Detroit - MSU’s oldest player, junior left wing Brian Maloney, was not quite 14 months old the last time the Spartans beat North Dakota.Things didn’t change in the 37th annual Great Lakes Invitational championship game Saturday night.The underdog Sioux (9-9-1) raced to a three-goal first-period lead and then held on to beat No.
Detroit - The drive for five is on track.Fourth-ranked MSU, fresh off a 20-day break, looked rusty early on but stormed back to beat Michigan Tech, 4-1, Friday in the second semifinal of the 37th annual Great Lakes Invitational.The Spartans (13-3-2 overall, 10-3-1 CCHA) rode 22 saves by junior goaltender Ryan Miller to victory over the Huskies in front of 18,071 at Joe Louis Arena.The MSU win means the Spartans will play North Dakota in the championship game at about 7:30 p.m.
Coming off last weekend’s road series on an Olympic-size ice rink in Alaska, the Spartans will turn around and do it all over again tonight and Saturday at Northern Michigan. But stakes are a little higher this weekend, considering the Wildcats (8-3-1 overall, 6-3-1 CCHA) are ranked eighth in the nation and are a prominent contender for the CCHA crown. No.
MSU freshman center Jim Slater, a Lapeer native, will play for the United States at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic later this month. Consequently, MSU’s scoring leader will miss the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec.
Joining the likes of athletic heroes Muhammad Ali, Willie Mays and Steve Young, MSU hockey player Steve Swistak will be one of 11,500 Olympic torchbearers carrying the flame across the country en route to February’s Winter Games in Salt Lake City.Swistak, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, will run with the torch for one-fifth of a mile near his hometown of West Bloomfield on Jan.
MSU’s surprising loss to Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday dropped the Spartans to No. 5 in this week’s USCHO.com poll and No.
No. 3 MSU woke up Saturday morning to frigid temperatures and a harsh reality in Fairbanks, Alaska. After a 2-1 loss to heavy underdog Alaska-Fairbanks the night before, head coach Ron Mason’s Spartans fell to 0-3 on the road this season and were grappling for answers. “I think we came out a little tired from traveling,” junior right wing Kris Koski said from Alaska on Sunday.
Fewer than two months into the season, Alaska-Fairbanks has already appeared on and disappeared from the national radar. The perennial doormat Nanooks, under head coach Guy Gadowsky, won six of their first seven games and began garnering attention from pollsters across the country. That was until Fairbanks (6-6-0 overall, 2-6-0 CCHA) dropped five straight contests - a streak it’s trying to break at home against No.
In addition to sitting atop the CCHA standings, MSU also leads many of the league’s team statistical categories.Through 13 games, the Spartans have scored more goals (3.62 per game) while giving up fewer (1.69) and have also killed off a greater percentage of opponents’ power plays (.894) than any other team.MSU head coach Ron Mason particularly enjoys that third statistic.“Our penalty kill’s been phenomenal,” MSU head coach Ron Mason said of the unit that is ranked eighth nationally.
Aided by a Denver loss to New Hampshire during the weekend, the MSU hockey team moved up a spot to No.
The nation’s top-ranked hockey team visited East Lansing on Sunday afternoon and didn’t win. But neither did the Spartans. Instead, 6,871 fans at Munn Ice Arena were treated to a back-and-forth 4-4 tie between No.
Like a good lawyer, head coaches can often view a replay and see something totally different than their opponent sees. Such was the case after No.
Thanksgiving weekend means one thing to most sports fans - football and lots of it. But for college hockey fans, the holiday signifies the return of the College Hockey Showcase, when CCHA powers MSU and Michigan duke it out with Western Collegiate Hockey Association forces Minnesota and Wisconsin. This year, it’s the WCHA teams’ turn to come to Michigan as No.
Granted, it’s still early in the season, but Ryan Miller said the H-word hasn’t come up too much so far. Last season, the goaltender stormed through the regular season and set numerous team, conference and national records en route to winning the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s outstanding player. Now a junior, Miller is subject to the question that nags every underclassman who wins a major award... Can he do it again? “Some people were asking me before the season, before they saw what kind of team I have to play with,” Miller said last week.
Apparently new players and a fresh season don’t make much difference - at least not for MSU and Miami (Ohio).The fourth-ranked Spartans blanked Miami 3-0 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday, extending their defensive dominance over the RedHawks (6-5-1 overall, 4-3-1 CCHA) to four straight games.MSU also shut out Miami twice last January - 1-0 and 5-0 - and the RedHawks haven’t scored against the Spartans in 292:07 minutes of hockey, dating to the first period of a 5-1 MSU win on March 11, 2000.All five games in the streak have been played at Munn Ice Arena.“I’m always surprised we get a shutout,” MSU head coach Ron Mason said.
Ryan Miller seems to have turned the usually potent Miami (Ohio) RedHawks into his personal statistic-padding team. The junior goaltender recorded another shutout over the RedHawks - his fourth straight whitewash of Miami - in Saturday night’s 2-0 MSU win at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans (8-2-1 overall, 7-2-1 CCHA) have now held Miami (6-5-1, 4-3-1) scoreless for 292:07 minutes of hockey, dating to March 11, 2000. Miami came into the series averaging 3.90 goals per game, but Miller made 28 saves Saturday for his 23rd career shutout.
Ryan Miller seems to have turned the usually potent Miami (Ohio) RedHawks into his personal statistic-padding team.The junior goaltender recorded another shutout over the RedHawks - his fourth straight whitewash of Miami - in Saturday night’s 2-0 MSU win at Munn Ice Arena.The Spartans (8-2-1 overall, 7-2-1 CCHA) have now held Miami (6-5-1, 4-3-1) scoreless for 292:07 minutes of hockey, dating to March 11, 2000.Miami came into the series averaging 3.90 goals per game, but Miller made 28 saves Saturday for his 23rd career shutout.
Ryan Miller and the fourth-ranked Spartans continued their defensive mastery over Miami (Ohio) in a 3-0 win Friday night at Munn Ice Arena. Junior goaltender Miller stopped 23 shots for his 22nd career shutout, and MSU (7-2-1 overall, 6-2-1 CCHA) has now held Miami (6-4-1, 4-2-1) scoreless for more than 11 straight periods.
Miami (Ohio) rolls into East Lansing tonight with a high-octane offense and one of the CCHA’s premier players in forward Jason Deskins. But the RedHawks (6-3-1 overall, 4-1-1 CCHA), who finished second to MSU in the CCHA last year, were the pupils of a Spartan defensive clinic in the teams’ last meeting.
Within MSU’s new offensive scheme, the Spartan forwards are darting all over the ice and generating plenty of goals for head coach Ron Mason.But fourth-ranked MSU’s offensive glory doesn’t start and end with centers and wings.