Spartans, Wolverines Tie 1-1

Jan. 28, 2006

East Lansing -- - Michigan State battled archrival Michigan for 65 minutes on home ice on Friday evening and came away with a 1-1 tie behind 27 saves from Spartan goaltender Jeff Lerg (Livonia, Mich.). to remain unbeaten this season against the Wolverines (1-0-2). MSU's record goes to 14-10-6, 8-7-5 in CCHA play; the Wolverines are 14-9-2, 9-6-2 in conference action. With the point, the Spartans move into a second-place tie with Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State (21 points), while Michigan is tied for fifth with Ohio State, one point out of second.

The Wolverines had the first scoring chance when T.J. Hensick and Matt Hunwick got a two-on-one break. Hensick elected to take the puck straight to the net instead of passing to the streaking Hunwick, and his backhand shot was stopped by Jeff Lerg. Hensick had a breakaway just minutes later, but his wrist shot went wide right.

Michigan State opened the scoring a couple of shifts later. Spartan centerman David Booth (Washington, Mich.) flew down the left wing and tried to beat Michigan goaltender Billy Sauer short-side. The puck traveled just wide, but it caromed off of the boards and to the left side of the crease. MSU captain Drew Miller (East Lansing, Mich.) pounced on the loose puck and poked it past Sauer for his ninth goal of the season, coming at 5:47 of the opening stanza.

The Spartans appeared to double their lead eleven minutes into the first. Ethan Graham ripped a slapshot from the left point, which later television replays showed to have gone past Sauer, through the netting behind the netminder and carom off the back wall. Officials used video replay to review the play, but after ten minutes of deliberations there was not enough video evidence to award the Spartans the goal.

Michigan used their good fortune to their advantage and tied the game 19:05 into the period. Jeff Lerg stopped a Chad Kolarik wrist shot from the left circle, but Brandon Kalinecki was creashing the net and backhanded home the rebound.from just inside the hash marks for his sixth goal of the season. It was the first goal the Wolverines had mustered on the Spartan defense in a span of 112:50, dating back to a 3-3 tie at Yost in October.

The second frame opened with Michigan's Hensick generating the first opportunity of the period. Four and a half minutes into the second, Hensick broke down the slot and flipped another backhand shot at Lerg. Once again the freshman goaltender denied the Wolverines' leading scorer, this time with a glove save.

While the visitors held a 13-4 shot advantage in the second, MSU held a 9-6 edge in the final frame. However, both netminders were up to the task, making several difficult saves look easy and preserving the tie. MSU had a pair of shots in the overtime period, but it was Michigan which had a pair of golden opportunities to win the game. Just over a minute into the overtime, winger David Rohlfs had a wide-open net when he was stationed to Lerg's right, but the puck bounced over his stick blade and negated the chance at ending the game. Michigan's only shot of the overtime period came as Chad Kolarik rifled a puck at Lerg, who made the save - but the best opportunity came as the rebound came out to Hensick, but the junior couldn't corral the puck to put it back on the goaltender.

In the battle of freshman netminders, Michigan's Billy Sauer made his second career start against MSU and made 21 stops, while Lerg made 27 in his second career appearance against the Wolverines.

The two teams face off on Saturday for the fourth and final time this regular season, with the puck dropping at 7:35 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena.

Spartan Notebook:

- The crowd of 6,896 was the largest at Munn Ice Arena since March 8, 2003 when 6,909 watched a win 8-5 over Western Michigan. The last crowd larger than tonight's for a MSU- U of M game was on February 15 of that year, when 7,113 witnessed a 5-3 Spartan victory.

- Friday's game was the first time that the rivalry featured two first-year backstops since February 18, 1995, when it was Chad Alban between the pipes for the Spartans and Marty Turco for Michigan; the Wolverines took the game, 7-1, at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

- With the tie, Michigan State's record in home games is now 8-4-3 and 5-4-3 in Friday evening games.

- The Spartans record in their past five games is now 2-2-1 and 6-3-1 in their past 10. MSU has accumulated a record of 6-2-1 in the month of January.

- The Green and White now has a record of 6-6-3 in televised games and a mark of 4-3-3 in contests against ranked teams.

- With an assist on Drew Miller's first-period goal, David Booth extended his point streak to six games, one off his career best. For Miller, the goal gives him five points in the past five games.

- Michigan State has gone to overtime in five of their last six games with Michigan. It is also the 10th overtime game the Spartans have played this season, one fewer than the school record of 11 set in 1986-87 and 1991-92.

- Michigan State has now scored the first goal in all three games against Michigan this season.