IrishIllustrated.com - Hockey Preview: Michigan St. vs. No. 2 Notre Dame

February 27, 2009

Tim Prister
IrishIllustrated.com Senior Editor

With the CCHA regular-season championship in their back pocket and a bye weekend coming up as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, No. 2-rated Notre Dame (25-5-3, 19-4-3-3) tries to fine tune its game with a home-and-home series against struggling Michigan State (10-19-5, 7-15-4-3).

Friday night's game at the Joyce Center begins at 7:05 p.m. ET. The two teams square off Saturday night at 5:05 p.m. ET at Michigan State's Munn Arena.

Six Irish seniors will be honored Friday night at the Joyce Center?captain Erik Condra, alternate captain Christian Hanson, Hobey Baker candidate Jordan Pearce, forwards Garrett Regan and Justin White, and defenseman Luke Lucyk.

Pearce is closing in on Notre Dame's all-time win record. He enters Friday's action with 53 career victories, one shy of second-place David Brown (2003-07) and two away from Lance Madson (1986-90).

Condra enters tonight's action with 152 career points?13th on the Irish all-time list. Hanson holds the team lead in goals this season with 15. His next goal would be the 35th of his career.

For the Irish to maintain their momentum?6-1-0 in their last seven games?they'll have to beat 5-foot-6 senior Jeff Lerg, who has been the backbone and face of the Spartans' program for the past four seasons.

Lerg, who led the Spartans to the 2006-07 national championship, has 76 career victories to his credit. Success has been much harder to come by this season as defections, graduation and suspensions have hit Rick Comley's team hard. Michigan State enters Friday's action tied for 10th in the CCHA with just 21 points?23 less than the Irish.

Michigan State's problems have been on the offensive end while Lerg (9-17-3, 2.72, .924) is getting bombarded by an avalanche of shots on goal. Spartan opponents have taken 1,216 shots on goal compared to Michigan State's 833. That averages out to 11.2 more shots per game by Spartan opponents. Irish foes have taken 408 less shots than Michigan State opponents.

Simply put, the Spartans can't score. They've tallied a mere 56 goals in 34 games (1.65 per game), ranking 57th out of 58 teams. While Notre Dame has scored 48 power play goals and ranks first nationally with a .240 percentage, the Spartans have scored just 19 power play goals with a .114 percentage.

Michigan State has one player (senior forward Matt Schepke 14-8-22) in double-figure goals, and seven with double-figure points. Notre Dame has four players with at least 10 goals and 14 players with double-figures points.

Michigan State leads the series, 59-32-9. The Spartans are 6-0-1 in their last seven contests versus the Irish at Munn Arena. Michigan State won 3-1 in East Lansing last year and tied 1-1 at Notre Dame.

The Irish claimed a 3-1 victory over the Spartans in the NCAA West Regional en route to the national championship game against Boston College.

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