After ending the 2005-06 season with a 5-4 loss to Maine in the final game of the East Regional, Michigan State experienced 3:25 of history repeating when the Black Bears took an early two-goal lead Thursday, but four unanswered Spartan goals led MSU to a 4-2 victory and a chance to play for the NCAA championship for the first time since 1987, the first CCHA team to contend for a title since 1998.
“For a second I just flashed back to last year,” said sophomore Spartan goaltender Jeff Lerg. “I feel like my mental game is my best asset … and you just kind of shrug it off. We’ve had leads where we’ve given up two goals in 30 seconds. You know it can turn around just like that.
“I just tried to tell myself it’s a 60-minute game and if they win the first five minutes, so be it. We win the next 55, it’ll be ours.”
And that was exactly the way the game played out. Goals by Keith Johnson and Josh Soares gave the Black Bears the first five minutes, but Chris Mueller’s goal at 7:25 to bring the Spartans within one, combined with an excellent penalty kill on Tim Kennedy’s crosschecking call at 11:04, gave MSU the momentum to carry the game.
“If we were able to get the third goal, obviously we’d have a much better chance to win,” said Maine head coach Tim Whitehead. “They were able to get their first goal before the end of the first period. That was a big goal, and actually it was pretty quick. That was important for them to be able to get one behind [Ben] Bishop in the first period, and not go into the locker room with nothing to show for it.”
The Spartans were the only team in this year’s field not to have played in the Frozen Four last year, and in many ways MSU was the least likely team to emerge from the CCHA this season. The Spartans, who finished fourth in the league, graduated three talented seniors and lost forward Drew Miller, who opted to go pro after his junior season.
That, said head coach Rick Comley, made this weekend’s appearance all the more surprising and this victory that much sweeter. “All year long, [the team has] been very resilient and just gotten better and better, and now they’ve got a chance to play for a national championship, and I’m about as proud as you can be, as I’ve ever been of any team I’ve ever coached.
“We were really good last year, and I thought our pure talent was better last year when we had Booth and we had Miller, and Corey Potter was unbelievable. We have a bunch of guys who aren’t going to be draft picks. They just rallied and played together.
“I’m just happy for this group of seniors. We had three kids on the [CCHA] All-Rookie team with this class when they were freshmen and we don’t have them anymore. They’re all gone. The heralded kids aren’t with us anymore, so this group — I think we’re only graduating seven or eight goals with our senior class, but what they’re giving is about as good a leadership as you can get.”
The game was all Maine at the start, with the top Black Bear line of Josh Soares, Michel Leveille, and Keith Johnson clicking. Right after the opening faceoff, Johnson gave Maine the 1-0 lead with a one-timer from the bottom of the slot. Soares fished the puck out from the right corner and passed out to a wide-open Johnson, who beat MSU goaltender Jeff Lerg low and right at :23.
Johnson was instrumental on the second goal at 3:25 as well, when he sent the puck from the corner to defenseman Travis Ramsey at the right point, before Ramsey fed Soares between the circles. Soares shot up and over Lerg’s right shoulder for the 2-0 advantage.
“Obviously, it can happen where you get an early lead and all of a sudden you’re on the defensive the rest of the game,” said Whitehead. “It could’ve developed a lot of different ways. You’d like to score first, certainly, but in this case they did an excellent job not giving up that third goal and before you know it, the momentum swings to them.”
To win the remaining 55 minutes, the Spartans needed both to settle down and to solve Ben Bishop. Lerg’s play helped MSU accomplish the first, and the Spartans solved Bishop by playing him close to the net.
“I think we believed coming in, you weren’t going to beat Bishop clean,” said Comley. “He’s just too good. You’re not going to come in, take a shot, and beat him. You had to get rebounds, and screens, and tips, and those are the types of goals we got, and to be honest with you, that’s kind of how we score.”
Two of MSU’s goals were plucked out of midair, including Mueller’s first-period marker. In a struggle for possession along the dashers, Mueller came away with the puck and shot at the Maine cage, close to the right post. With heavy traffic around the crease, Bishop tried to get a glove on it but the puck went airborne and out of reach — and right back to the stick of Mueller, who hit it in before it reached the ice to cut the Black Bear lead to make it 2-1 after one.
The Spartans came out with all the jump in the second, testing Bishop early and drawing a slashing penalty on Brent Shepheard at 1:24, but it took them another 16 minutes before they could tie the score.
Both Bishop and Lerg did their parts during the middle 20 minutes to keep the game close. With 6:30 to go, the Spartans — having learned how to score in the first with the Mueller’s scrambly marker — penetrated the Black Bear defense and buzzed Bishop, allowing Tim Crowder to take a point-blank shot that Bishop barely had time to deflect.
Chris Snavely had the tying goal for MSU at 16:31, just his second of the season. Snavely skated the puck across the Maine blue line and passed to Justin Abdelkader near the right dot. Abdelkader toyed with it momentarily before passing it back to Snavely, who wasted no time blasting it long from the top of the circle to beat Bishop clean on the far side, knotting the score at 2.
Then, with less than a minute left in the middle stanza, Lerg kept it tied when he stopped Billy Ryan’s one-timer from the right circle, moving from left to right to make the save.
The Spartans took the lead with their third goal of the game at 5:11 in the third, another score on a scramble near the net. With the puck squibbing through the crease and Bishop prone after making a save, Maine’s Mike Hamilton tried to dive on the disk to cover it up but missed, leaving Nick Sucharski the opportunity to lift the puck over both Hamilton and Bishop for the eventual game winner and a 3-2 MSU lead.
Jim McKenzie’s 12th goal of the year was MSU’s fourth unanswered of the game four minutes later. McKenzie stole the puck at the Maine blue line above the right point and passed up to Mueller, who shot the puck from the left circle and hit Bishop in the chest, earning a big rebound. Mueller shot again, aiming for the open opposite side of the net, but this time McKenzie skated in and redirected the puck in flight, tucking it in behind Bishop for the 4-2 lead.
“It was a hard-fought game, obviously disappointing for us,” said Whitehead, who has led the Black Bears to the Frozen Four three of the last four seasons. “I’m very proud of our players. They played their hearts out, and unfortunately we came up a couple of goals short.
“Once again, I thought Bish was fabulous for us. He played with a lot of poise and composure and gave us every opportunity to win.”
Bishop, who made 29 saves on 33 shots, said that the Spartans played a “really patient” game. “We took the lead early, and they stuck to their game plan. It is a 60-minute game and they used their patience. They had a couple bounce in there and it game them a boost. They used that to build momentum.”
At the other end of the ice, Lerg stopped 29 of 31 after allowing the two quick tallies. “You’ve got to give Jeff a lot of credit,” said McKenzie. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
The Black Bears (23-15-2) end their season at the Frozen Four for the second year in a row, while the unlikely Spartans (25-13-3) will play another day.
“We don’t have any all-stars, no Hobeys,” said Comley. “We need a lot of guys to play well. We never quite know exactly what’s going to happen, or who might do it.
“We do have very good leadership, whether they grow into all-stars or not, who knows? We’re playing a pretty big game Saturday night, so I think that speaks volumes.”
