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Goalies under pressure for MSU/Michigan rivalry game

It’s almost time for the best weekend of the year — when MSU takes on Michigan in a much-heated rivalry.

While the teams will face off four times before the season ends, this weekend is the only true home-and-home series, as MSU will play its second “home” game at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena later this season.
The two teams enter the weekend after competing in the College Hockey Showcase over Thanksgiving break.

MSU lost 3-1 to Wisconsin in the first game, but regrouped and was able to tie No. 1 Minnesota 4-4 on Saturday night. U-M had similar results, as it handled Minnesota 6-3 but then fell to Wisconsin 3-0 the following night.

Both MSU and U-M have hit unexpected rough patches early in the season.
In the CCHA preseason polls, MSU was picked to finish fifth by the coaches and third by the media. Currently, the Spartans are sitting in 10th place.

U-M was picked to finish second by the coaches and first by the media, but the Wolverines are currently tied for seventh with Lake Superior State.

Both coaches this weekend will face interesting decisions regarding who to start between the pipes.

For MSU, senior goaltender Jeff Lerg is the clearly the starting netminder. But freshman goaltender Drew Palmisano has started in four games — including Saturday night’s 4-4 tie to top-ranked Minnesota.

It’s obvious Comley has lots of confidence in Palmisano, due to the start against top-ranked Minnesota. But even if Comley likes to play his youngster on the road, it’s questionable whether or not Palmisano will see any action this weekend.

Comley has two solid netminders from which to choose, whereas U-M head coach Red Berenson doesn’t know exactly what he has.

Senior goaltender Billy Sauer seemed to be the obvious starter for U-M heading into the season — he was even named the CCHA Preseason Second Team goaltender.

But Sauer’s duties in the crease have been limited to one game per weekend and his record as a starter is a dismal 2-6-0.

Stepping into the mix has been sophomore Bryan Hogan, who has been splitting time with Sauer and owns a 7-1-0 record.

Berenson has said he is confident with Sauer, who he believes just isn’t getting enough goal support from the Wolverines’ offense.

Berenson has tried switching up the nights that the two goaltenders play with hopes that it springs some offensive production, but that hasn’t seemed to work either.

If Hogan keeps winning and Sauer keeps losing, Berenson will have quite the dilemma on his hands.

Regardless of who starts between the pipes for the Wolverines, the Spartans need to bring the offense they displayed in the first and second periods of Saturday’s game against Minnesota.

The Spartans were working the puck around in offensive zone and created of plethora of chances against the highly skilled Gophers.
But that was the first time in weeks that the Spartans have shown they might have the ability to put the puck into the back of the net.

If the Spartans can find a way to get two wins this weekend, it would surely get the bad taste of a seven game losing streak out of their mouth in time for winter break.

And when you don’t play a game for nearly more than a month, you want that last game to taste as sweet as possible.