Inexperienced Spartans ready for Ice Breaker

As the MSU hockey team heads to Boston to compete in the Ice Breaker Tournament this weekend, head coach Rick Comley expects to find out more about the character of his team — especially his 11 freshmen.

“We are going to (have to) learn and grow while we are playing seasoned, veteran, experienced teams,” Comley said. “That’s a tremendous challenge for these guys.”

The Spartans will face two Hockey East opponents this weekend — Massachusetts on Friday and No. 9 Boston on Saturday.

The quality of the teams the Spartans will face this weekend poses quite the challenge for Comley, who has said all along he will play lots of freshmen right out of the gate.

“Opportunity is a great thing,” Comley said. “I tell the freshmen when I recruit them that I will play them and I have no hesitation putting freshmen out there against seniors or putting them out there at critical times. To me, that’s how you progress and develop to challenge at the end of the year.”

Senior goaltender Jeff Lerg said the freshmen are doing a good job adjusting to MSU’s style of play and thinks the long weekend on the East Coast will help the team come together.

“We have a lot of skill out there,” Lerg said. “It’s just getting them to play the way coach wants them to play and getting the right mix of lines he thinks is appropriate.”

Senior forward Nick Sucharski was impressed with the freshmen in Monday night’s narrow 4-3 win over Western Ontario and expects the youngsters to build off freshman Daultan Leveille’s game-winning goal.

“It was good that a freshman (had the game-winner) because it gives the rest of the freshman class a boost of confidence,” Sucharski said.

Winning the draw

With the loss of Chris Mueller, Justin Abdelkader and Bryan Lerg, the Spartans were left with only one experienced center coming into this season.

Sucharski will be taking the majority of the faceoffs in crucial times for the Spartans, as all of the other three centers on this year’s roster are freshmen.

“Nick right now is our best guy,” Comley said. “And until the freshman show me they can win defensive zone faceoffs, I’m going to have to put Nick out there an awful lot.”

Faceoffs deep in the defensive zones will be occurring more and more this season, as two rule changes will take effect. First, all faceoffs in the defensive end will be taken at the dot, as opposed to last year when a faceoff could happen at the scene of the play that caused the stoppage.

Also, the NCAA has moved to the NHL’s version of icing where the team that iced the puck can’t change after an icing is called. Comley recognizes how tough it will be early in the season as the freshmen try to find their legs at the collegiate level.

“From what I’ve seen, our freshmen can play the game,” Comley said. “But winning a faceoff (when it’s) strength against strength is going to take some time.”

Published on Tuesday, October 7, 2008