Team tries to stay focused for Falcons game

With only two games left in the season, the MSU hockey team isn’t taking Bowling Green lightly. After all, the Spartans lost last year to the Falcons on MSU’s senior night, which was the last time the team’s seniors skated at Munn Ice Arena during the regular season.

Make no mistake, this year’s seniors don’t want to repeat those results.

“(During) the second half of the season there’s not really any game that isn’t important,” junior forward Justin Abdelkader said.

“(Bowling Green’s) got some good, young players. They’re a team that’s come a long way. They beat some good teams. They’re playing pretty good hockey. They’ll be a team that’ll come out and work hard. We’ll have to match their intensity and their emotion and come out and work just as hard.”

And as long as the No. 6 Spartans maintain their intensity and focus throughout the two-game weekend series, they’ll be successful, MSU head coach Rick Comley said.

“If we’re good at faceoffs and we’re blocking shots, we’re playing well,” Comley said. “We’re not the fanciest team in the world and we have some areas that are questionable at times. But if we hit and we’re blocking shots, then we’re in the game mentally.

“The encouraging thing is, we’ve shown all year we can play anybody. We’re capable of beating anybody we play, but we must play our game. And we must play well to win.”

Saying goodbye

Friday’s 7:05 p.m. game at Munn Ice Arena serves as the last time seniors Chris Mueller, Zak McClellan, Bryan Lerg, Jeff Dunne and Daniel Vukovic will skate on home ice during the regular season.

And it will probably get emotional, Mueller said.

“I would definitely rather have it be someone else’s senior night than me,” Mueller said. “(It will be) emotional for myself, especially when you have to leave your family. I definitely found myself counting down the games I had left all year.

“I don’t want go,” he said. “I don’t want leave my friends and go on to being an adult. I like it here.”

The pomp and circumstance that comes with celebrating the seniors could take away from their play, which is something the team tries to play through, Comley said.

“That’s such an individual thing for kids,” Comley said. “There (are) distractions in preparation; there (are) distractions in pregame intros and stuff. But I think it’s a weak excuse if that’s the reason why you lost. I think what’s at stake for the team is more important than whose being recognized as being seniors.

“These kids put in four years of their lives and I think it’s really nice to have that singled out at that time. I think it’s good, you just have to play through it.”

Big decisions

It’s possible Abdelkader could be cutting his collegiate career short to pursue professional hockey. He was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 2005 in the second round and could be playing alongside NHL veterans Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek and Chris Chelios.

“It’s big,” Abdelkader said. “I’ll have to talk to coach … and my family will play a big part.

“I’ll have to sit down and talk to them and see what they have to say about it. (I’ll) evaluate the season, and see where it takes me.”

Other drafted Spartans include juniors Tim Kennedy, Tim Crowder and Nick Sucharski; sophomores Michael Ratchuk, Ryan Turek and freshmen Corey Tropp and Jeff Petry.

Published on Tuesday, February 26, 2008