Leftovers from Comley's presser

Here are the extra notes from the weekly press conference that we didn’t have room for in the paper.

More disciplined

MSU head coach Rick Comley isn’t pleased with the number of penalties his team has been called for this season.

The Spartans are averaging 16.3 penalty minutes per game, with opponents going 8-for-44 on the power play against the Spartans.

In Friday’s 2-1 loss to No. 1 Miami (Ohio), the Spartans went to the box twice for “facewashing” penalties, which Comley wasn’t happy about.

“We continue to take too many penalties and bad penalties at bad times,” Comley said. “They aren’t dumb penalties, just avoidable penalties.”

The facewashing penalty is new to the CCHA this season and prohibits players from putting their hands on opposing player’s facemasks.

“When you are in front of the net and around the goalie, you expect contact and people to come into you hard,” Comley said. “Now you have to be careful not to put your hand up in their face.”

Pretty play

Junior forward Andrew Rowe’s overtime game-winner on Saturday was a thing of beauty.

Rowe faked two Miami defenders out of their socks before netting the game-winner to give the Spartans the upset.

“It was a great goal,” Comley said. “It was one of those really pretty goals. He beat two people really bad. One ended up laying on his back, the other one just went fishing and the goalie played it half-pass, half-shot. One thing Rowe can really do is shoot the puck. Hopefully that will spur him on.”

Get to the point

The Spartans are 11-for-46 (26.8 percent) on the power play this season, good for eighth in the nation.

Junior forward Corey Tropp said a lot of the success of the power play has been a result of the work done by freshman defenseman Torey Krug and junior defenseman Jeff Petry.

“We’ve been letting Krug and Petry use their vision and shots to create offensive opportunities,” Tropp said. “Both of them are really creative and unbelievable passers. Both see the ice really well and can shoot the puck.”

Really, 91?

If you hadn’t noticed, freshman forward Zach Golembiewski wears an odd number.

Golembiewski wears 91, which is 47 digits away from freshman defenseman Torey Krug’s number, 44, and is by far the largest number worn by anyone on this year’s team.

“All the numbers I wanted were taken,” Golembiewski said. “We were sitting at the breakfast table during my official visit with coach Comley and he threw out wearing number 91. I said, ‘Yeah, sure why not.’ I don’t know at first if it was a shock to him but he said, ‘Alright, that’s fine.’”

Normally Comley prefers his players to choose low numbers, but Golembiewski said he thinks Comley’s willingness to change was a sign of the times of the MSU hockey program.

“We are a new, young group,” Golembiewski said. “I think (Comley) wanted to change it up a little bit from last year.”