MSU head coach Rick Comley worries about his team’s offensive production.
The Spartans (4-2-2 overall, 2-0-2-2 CCHA) are averaging 1.9 goals a game and only have been able to score 15 goals in their first eight games.
Comley seeking more offensive output
The MSU hockey team is unbeaten in their past five games, but MSU head coach Rick Comley is concerned about the team’s inability to score.
Comley is impressed with the young players thus far — as he continues to rotate his lineup to try and find the perfect combination.
To add to the scoring woes, the Spartans will be on the road for seven of their next nine games.
With seven of his team’s next nine games on the road, Comley is well aware that the Spartans are going to have to find a way to put the puck in the net.
“You aren’t going to win very many games for a long time if you can’t score more than (15 times),” Comley said.
The bright side of the scoring debacle is the Spartans’ young defense, which has only allowed opponents to average 1.5 goals a game, making it the sixth best defense in the country.
The Spartans’ defensive success has been on the shoulders of the underclassmen, as three of the six starting defensemen in the past five games have been freshmen.
Freshman defenseman Brock Shelgren thinks this experience is going to help the team as it gets ready for the upcoming road stretch.
“It prepares us to know we have to be on our best at all times,” Shelgren said. “But hopefully we will start scoring some more goals.”
Keeping it out
Despite the sparse offensive production, the Spartans have been able to go unbeaten in their first four CCHA games because of solid goaltending.
The Spartans have been outshot in five of the team’s eight games and Comley admits his duo of goaltenders has the ability to steal games.
“Our goaltending holds it together for us,” Comley said. “I don’t think anyone should disguise that fact. We have the best goaltending in the country.”
Senior goaltender Jeff Lerg became MSU’s all-time saves leader Friday night against Western Michigan and freshman netminder Drew Palmisano recorded his second collegiate win Saturday night.
Comley plans to use Palmisano roughly eight games this season to help prepare him for next year, when he will be the starter for the Spartans.
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“Our future is really, really bright (with Palmisano),” Comley said. “I think he’s capable of playing every day now — but he’s got the best goaltender in the country ahead of him.”
That’s the line
The forward line of sophomores Andrew Rowe and Dustin Gazley and freshman Daultan Leveille has been the most productive line for the Spartans since they started playing together three games ago.
Leveille has recorded three goals in that span — two of them being game-winners.
“(Gazley’s) a tremendous player and I love playing with him,” Leveille said.
“We have similar styles of games that really compliment each other. And having Rowe on the other wing … I love playing with him as well. I think we have a good connection.”
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Rowe missed Saturday’s game at Western Michigan after taking a knee-to-knee hit on Friday night.
Comley expects Rowe to return to the team this weekend when the Spartans travel to Ohio State for a two-game road series.
“I think (this line) has a chance to just be dynamite,” Comley said.
