games going in overtime.

The Wolverines have won the GLI 11 times, and have a 7-6-1 GLI record against MSU to go with a 16-10-0 advantage over the Huskies. CC and Michigan have never met at the GLI, but the Maize and Blue hold a 57-35-3 record against the Tigers all-time. The Spartans have won the tournament 10 times, and sport a 72-77-2 record all-time against MTU and a 33-44-1 record against CC. Michigan will be without four of its regular skaters for the GLI. Defensemen Jack Johnson and Mark Mitera and forward Kevin Porter will be skating for Team USA at the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship, while forward Andrew Cogliano will be playing for Team Canada. The Spartans will look to senior Colton Fretter to lead the charge. He scored three of the Spartans six tallies during the 2004 tournament.

Michigan Tech split with Minnesota State at home Dec. 16-17.

Fresh off of their meeting in Marquette, Mich., on Dec. 17-18, Northern Michigan and Western Michigan will play in the Badger Showdown in Madison, Wis., with the `Cats playing Wayne State and the Broncos battling Wisconsin on Dec. 30, with the two schools facing the prospect of playing each other on Dec. 31. The Badgers hold a 9-4-1 record over WMU, and a 41-22-5 record against NMU, while Wayne State has never played WMU and never beaten NMU, losing all four meetings with the `Cats. If the two teams end up playing on the second night, it will be the third of five meetings between the two schools in seven weeks.

Northern Michigan, who will be without head coach Walt Kyle, leading Team USA in Vancouver at the World Junior Championship, last played in the Badger Showdown during the 2002-03 season, beating Harvard, 3-2, and losing to Wisconsin 3-1. The Broncos haven't competed in a holiday tournament since 2001, when they played in the Mariucci Classic. WMU has won seven classic titles, and have a 26-18-2 all-time record in holiday tournaments.

In three previous holiday tournament appearances, WSU has placed first once (2000 UConn/SNET Classic) and second twice (2002 Rensselaer and 2003 North Dakota Subway Classic). The Warriors swept visiting Merrimack College (3-2, 6-5 OT) on Dec. 9-10 at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum in their last games before exams and the holiday break.

Ferris State, which won the past two Badger Showdowns, changes this year's holiday itinerary by traveling west to play in the Wells Fargo Denver Cup on Dec. 30-31. The Bulldogs open the tournament by playing Boston College and will then face either Princeton or Denver the following night. FSU has only played Boston College and Providence once each, losing both match-ups, and have never played Denver. Both of the New Year's Eve games will be telecast on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain.

Lake Superior State heads north of the border to compete in the TBAYtel Varsity Cup Tournament at Lakehead University Dec. 28-31. The Lakers will play Lakehead University for the first time since November 16, 1987, with an all-time record of 23-6-2, and will be playing Calgary and St. Francis Xavier for the first time ever. The tournament marks the first time LSSU has competed in a holiday tournament since winning the Sheraton/Howard Bank Hockey Classic in 2001-02. These games will all count as exhibition contests for the Lakers.