Someone had to stop Michigan eventually. It
wasn't Notre Dame, whom the Wolverines disposed of on consecutive
nights two weeks ago, and the Armageddon matchup at Miami
Feb. 8-9 was yet to be played. One's best guess would have
to be that the perpetrators would be clad in a frustratingly
familiar shade of green and white.
CCHA
Notebook
Senior captain Bryan Lerg scored the lone goal in
Michigan State's 1-0 win at Michigan last Friday and
added an assist in Saturday's 2-2 draw against the
Wolverines.
Entering the weekend with the best start in
school history and a 10-game win streak, the Wolverines
met their match at Yost Ice Arena Friday in the form of
Michigan State, who have quietly kept pace with more heralded
Miami and Michigan in the CCHA title race. Since closing
out 2007 with an ugly performance at the Great Lakes Invitational,
the Spartans went 5-0-3 in January, ending the month with
a 1-0 win in Ann Arbor Friday and a 2-2 tie in East Lansing
the following night.
All year long, opponents have known that in
order to have a chance of taming Michigan, they must shut
down, or at least manage, senior linemates Kevin Porter
and Chad Kolarik. The Spartans were the first team to have
a great deal of success in doing so. In the two games against
the defending national champions, Porter and Kolarik managed
just a single assist — by Kolarik on the first goal
of Saturday's tie — between the two of them.
“I think any team looking at us would
have to say that we can stop any top line in the nation,”
Michigan State defenseman Daniel Vukovic said after Saturday's
game. “You're stopping two Hobey Baker candidates
with Kolarik and Porter. They might have had a point here
or there, but it wasn't like they dominated the game and
had tons of scoring chances.”
The Spartans have shown a knack for flicking
the switch at the right time of the year, most notably their
NCAA tournament run last year. Over the next three weeks,
the Spartans appear poised to extend their unbeaten streak.
MSU hosts Nebraska-Omaha this weekend, travels to Northern
Michigan next weekend, and plays a home-and-home series
with Western Michigan after that. Still, coach Rick Comley
knows his team must continue to improve.
“We need to keep getting better,”
Comley said after the tie. “We aren't yet where we
need to be. Right now, we are trying to inch out every point.”
As for their chances in the race for the CCHA
regular-season title? Don't count the Spartans out just
yet.
“I don't see us out of the race at all,”
senior forward Bryan Lerg said Saturday. “We play
a lot of other great teams coming up — Nebraska comes
in here next weekend. I think we just need to keep going,
and keep plugging away one game at a time.”
SEEN AND HEARD IN THE CCHA
Late Goal Gets Irish a Point:
One of the most pleasant surprises in the CCHA this season
has been the play of Bowling Green, who sit in sixth place
just one point behind fifth-place Nebraska-Omaha entering
the final month of regular-season play.
After being crushed by Notre Dame on consecutive
nights last weekend, however, the Falcons must rebound quickly
if they hope to host a first-round playoff series. The schedule
leaves much of Bowling Green's fate in its own hands, as
the Falcons skate against the teams on either side of them
in the league standings (UNO and Ferris State) and two teams
chasing them from afar (Alaska and Ohio State) before finishing
with Michigan State.
The Falcons fell behind early in both games
against the Irish. Friday, Bowling Green gave up the first
five goals before scoring their only marker in a 6-1 loss.
And Saturday, BGSU trailed by two after two periods at home,
yet managed to cut the Notre Dame lead to one only to allow
a pair of backbreaking goals en route to a 4-1 defeat.
“We had a lot in our favor,” Bowling
Green coach Scott Paluch said of Saturday's game. “But
the emotion of the game got the better of us. We didn't
handle it well. We got undisciplined at a real key part
of the game.”
Great Weekend Getaway
Western Michigan at Alaska (Fri.-Sat.) Only a few brave souls will have the time
or a warm enough coat to make this trip, but the series
should provide for some interesting viewing. These
teams are jockeying for position in the tight race
for home-ice advantage in the first round of the league
playoffs, and both play a strong, physical style,
which can make for exciting hockey. The Broncos snapped
a nine-game winless streak with a win and tie against
Ferris State last weekend. The Nanooks, who were pummeled
by Miami last weekend, come into this series with
a five-game winless streak.
While you're there: The high temperature
in Fairbanks this weekend will be minus-9. Not surprisingly,
a favorite spot for teams visiting the northernmost
outpost in college hockey is the indoor University
of Alaska Museum of the North. The museum gives visitors
insight into local culture and history, and a perspective
on the issues the region will face in the near and
distant future. It's an extremely worthwhile stop
for those who make it up to Fairbanks any weekend.
Stick
Salute
Western Michigan's
Jeff Pierce scored a pair of goals during the Broncos'
3-3 draw against Ferris State Saturday. Before his
two-goal outbreak, Pierce — who was expected
to be a major contributor on offense this year after
scoring 12 goals last season — had gone 17 consecutive
games without a goal. He started the season with three
goals in WMU's first 8 games.
Bench
Minor
Michigan
gave up three important points, two of them on their
home ice, and in turn gave a hated rival a boost back
into the league race. The loss also propelled Miami
into the top spot in the CCHA standings and the national
polls. The Wolverines may need two wins in Oxford
next weekend if they don't want to see their epic
start go to waste.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM
OF THE BAG
• Although Alaska was overpowered by
Miami this past weekend, the Nanooks continued a season-long
trend in out-shot blocking their opponents, notching 20
to Miami's 15 on Saturday and amassing a 19-8 margin on
Friday. In its 20 CCHA contests, Alaska has out-blocked
opponents in 16 of those games with a total margin of 346-241.
This advantage, however, has had little correlation
with the outcome of games. The Nanooks have a 1-2-1 (.375)
record in games in which they blocked fewer shots than their
opponents, and a 4-10-2 (.313) mark in games where they
have out-blocked the competition.
• Notre Dame's fortunes turned last
weekend against Bowling Green, and the Irish power play
might be responsible. After failing to score a power-play
goal in 40 straight tries spanning nearly nine complete
games, the Irish power play found the back of the net four
times in 11 chances against the Falcons.
• Should Bowling Green manage a split
in its home-and-home series with Ohio State this weekend,
the Falcons will have amassed 10 wins in CCHA play for just
the third time in the last 10 seasons and will have doubled
their league win total from a year ago.
• With Saturday night's overtime win
against Ohio State, Lake Superior State kept itself from
falling into sole occupancy of the league basement —
the Lakers and Wstern Michigan are currently tied for 11th
place.
A great deal of credit must go to sophomore
forward Zac MacVoy. The Michigan transfer notched four points
on the weekend, including the game-winning goal in Saturday's
overtime affair.
• If you're planning on heading to Oxford
for next weekend's series between Miami and Michigan, the
most anticipated CCHA series of the season, you better find
your tickets fast. The game is a sellout, and the secondary
ticket market is booming. As of late Thursday night, the
price for a pair of tickets on eBay ranged from a low of
$90 to a high of $305. Face value for a pair of RedHawks
hockey ducats: $34
A variety of sources were utilized in
the compilation of this report. James V. Dowd can be reached
at james@insidecollegehockey.com.
