MSU beats, ties Lake Superior State

By Matt Mackinder/Michigan State Beat Writer

Michigan State ended their modest two-game losing streak Friday night in big-time fashion on home ice with a convincing 8-2 win over Lake Superior State.

The Spartans, however, couldn't get the sweep and instead settled for a 3-3 tie Saturday night.

"Well, it is certainly much better than last weekend, but those are not very big steps, though," said MSU head coach Rick Comley. "There are just some things we have issues with. We give up so many shots. It just blows my mind how many quality shots that shouldn't even get to the net. We know that we have a young defense, and that we have a ways to go, but I thought they struggled bad (Saturday) night, especially defending."

Bryan Lerg, Chris Mueller and Michael Ratchuk scored for the Spartans and Nathan Perkovich, Steven Kaunisto and Rick Schofield replied for LSSU in the tie Saturday night.

Jeff Lerg stopped 34 shots for Michigan State and Brian Mahoney-Wilson turned aside 36 at the other end. Jeff Petry added two assists for the Spartans.

"Obviously, it was a lot better," LSSU head coach Jim Roque said. "Brian played outstanding in net. You've got to give Michigan State some credit for last night. I thought they were real good. I knew our guys would bounce back today. It was just a great effort all around. I'm really happy with how we came back."

Friday night, 13 Spartan players had points and seven recorded multiple-point efforts as Matt Schepke had a goal and three assists and Tim Crowder and Ratchuk each had two goals and an assist.

"Obviously, when you get beaten 8-2 you don't play very well," Roque said. "We've been having a hard time killing penalties and we did again tonight. There were a couple of times in the first period we couldn't get it out of the zone and they took advantage of it. I thought we looked like we hadn't played in a month. I thought we did a lot of work in the last eight days to get ready, but there is nothing like playing games. We have to move on."

Lerg, Justin Abdelkader and Corey Tropp scored the other goals for Michigan State.

Zac MacVoy and Justin Gutwald scored for the Lakers. MacVoy's goal was the first shorthanded goal for LSSU this year.

LSSU starting goaltender Pat Inglis allowed six goals and totaled 19 saves through two periods. Mahoney-Wilson allowed two goals and stopped eight shots during the third period. Lerg gave up two goals and compiled 29 saves through 52:39. Bobby Jarosz had three saves during the final 7:21.

Michigan State (13-5-3, 9-2-1 CCHA) returns to conference action on Friday when it opens a home-and-home series with Notre Dame. The teams face off at 7:05 p.m. in a game televised by FSN Detroit.

The Lakers (2-12-4, 0-9-3 CCHA) return home to play host to Bowling Green at 7:05 p.m. Friday and 5:05 p.m. Saturday at Taffy Abel Arena.

Ferris knocks out U.S. Under-18s

Ferris State's 2007-08 captains - (L-R): Cody Chupp,
Adam Welch, Alex Spezia and Matt Frank are pictured with the
2007 Toyota UConn Hockey Classic championship trophy.

Fresh off their UConn Hockey Classic Championship, Ferris State (9-8-1, 6-6-0 CCHA) returned to Big Rapids on Friday and posted a 3-0 victory over the U.S. Under-18 Team.

Blair Riley, Brendan Connolly and Chris Zarb scored for the Bulldogs in the exhibition win.

All three Bulldog goaltenders saw action and shared in the shutout.

Pat Nagle started and stopped 11 shots. Mitch O'Keefe played the middle 20 minutes and turned aside 10 shots. Derek MacIntyre closed out the third period and stopped all eight shots he faced.

FSU will return to the Ewigleben Arena next weekend when they host the Alaska Nanooks for a pair of conference games.

CCHA on TV 1.4.08

Attention college hockey nuts! Set your VCR, program the DVR, or if you’re really old school, dig up a tape a throw it in the Betamax. Beginning Saturday evening three exciting CCHA conference games will hit the airwaves.

First up on FSN Detroit at 5:00 p.m., the Lake Superior State Lakers will head into East Lansing to take on the defending National Champion Michigan State Spartans.

Comcast Local will then air Notre Dame at Northern Michigan starting at 7:30.

The triple play will conclude on Sunday with Nebraska-Omaha facing off with Western Michigan on ESPNU at 4:00 p.m.

NMU wins consolation in Denver

Compiled by MiCHO Staff

Northern Michigan received two third-period goals to secure a 5-2 win over Sacred Heart in the consolation game of the Wells Fargo Denver Cup Saturday. The five goals is a season high for the ‘Cats.

With the win, the Wildcats bring their record to 8-11-1.

Phil Fox scored twice and Matt Butcher, Erik Spady (first NCAA goal, also pictured right) and Billy Smith (first goal with NMU) added singles. Mark Olver had three assists on the night and goaltender Reid Ellingson picked up his fourth win of the season with 28 saves.

Friday, NMU fell to Dartmouth, 4-1, as Fox tallied the lone goal. Brian Stewart made 27 saves in goal.

Northern Michigan will play its next four games at the Berry Events Center starting with a CCHA series with Notre Dame this weekend.

Broncos take third at Catamount Cup

Compiled by MiCHO Staff

For the first time in program history, Western Michigan needed a shootout to decide the outcome of its game and the Broncos responded with two goals to beat Holy Cross, 2-1, in the consolation game of the TD Banknorth Catamount Cup at Vermont’s Gutterson Fieldhouse Sunday afternoon.

Freshman netminder Jerry Kuhn played a stellar game in net to help lead the Broncos to the victory, making 30 saves in the game, then denying all four Crusaders he faced in the shootout.

Freshman Max Campbell and junior Patrick Galivan were successful in their attempts for the Broncos. Sophomore Cam Watson’s attempt was stopped by Holy Cross goaltender Ian Dams before Galivan scored when he aimed a shot into the top left corner of the net.

Since shootouts are used only for tournament bragging rights in the NCAA, the game will go down as a 1-1 (OT) tie in the record books.

“I thought we played a very solid, complete game," WMU head coach Jim Culhane said. "Our penalty kill was outstanding all weekend long. We didn’t give up a power-play goal last night or tonight against Holy Cross, the top power-play in the country. I’m pleased about the way we played defensively and killed penalties. We generated some offense and both goaltenders that we played last night and tonight for both teams played really well."

Senior Mike Lesperance scored the lone WMU goal in regulation.

In their opening game Saturday, WMU fell 2-1 to Quinnipiac. Senior Nathan Ansell recorded the only Bronco goal, while sophomore goalie Riley Gill kicked out 20 shots.

Western Michigan returns to league play this weekend, hosting Nebraska-Omaha Saturday and Sunday at Lawson Arena. Saturday’s game is slated for a 7:35 p.m. start while Sunday’s game will be televised on ESPNU at 4:05 p.m.

Wolverines capture GLI thriller over Huskies

After an 11-year drought, the Michigan Wolverines finally got back on top of the Great Lakes Invitational with a dramatic 1-0 double overtime victory over the Michigan Tech Huskies.

Junior Travis Turnbull redirected a Scooter Vaughan shot at 2:32 of overtime to give the Maize and Blue the hard fought title in the 43rd edition of the GLI at the Joe Louis Arena on Saturday night.

"I cannot tell you that (I have had a tip like that)," Turnbull said. "I just saw Scooter wind up at the point and I just tried to get my stick free and position myself in front of the net. He made the perfect shot and I tipped it and it went in."

Fellow junior Billy Sauer recorded his second consecutive tournament shutout by stopping 37 MTU shots and was named tournament MVP.

"It may not be the toughest game I have ever played in, but it was probably one of the most important," added Sauer. "When you get into the fifth period of a 0-0 game, every save is that much more crucial. If you make one mistake, your team is going home. To have back-to-back games like that and to not make any mistakes, that was a good feeling."

Rob Nolan was nearly perfect between the pipes for Tech in stopping 45 of 46 shots.

The win was the fifth in a row for the Wolverines (18-2-0, 11-1-0 CCHA), who will now get some well-deserved time off before a home-and-home match up with Western Michigan beginning on Jan. 11 in Ann Arbor.

The Huskies (7-9-2, 5-6-1 WCHA) will begin a four-game road trip at Mercyhurst on Friday night.

-- Providence shocks MSU with upset win

The Michigan State Spartans surrendered four third-period goals in the GLI consolation game and fell by a final of 5-3 to the Providence Friars.

Dustin Gazley, Nick Sucharski and Mike Ratchuk all scored and Jeff Lerg stopped 40 shots in the losing effort for MSU.

"There was absolutely zero emotion there today," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "But let me remind you that last night was a good, hard-fought game. But at times, we played today like it was only a consolation game, a game that didn't mean anything. And that's alarming to me, obviously.

"It's an emotional sport - you have to play with emotion. You watched it. You saw the lack of effort that was put in by many players."

The Green and White (12-5-2, 8-2-0 CCHA) will return to conference action with a pair of games against Lake Superior State at Munn Arena beginning on Friday night.