Michigan dominates MTU, wins 4-1

By Matt Bishop, Special to MiCHO

DETROIT — Matt Hunwick scored his first two goals of the season to lead No. 11 Michigan to a dominating 4-1 win over Michigan Tech in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Invitational in front of a two-game total of 14,684 fans at Joe Louis Arena.

The Wolverines now advance to face Michigan State in the GLI's championship game at 7:35 p.m. Saturday.

"To get a lead was really important for our team," Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. "The game could've gone either way, but in the second period, the puck went in for us."

Unlike the rest of the game, the first period was a fairly even, competitive and hard-hitting stanza. Neither team could muster much offense until late in the period when Hunwick (pictured) netted his first of the game off a nice play from Kevin Porter.

Porter found himself on his knees when he slipped a pass to a darting Hunwick, who rifled a snipe shot over the glove of Huskies' goaltender Rob Nolan. The shot seemed to surprise Nolan, who reacted after the puck had already passed him.

"You're looking for leadership in a game like that and Matt Hunwick, our captain, came up with a huge game for us," Berenson said. "Both offensively as well as defensively."

It was in the second period that Michigan really broke things open, as Travis Turnbull, Hunwick and Brian Lebler all lit the lamp.

"It's kind of nice to score in a game instead of just practice," Hunwick said. "I might have one or two this year during practice, but it's definitely good to get a couple real ones and contribute to a victory."

Michigan Tech head coach Jamie Russell didn’t like his team's mental effort during the game.

“Mentally, I don't think we were very sharp in our own end at all," he said.

Billy Sauer made 27 saves for Michigan (13-7-0) and had his shutout bid thwarted with 1:16 to play on a power-play goal by Tyler Shelast.

Nolan stopped 26 shots for Michigan Tech (8-9-2). The Huskies move on to battle Harvard in the GLI's third-place game at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Spartans advance, top Harvard, 5-2

By Matt Bishop, Special to MiCHO

DETROIT — With three weeks in between games, No. 14 Michigan State got a much-needed power boost Friday afternoon.

Despite the Spartans power play being ranked eighth in the CCHA and Harvard boasting ECACHL's third best penalty kill, MSU took advantage of its power play opportunities, going 3-of-5 with the man advantage while cruising to a 5-2 win over the Crimson in the opening game of the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena.

"It's funny on the power play," Michigan State head coach Rick Comley said. "Sometimes you go stretches where nothing happens and nothing works and you're not really doing anything differently."

Friday's contest marks just the third time this season that the Spartans anemic power play has scored more than two goals with the man advantage in a game.

The difference?

"We were all over the puck tonight," Spartans center Bryan Lerg said.

The Spartans got on the board first at the 11:41 mark of contest when Lerg (pictured) picked up his own rebound on the doorstep and flipped it past Harvard goaltender Justin Tobe (Northville).

Then, six minutes later, the Spartans capitalized on another Harvard penalty when Tyler Howells pounced on yet another rebound to give Michigan State a 2-0 edge.

"It didn't seem like Michigan State worked very hard for their first two goals," Harvard head coach Ted Donato said. "But we really battled back and in the second period we got rewarded for all the hard work we were doing."

The Crimson's hard work paid off even before the second period began, as they were able to get one past Spartans' goaltender Jeff Lerg just 1:01 after MSU's second goal.

Harvard outshot Michigan State, 14-8, in the first period.

Harvard was able to tie the game with a power-play tally of its own 8:19 into the second period when Ryan Maki (Shelby Township) knocked a rebound past Lerg from in front of the goal.

But from there, things slowly started going south for the Crimson.

Not long after the goal, Harvard defenseman David MacDonald caught Michigan State captain Chris Lawrence on the boards from behind and was assessed a five-minute major for hitting from behind and a game misconduct. Lawrence was slow to get up and upon removing his helmet, had blood coming from his forehead.

Michigan State was able to grind away at the Crimson before Chris Mueller made a great play and banked the puck in off Tobe from the side of the goal to give the Spartans a 3-2 lead.

"We took an unfortunate five-minute penalty, did a good job of killing it and, I'm not sure who exactly the goal-scorer was, but it was a heck of a pickup off his backhand and it was a very skilled play," added Donato.

Despite the stunning difference on the shot chart (Harvard outshot MSU 47-25 for the game), the third period was all Spartans, as the Crimson were never able to get close after MSU made it 4-2 early in the period on a goal by Daniel Sturges. Bryan Lerg added an empty-netter for good measure for the final margin.

Lerg made a career-high 45 saves for the Spartans (10-7-1), while Tobe, a former Spartan, made 20 saves for Harvard (4-10-0).

Michigan State now advances to the GLI's championship game Saturday night at 7:35, while Harvard will look for a third-place finish at 4 p.m. against the Michigan-Michigan Tech loser.

Great Lakes Invitational Preview

The 42nd annual Great Lakes Invitational gets underway this weekend at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Mainstays Michigan, Michigan State and Michigan Tech welcome Harvard as the invite school in this edition of the GLI. Last year's invite, Colorado College, won the tournament championship, while Michigan State took the crown in 2004 and Boston College in 2003.

Below are capsule profiles of the four schools that hit the ice Friday. Harvard and Michigan State hook-up at 4:35 p.m. and Michigan and Michigan Tech tangle at 8:05 p.m. The consolation and championship games go Saturday.

HARVARD CRIMSON (ECACHL)
4-9-0 overall, 3-7-0 ECACHL
Top scorers: Freshman forward Doug Rogers (3-7-10), senior center Kevin Du (2-8-10) and freshman defenseman Alex Biega (4-5-9) are the top three point getters for Harvard, while senior forward Ryan Maki leads the team with five goals.
Goaltending: Senior Justin Tobe (3-5-0, 2.57 GAA, .893 SV %) and freshman Kyle Richter (1-4-0, 3.38 GAA, .891 SV %) shoulder the load in the Crimson net. Richter also has Harvard's lone shutout this season, a 4-0 blanking of Boston College back on Nov. 7.
Quick fact: Harvard is 2-4-0 in their last six games, but has only been outscored by a 19-14 margin in that span.
Captain: Senior defenseman Dylan Reese
Michigan connections: Maki (Shelby Township), Tobe (Northville) and sophomore forward Jimmy Fraser (Port Huron) are all Michigan natives. Fraser won't play this weekend as he's in Sweden with the United States National Junior Team. Tobe is a former Michigan State Spartan and spent the first semester of the 2002-2003 season in East Lansing as a 17-year-old. Assistant coach Bobby Jay played for the now-defunct Detroit Vipers of the old IHL in the 1990s.

#11 MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (CCHA)
12-7-0 overall, 8-5-0 CCHA
Top scorers: Senior forward T.J. Hensick is third in the nation with 33 points (7-26) and four forwards - juniors Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik, sophomore Andrew Cogliano (with Team Canada at World Juniors) and senior David Rohlfs - all have more than 10 goals. Sophomore defender Jack Johnson leads all U-M blueliners with 13 points, but will be MIA as he's in Sweden with Team USA as well.
Goaltending: Billy Sauer has 11 of the Wolverines' 12 wins, but has been shaky lately. The sophomore also has a sub par 3.54 GAA and .884 SV %. Frosh backup Steve Jakiel has seen action in just 95 minutes thus far.
Quick fact: Michigan hasn't won the GLI since 1996 when they upended Lake Superior State in the finals, and finished off a string of nine straight GLI tournament wins.
Captain: Senior defenseman Matt Hunwick
Michigan connections: Hensick (Howell), Porter (Northville), Rohlfs (Northville), Johnson (Ann Arbor), Hunwick (Roseville), freshman forwards Anthony Ciraulo (Clinton Township) and Eric Elmblad (St. Ignace), freshman defensemen Steven Kampfer (Jackson) and Chris Summers (Milan), sophomore forwards Danny Fardig (Ann Arbor), Brandon Naurato (Livonia), Chris Fragner (Ann Arbor) and Tim Miller (Davisburg), sophomore defensemen Mark Mitera (Livonia) and Jon Montville (Novi) and senior defenseman Jason Dest (Fraser) all call Michigan home.

#14 MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS (CCHA)
9-7-1 overall, 7-5-1 CCHA
Top scorers: Second-year forward Tim Kennedy is the lone Spartan in double-digit goals (11) and also leads the team with 19 points. Junior forwards Bryan Lerg (9-5-14) and Chris Mueller (7-6-13) are also relied upon for scoring punch.
Goaltending: Pint-size sophomore Jeff Lerg has played all but 50 minutes this year and is 9-7-1 with a 2.78 GAA and a .895 SV %. He took over the No. 1 role midway through last season and was one of the reasons Dominic Vicari left MSU to sign a minor-league contract with the ECHL's Toledo Storm.
Quick fact: A dozen skaters remain from MSU's 2004 GLI title.
Captain: Senior forward Chris Lawrence
Michigan connections: The Lerg cousins (Livonia), freshman defensemen Justin Johnston (Grosse Pointe Woods) and Ryan Turek (Northville), sophomore forwards Kurt Kivisto (Milford), Matt Schepke (Warren), Matt Shouneyia (Bloomfield Hills) and Justin Abdelkader (Muskegon, away at World Juniors), sophomore defenseman Brandon Gentile (Clarkston) and sophomore goalie Steve Mnich (Northville) and junior forward Zak McClellan (Frankenmuth) are the home-state Spartans. Schepke also played with MTU in 2004.

MICHIGAN TECH HUSKIES (WCHA)
8-8-2 overall, 5-7-2 WCHA
Top scorers: Scoring has been balanced as every player, except for the two goalies and sophomore forward Mike Van Wagner, has recorded at least a point. Junior right wing Jimmy Kerr leads the way with a 5-7-12 line and senior center Tyler Skworchinski (5-5-10) and sophomore wing Alex Gagne (3-7-10) are also in double digits.
Goaltending: The sophomore rotation of Rob Nolan (5-4-1, 2.13 GAA and .912 SV%) and Michael-Lee Teslak (3-4-1, 2.16 GAA and .899 SV%) has been consistent for the Huskies this season.
Quick fact: The Huskies have an even longer drought than U-M; Michigan Tech last won the GLI in 1980. They were runners-up in 2000 after losing to MSU.
Co-captains: Senior forward Mike Batovanja and senior defenseman Lars Helminen
Michigan connections: Just a handful - Helminen (Brighton), Van Wagner (Traverse City), sophomore wing Derek Kitti (Laurium) and junior center Peter Rouleau (Hancock). Gargantuan (6-6, 230) freshman forward Phil Axtell played midget hockey with the Marquette Electricians from 2002-2004.