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Sports | Ice Hockey

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

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

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

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.

ICE HOCKEY

Frozen Four flashback

Eric Fish
April 5, 2007

Prior to this season, the Spartans last saw themselves in the Frozen Four in 2001. Anchored by the goaltending of All-American goaltender Ryan Miller, the Spartans earned a No.

ICE HOCKEY

Front and Center

Eric Fish
April 3, 2007

The State News recently caught up with sophomore defenseman Brandon Gentile. Gentile and the Spartans leave today for the Frozen Four in St.

ICE HOCKEY

Frozen four flashback

Ethan Conley  and  Eric Fish
April 3, 2007

Not much was expected of the MSU hockey team entering the 1991-92 season. Preseason predictions had the Spartans penciled in for a fifth-place finish in the CCHA. The Spartans made those predictions look like a joke in the postseason. MSU was a five seed in the West Regional and proceeded to defeat Boston, 4-2, on the strength of three unanswered third-period goals.

ICE HOCKEY

Comley named coach of year finalist

Eric Fish
April 2, 2007

MSU hockey head coach Rick Comley has been named one of 11 finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award, which is awarded to college hockey's top coach of the season by the American Hockey Coaches Association. Comley previously won the award in 1980 and in 1991, a year when Comley won his lone national championship.

ICE HOCKEY

Underdog achievement

Eric Fish  and  Zack Colman
April 2, 2007

It was supposed to be last year's MSU hockey team that had all the glory, not this year's squad. After losing a large portion of the team's offense, as well as several steady, reliable defensemen, hardly anybody would have expected the 2006-07 Spartans to surpass last year's team. But it happened. Last season After starting out the 2005-06 season around the .500 mark and battling through several key injuries, the Spartans were looking for some kind of turnaround. MSU got its spark when then-freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg took over in net and led the Spartans on a 17-4-3 second-half surge. "Last year was a really good team, I think from Christmas on," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. Behind Lerg's goaltending and a stingy defense, the Spartans captured the 2006 CCHA Tournament Championship and earned a No.

ICE HOCKEY

Captain is MSU's top motivator

Zack Colman
March 30, 2007

Four years ago, senior captain Chris Lawrence had everything planned out. After his successful stint in juniors with the Pittsburgh Forge of the North American Hockey League, he was going to star at small Division I Mercyhurst College on scholarship in his home state of Pennsylvania, which made his parents happy that he'd be close to home. But then MSU changed everything when the university told Lawrence it wanted him to play hockey as a member of the Spartans. "I never even took a visit when I came here," Lawrence said.

ICE HOCKEY

Vukovic questionable to play in Frozen Four

Zack Colman
March 28, 2007

Although the Spartans won Saturday against Notre Dame in the NCAA Midwest Regional, they lost one of their top defenders. Junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic injured his knee early in the second period when he got tangled up behind the MSU net.

ICE HOCKEY

MSU, Lerg shine in wins

Zack Colman
March 26, 2007

Grand Rapids — Sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg was supposed to let Hobey Baker goaltending candidates Notre Dame's David Brown and Boston's John Curry control the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional at Van Andel Arena. Instead, it was Lerg who looked like he was vying for college hockey's top honor, as he stopped 46-of-48 shots in two games.