Few penalties may lead to great hockey
Maybe nice guys do finish first.The top-ranked Spartans, the least-penalized team in the CCHA, have a five-point lead in the league and their tendency toward good behavior might have something to do with it.The Spartans have tallied nine goals in their last three games - all officiated by CCHA referee Duke Shegos - while only being whistled for six penalties.The refs have been letting a lot of stuff go, but I think weve been playing pretty disciplined as a team, junior defenseman Andrew Hutchinson said.Weve had low penalties the whole year and weve just been fortunate that we havent taken any these past few games.MSU averages 15.35 penalty minutes per league game, almost a full minute less than second-place Northern Michigan.The Spartans actually started their current three-game stretch of sainthood - Feb.