Just Short of the Frozen Four

Written by Caleb Wojcik

The Michigan State Spartan hockey team’s season ended Sunday with a 5-4 loss to Maine in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. The Spartans trailed by three at two different points in the game and battled back, but could not get the equalizer.

Michigan State beat a strong New Hampshire team in the first round 1-0. The lone goal came from the all freshman line of Tim Crowder, Justin Abdelkader, and Tim Kennedy. Freshman goalie Jeff Lerg’s 36 save performance kept the Wildcats off the board to propel the Spartans to the second round.

In the second round they met the Black Bears of Maine. Michigan State didn’t so much as hit a brick wall; they just got sort of tripped from behind and could never regain their balance.

The Spartans trailed 4-1 just four minutes into the second period. This deficit did not hold the green and white icers back though. The Spartans put in their second power play goal halfway through the second to be down only 4-2. Sophomore forward Jim McKenzie squeaked in a shot on a near impossible angle over the shoulder of Maine’s 6-foot-7 freshman goalie Ben Bishop to bring the Spartans within one goal, 4-3, going into the third period.

Michigan State came very close to scoring in the third period when Colton Fretter’s wrap around shot hit the cross bar and went straight down into the crease. The puck was then covered up by Bishop before Junior forward Drew Miller could poke it in. The Spartans continued to hit posts, but just couldn’t get the puck in the net. Maine added an empty netter with thirty seconds remaining and Miller scored with five seconds remaining to make the game a 5-4 final.

Spartan freshman goalie Jeff Lerg, who came in with a 1.51 goals against average, did not have his best game. Maine scored two of their goals off of deflected shots, one off of a one timer, one off of a face-off, and added the empty netter with less than one minute remaining. The game is not his fault, as he had to make way too many saves, but I hate to see the great season he has had end like this.

All in all, the Spartans had a great season that ended earlier than most would have liked, but Spartan Nation should be proud of their men, on and off the rink. Coach Rick Comley has done an outstanding job with this program and this is just another building block to success.