Ice hockey head coach Rick Comley coaches his players during the game against Colgate two weeks ago at Munn Ice Arena.
Despite a 4-1-0 record and being ranked No. 6 in the nation, MSU hockey coach Rick Comley rated his team’s performance at this point in the season as a “C” and noted that it seems like the team is “treading water.”
“Right now, I’ll take winning over anything else,” Comley said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to really start to bring this thing forward. I’m not sure it’s gone forward yet.
“We have good people, their attitudes are good, they work hard, but I don’t think we’re playing smart right now.”
The Spartans have been outscored 9-2 in the third period this season and took two periods off in the two games against Northern Michigan last weekend, which nearly allowed the Wildcats a chance to win both games.
“I thought we got outplayed Saturday and Jeff Lerg was outstanding,” Comley said. “I thought Northern worked harder, had better scoring chances and more of them. Jeff was really, really good or else I’m not sure we win that game. I haven’t seen the quality of play that I think we’re capable of that we need to get to.
“We knew there’d be an adjustment period, but to me it’s time to really get some questions answered by some people and start to be better players.”
Senior forward Chris Mueller said that playing the entire 60 minutes is something that needs to be done.
“For us to be that championship-caliber team that we want to be, that’s a big step the team has to take,” Mueller said.
Comley said that his team isn’t even close to Miami (Ohio) and Michigan, who are rated No. 1 and No. 3 in the country respectively.
“I would not want to play them right now,” Comley said. “We’re going to have to get a lot better before we’re going to have a chance to beat them.”
Record breaker?
If Lerg starts Friday against Alaska, it will be his team-record 61st straight start. He tied the record of 60 straight Saturday against Northern Michigan and will go for the outright record Friday. If he does make the start, he will break the record of Joe Selinger that was set in the late 1950s.
“It’s a really nice compliment from the coaching staff and everyone here to put that much confidence in me, to keep playing me on a consistent basis,” Lerg said.
But he almost didn’t tie the mark, as Comley said he was considering giving Lerg a day off Saturday but didn’t because of the record. In return, Lerg made 33 saves.
“I’m concerned about how much he’s played in a row here,” Comley said. “And obviously when you look at that record, not many people have done it and there’s good reasons why.
“I do think we have to find a couple games here to give him a break. It won’t be Friday night because of the chance to establish his own mark.”
Injury update
Comley said the team is looking at the series against Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 15-16 to get senior defenseman Jeff Dunne back into the lineup.
Dunne went down with a sprained knee during the second period of Saturday’s game against Northern Michigan after he was checked from behind by the Wildcats’ Matt Siddall.
Siddall received a five-minute major for checking from behind and a gross misconduct.
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Comley said he expects freshman A.J. Sturges to see his first game action in place of Dunne.
