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Sports | Ice Hockey

ICE HOCKEY

Jeff Lerg named Player of the Month

Zack Colman
April 17, 2007

Sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg was named CSTV: College Sports Television/Hockey Commissioners' Association National Division I Player of the Month on Monday for March and April for his performance in the postseason. Lerg posted a .919 save percentage and a 2.24 goals-against average in those two months.

ICE HOCKEY

Bright future in store for MSU

Zack Colman
April 13, 2007

The MSU hockey team has barely had time to appreciate this year's national championship, but it's already looking ahead. With five seniors graduating, including captain Chris Lawrence, the Spartans will lose valuable leadership and character players.

ICE HOCKEY

NHL playoffs fun for all

State News sports reporter and hockey fanatic Matt Bishop talks about the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs, which kicked off Wednesday with four games. Question: So, opening thoughts on this year's playoffs? Answer: I am like a kid in a candy store right now.

ICE HOCKEY

Coach's title dreams fulfilled

Zack Colman
April 10, 2007

MSU head coach Rick Comley walks around the concourse on occasion at an empty Munn Ice Arena, desiring to be a part of the rich history that former coaches Amo Bessone and Ron Mason built. His attention focuses on the concourse walls.

ICE HOCKEY

Icers receive praise from distant source

Eric Fish
April 10, 2007

Following the Spartans' 3-1 national championship-clinching win Saturday night over Boston College, junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic's voice mail in-box was completely full. The most important message was from his brother Nick who was watching the game on DirecTV from his home in Australia with friends. "He moved over there, I think two years ago, and I haven't seen my brother for the two years," Vukovic said Monday.

ICE HOCKEY

MSU receives fan support from families, league commissioner

Eric Fish
April 9, 2007

St. Louis — Ralph and Joanne Gentile weren't able to travel to the Czech Republic when their son Brandon, now a sophomore defenseman on the MSU hockey team, was playing in the biggest event of his pre-college career. As a member of the United States National Team Development Program out of Ann Arbor, Gentile and Team USA won a gold medal at the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation's World Under-18 Championships in the Czech Republic. Mom and Dad were unable to attend. "I had been overseas, and they unfortunately couldn't make it," Brandon Gentile said. But that just made his parents' trip to St.

ICE HOCKEY

Believe it!

Zack Colman
April 9, 2007

St. Louis — The crowd at Scottrade Center knew something magical was about to happen. As the 1-1 game against Boston College for the national championship Saturday crept closer to a possible overtime, Spartans fans in the Frozen Four record-setting crowd of 19,432 kept cheering.

ICE HOCKEY

Comley answers critics, leads MSU to NCAA title

Eric Fish
April 9, 2007

St. Louis — MSU head coach Rick Comley has been picked apart by the media, fans and the public ever since he was named Ron Mason's successor in 2002. He has dealt with two seasons in which the team failed to meet lofty preseason expectations, ultimately falling short of an NCAA Tournament bid. But with Saturday's 3-1 victory over Boston College to give MSU its third national championship in program history, Comley has met those lofty expectations, silencing the critics in the process. "I want to publicly thank Ron Mason," Comley said of MSU's athletic director.

ICE HOCKEY

21 years in the making

Eric Fish
April 9, 2007

St. Louis — Justin Abdelkader wasn't even born when Mike Donnelly scored the game-winning goal in the 1986 NCAA championship game to earn the crown for the Spartans, but the sophomore forward will take his place in the hockey history books alongside him. Abdelkader, like Donnelly, scored the game-winning goal to give MSU the national title.

ICE HOCKEY

Goaltender key component to Spartans' national championship run

Zack Colman
April 9, 2007

St. Louis — Jeff Lerg gave the Spartans a chance to win the game. Early in the third period, he denied forward Brian Boyle on a two-on-one rush with a glove save that could have given Boston College a 2-0 lead. That save was ranked the fourth best play of the night on SportsCenter and was arguably the turning point in the game. "Coach Newton said on the bench after he made that save, he's like, 'We're going to score two goals and win it.

ICE HOCKEY

The comeback kids

Eric Fish
April 6, 2007

St. Louis — Resilient. It's the word MSU head coach Rick Comley has used again and again this season to describe his team. The Spartans continued to define the term Thursday in the Frozen Four national semifinal game when they found themselves down 2-0 to Maine less than four minutes into the game.