Michigan State 10 Michigan Tech 1

Michigan State completely dominated Michigan Tech in the semis of the Great Lakes Invitational tournament. They will face the RPI Engineers in the finals tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. The game will be televised on FSN-Detroit. Michigan and Michigan Tech face-off in the consolation of the tourney.

The ten goals by the Spartans was the second-most ever in the GLI tourney. All but two of the Spartans had at least a point. Zach Golembiewski and Matt Crandell scored their first collegiate goals. Brett Perlini scored his first goals of the season and was the only MSU player to have a multi-goal game. Andrew Rowe added a playmaker (0-3-3). Drew Palmisano made 28 saves in the win. There can be nothing but positive things to say about the Spartans after a game like that. Every player stepped it up in the game, but I think Brett Perlini and Trevor Nill deserve some recognition tonight. They are two sophomore role players who made the most of their opportunities in the game tonight. Perlini had an assist along with his two goals and Nill added a goal and two assists. Also, it was great to see Nick Sucharski get a goal since he had been in a drought and his linemate, Tropp scored one to further his national scoring lead.

GLI Starts Today

Michigan State will take on the Michigan Tech Huskies at 4:05 p.m. today at Joe Louis Arena in the first game of the GLI. Michigan plays RPI in the game following game at 7:35 p.m. The consolation game will be played Wednesday at 4:05 p.m. and the championship game follows at 7:35 p.m. The championship game will be the only one televised.

Lerg Will Receive NCAA Award

Former Spartan Jeff Lerg was named a NCAA Top VIII award winner. He is only the second Spartan (Greg Kelser in 1980) and the second hockey player ever to receive this honor. He joins a list of eight outstanding student athletes including Tim Tebow from the University of Florida. Lerg is very much deserving of this award. He represented what a student athlete at Michigan State University should be like. He was one of the best players ever to play at State, he was a fine student, and was active in the community. Congratulations to Jeff Lerg!

News Release

Tropp- CCHA Player of the Week

Corey Tropp leads the nation in goals and points after recording six points (4 goals, 2 assists) in a sweep of Bowling Green this past weekend. He was awarded CCHA Player of the Week honors for his efforts. Tropp has led the Spartans to a 12-6-2 overall record so far this year.

Michigan State 4 Bowling Green 1

Michigan State came out with more energy than Friday night and outplayed the Falcons the entire game. The Spartans finally got it going on the power play with a beautiful goal by Jeff Petry at the end of the first period. Bowling Green tied the score in the second, but Corey Tropp scored with less than a minute to play to put MSU up a goal. It was all Michigan State from then on. Tropp added to more goals in the third to complete his hat trick and lead his team to a 4-1 victory. Michigan State has a lot of confidence heading into the holiday break. They sit at second place in the CCHA at 9-3-2 and are 12-6-2 overall. They will face the Michigan Tech Huskies in the GLI on Dec. 29. Hopefully, the Spartans can get healthy over break and come out with the same fire that they had the first half of the season. This is a team that no one gave a chance before the season and now they are vying for a conference title at this point of the season. It's too early to talk about the NCAA tourney, but the Spartans have 12 wins including a victory at Maine and at Miami.

I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Come support Michigan State in the GLI on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30. I'm looking forward to a great second half of the season. Go Spartans!!

Michigan State 3 Bowling Green 2 F/OT

The Spartans rallied from a two goal deficit after two periods to tie the score in regulation. Torey Krug scored his first collegiate goal in the overtime period. Zach Josepher and Corey Tropp added the Spartans' other tallies. It was not a great first two periods for Michigan State. Bowling Green was able to get a goal off a Spartan turnover in the first and another off a rush in the second. MSU hit a few pipes, but weren't able to get many shots through to the net. Eight min into the third, Josepher shot it past a screened BGSU netminder and Corey Tropp tied the game with six min remaining. Michigan State had all the momentum going into overtime and Krug buried a huge one for the Spartans. Bobby Jarosz made 29 saves in the win. The guys really needed to pull this game out as a confidence boost. They struggled early, but came through in the end. Good teams learn to win games that they should win even if they don't play particularly well.

Scouting the Falcons

Bowling Green State University has a record of 2-12-2 overall and a 2-8-2 conference mark. They went on the road last weekend and lost both games to Lake Superior State. Their best win was at home against #16 Alaska and they also won at Michigan. The Falcons opened the season on a 9 game win-less streak. Freshman Jord Samuels-Thomas leads the team with 15 points and senior Kyle Page leads the defensmen with 7 points. Nick Eno is the starting goaltender of a team that struggles defensively.

Spartan Hockey Update

The MSU Blue Line Club website has posted a short video from Friday night's win over Northern Michigan. The Spartans remain in second place in the CCHA. They are currently ranked #14 by USCHO and #13 by USA Today. Their victory on Friday matched last year's win total with ten wins. MSU has a home and home with Bowling Green this weekend. After those two games, they do not play again until Dec. 29 & 30 in the GLI tournament.

Northern Michigan 3 Michigan State 2 F/OT

Northern Michigan scored a goal off a Michigan State defensman's skate in the overtime period to beat the Spartans. Northern took the lead 1-0, but Dustin Gazley tied the score 1-1. NMU led 2-1 heading into the third period. Corey Tropp scored with around 6 min to go to tie the game and send it to overtime. Palmisano made 30 saves in net for MSU. Its a tough way to lose, but we played another hard-fought game. The Spartans wish they could have gotten the sweep, but its okay to get a split on the road in the CCHA. Check back for a scouting report on their next opponent BGSU later in the week.

Michigan State 1 Northern Michigan 0

Michigan State ended its losing streak with a 1-0 win over Northern Michigan on Friday night. Bobby Jarosz recorded his first career shutout in the win with 20 saves. Corey Tropp had the lone Spartan goal. MSU out-shot Northern by a wide margin, especially in the third period. Tropp scored with 6 min to go in the last frame. This is the kind of hockey we have seen the Spartans play this season and it needs to continue in order for us to be successful Both teams fought hard the entire game, but State was able to come out on top.

Scouting the Wildcats

Michigan State will be traveling to Marquette this weekend to take on the Northern Michigan Wildcats. NMU has a record of 5-5-4 overall and 4-4-3-0 in the CCHA. Last weekend, they tied Alaska twice, losing both games in the shoot-out. Their best win came early in the season against Minnesota-Duluth and they also swept Nebraska-Omaha. Junior forward Mark Olver leads the team with 10 goals and 9 assists for 19 points. Erik Gustafsson is the top defenseman and is second in points with 14. Brian Stewart (3.45 GAA) has played the most in net for Northern. Expect two tough games for the Spartans this weekend. NMU always comes to play against their former coach.

Minnesota 2 Michigan State 1

Michigan State lost a tough one at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday night. Drew Palmisano played really well with a season-high 4o saves, but the Spartans managed only one goal on 38 shots. Andrew Rowe scored the lone goal, his 7th of the season. Michigan State will move down in the rankings this week after slipping to 9-5-2 on the season.

The coaching staff made some lineup changes to start the game to try and get the Spartans going. Trevor Nill played in favor of Mike Merrifield and Tim Buttery replaced Brock Shelgren. Rowe and Sucharski switched places on their respective lines, and Hayes and Chelios moved up on the wings of Forfar's line. That left Golembiewski, Nill, and Walrod on the other line. The lines were changed throughout the game and they ended up close to what they have been all season long towards the end of the game. The guys really hustled and got some good scoring chances, but were just unable to put the puck in the net. It will be interesting to see what the lineup will look like next weekend at Northern Michigan. There is no need for anyone to panic after three straight losses. All the teams they lost to are very good and the Spartans will get back to playing well soon.

Wisconsin 7 Michigan State 3

The first game of the College Hockey Showcase for 2009 was one for the Spartans to forget. Give credit to Wisconsin because they are a very good team. Five of the six of their defensemen are either first or second round draft picks. We did not give ourselves a chance to win though. We turned the puck over way too many times and the goaltending was not what we're used to. There is no one thing or one person to blame the loss on. I think it's just a sign of a young team going through a rough patch. We will learn from a game like this and move on. The power play was a bright spot for the Spartans because we were able to score two goals after not recording one in several games.

Scouting the Badgers and Gophers

Michigan State will play host to the Wisconsin Badgers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a Friday and Saturday night game. The games will begin at 7:05 and are part of the College Hockey Showcase. Friday's opponent, Wisconsin, is 7-4-1 on the season and ranked #15 in the USCHO poll. The Badgers split with unranked St. Cloud State last weekend. The only currently ranked team they have played was #5 Colorado College in which they lost and tied the two games. Wisconsin also has a split against our Saturday night opponent, Minnesota. Junior defenseman Brendan Smith (13) and senior forward Blake Geoffrion (10) are the top two point-getters. Scott Gudmanson and Brad Bennett share the net-minding duties. Craig Smith is the team's top freshman with 9 points. Minnesota is unranked and 4-7-1 on the season. They lost both their games against #14 Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. Their best win came against #6 Bemidji State. Senior forward Tony Lucia leads the team with 11 points. Zach Budish is the top freshman with 5 points. Alex Kangas is the starting goaltender with a 4-5 record and 2.49 GAA.

This will be the last time that the College Hockey Showcase will be played at Munn Ice Arena. Next year will be the final year of a great Thanksgiving tradition. I will miss watching MSU play two fellow Big Ten schools. Hopefully, we are able to keep one or both of them on the schedule. There is talk that a Big Ten conference would be formed, along with keeping the CCHA in place. I know I would like to see the Spartans play more games against Big Ten schools. Who knows what will happen? There should be a big crowd at Munn this weekend as we face-off against two stellar opponents. Go Spartans!

Notre Dame 4 Michigan State 1

The Spartans fell 4-1 to the Fighting Irish on Sunday afternoon in a game played at the Coliseum in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Michigan State out-shot Notre Dame, but just couldn't seem to bury the puck. The Irish did a good job in capitalizing on their scoring opportunities, as well. Maybe MSU needed to have a weekend like this to get them back down to earth after going from an unranked team to #6 in the country. They have played so well throughout this season and did not play too bad in either game this weekend, but were not able to come out with wins. They must refocus this week in practice and prepare for the College Hockey Showcase. They will face a tough Wisconsin Badger team on Friday night. The Spartans have shown a lot so far this year and will continue to improve. They need to get their power play back on track this weekend after starting out so good and then hitting a bit of a lull lately. The Spartan defense was supposed to struggle as a unit, but they have been impressively sound so far. I will be coming out with a scouting report on both Wisconsin and Minnesota later this week.

Notre Dame 1 Michigan State 1; Notre Dame wins shootout 2-1

Derek Grant had the lone goal in a 1-1 tie against Notre Dame on Thursday night. The Spartans went on to lose to the Irish in a shootout by the score of 2 to 1. Notre Dame was one of the toughest teams MSU has faced all season. The Spartans played an average game in which they started off really slow and progressively played better. Palmisano kept up his great play in net, making 25 saves. Michigan State had two 5 min power plays in the game that they couldn't capitalize on. The game was very physical throughout with big hits by both teams. Michigan State has lost in their only two shootouts this season. They really miss a guy like Kurt Kivisto, who seemed to score in every shootout opportunity. Andrew Rowe made a nice move in the ND shootout, and hopefully a couple guys will step up for the Spartans in future shootouts. MSU will face Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon in Ft. Wayne, IN at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum at 4 p.m.

Two New Spartans for 2010

Michigan State hockey coach Rick Comley has announced that Lee Reimer (Landmark, Manitoba) and Willie Yanakeff (Jerome, Mich.) have signed National Letters of Intent to play for the Spartans, beginning in the fall of 2010... News Release

Palmisano Named CCHA Goalie of the Week

With the loss of the all-time saves leader and one of the greatest goalies in Spartan history, Michigan State was relying on young sophomore, Drew Palmisano to fill big shoes in the 2009-2010 season. Palmisano has really come through so far this year. In the last six games, he has a 1.30 GAA and a .954 save percentage. He has compiled a 5-0-1 record in that span with two shutouts. Against Michigan this weekend, he allowed only two goals in two games and recorded a shutout on Saturday. His efforts in the two victories earned him the weekly CCHA Goaltender award.
News Release

Scouting the Fighting Irish

Notre Dame has an overall record of 5-5-2 and a 2-2-2 CCHA record. They are ranked #14th in the nation by USCHO and are tied for sixth in the conference. Last weekend, they lost one game to Northern Michigan and won the other game in a shootout. The Irish split with Alaska in Fairbanks and got five points in a weekend set with Ohio State in their other CCHA contests. Notre Dame has a road win against Boston University, but BU has since fallen out of the rankings. Junior forward Ben Ryan leads the team with ten points (3 goals, 7 assists). Riley Sheahan is the top freshman with seven points. Brad Phillips (1-3-2) and Mike Johnson (3-2) have split time in net this season. Notre Dame has started the season slow, but they should be one of the top teams in the CCHA at the end of the season. They play well on both ends of the ice and have some very talented young freshman. Michigan State will have two tough games this weekend against the Fighting Irish.

Michigan State Moves to #6

The Spartans garnered one first-place vote and moved from #13 to #6 in the country according to United States College Hockey Online. MSU has the most wins with 9 and split with the #1 ranked Miami RedHawks. They face-off against #14 Notre Dame this weekend.