Icers looking for cure to continued offensive woes

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The No. 17 MSU hockey team was only able to record one goal this weekend at Ohio State.

Ironically, the last time the Spartans tallied only one goal in a weekend came against Ohio State five years ago.

MSU head coach Rick Comley worries about his team’s 1.6 goals per game average and is looking to his upperclassmen to pull the weight early on — but this hasn’t been the case.

“It’s got to be returning players (scoring) because freshmen are too hit-or-miss,” Comley said. “I thought returning guys would score more.”

Comley also admitted it hasn’t helped having three of the team’s six top offensive players out of the lineup with injuries.

But the Spartans will return to full strength this weekend as Comley expects senior forward Nick Sucharski and sophomore forward Andrew Rowe to return and hopefully bring back the offensive firepower. The scoring woes haven’t been soothed by the power play either — as the Spartans are a dismal 5-for-44 with the man advantage.

Comley cites this as an area that has to be improved.

“With a team that doesn’t score much, the power play needs to be effective,” Comley said.

Feeling the pressure

When the offense isn’t producing, the pressure falls on the defense and goaltender to keep the team in close games.

Senior goaltender Jeff Lerg said he must play his best every night to give the Spartans a chance to win.

“I’ve said it before, and there is no room for error right now,” Lerg said.

Freshman defenseman Matt Crandell said he is thankful he has a veteran goaltender to help guide the young defensive core.

“It helps with having Lerg behind us,” Crandell said. “We know if we make a turnover … (he will) bail us out.”

Lerg is confident his team will find its scoring touch sooner than later, but until then he knows games will be won and lost on his shoulders.

“Eventually the offense will come,” Lerg said. “But for now we’ve got to keep the ship above water and let it all play out. Hopefully we can get through this scoring slump without too much damage.”

Early lead

Comley said he thinks his team plays best when they get the lead — something that didn’t happen last weekend at Ohio State.

“If we could just score early I think that would relax everybody,” Comley said. “Every time we’ve scored our quality of play has gone up. But up until that point it’s like they are living on eggshells.”

Lerg said it can be frustrating when he knows his team can play better in front of him.

“Recently we haven’t been able to get the lead and that’s really why we have been struggling,” Lerg said. “Playing from behind is tough when you don’t score a lot of goals.”

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