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Lerg brings home the hardware at hockey banquet

By: Alex DiFilippo Posted: 03/04/09 6:43pm

For the third straight season, senior goaltender Jeff Lerg was named the team MVP at Wednesday’s annual hockey banquet.

It was only the third time in program history that the same player was chosen for the title for three straight seasons.

But being named MVP wasn’t the only award Lerg brought home. He also bagged the Bill Burgess Outstanding Senior Award, the Amo Bessone Award (honors athletic, scholastic and community participation) and the Blue Line Club President’s Award (top senior scholar-athlete).

Here’s a list of the other awards not won by Lerg:

• Dr. John Downs Outstanding Defensive Player — sophomore defenseman Jeff Petry

• Outstanding Offensive Player — senior forward Matt Schepke

• Outstanding Rookie — freshman forward Daultan Leveille

• Most Improved Player — senior defenseman Kurt Kivisto

• Spartan Fitness — sophomore forward Andrew Rowe

• The Goofus Award (team clown) — junior forward Jay Sprague

There are no tears or big shocks to come out of the banquet this season and I definitely would have voted the same way for every award.

I mean, Lerg can’t win them all, right?

OK, maybe he should have.

Here’s my justification for a straight-ballot vote for the senior captain:

• Dr. John Downs Outstanding Defensive Player — Lerg is the last line of defense. I don’t think anyone can argue that without Lerg this season, the defense would have looked absolutely atrocious. Lerg bailed them out so many times, it’s not even funny. Tally this one up to the Lil’ Guy.

• Outstanding Offensive Player — While Lerg’s offensive stats haven’t been great this season (0-0-0), he still provides a much needed boost to the Spartans’ offensive firepower. Basically, Lerg gives the forwards the mentality that they only need to score two or three goals to win a game. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to do that on a consistent basis. So this one goes to Lerg, hands down.

• Outstanding Rookie — There’s no doubt that Lerg is little — the size of a little incoming freshman. But he plays HUGE. If you saw Lerg on the street and didn’t know who he was, you would likely assume he’s an underclassman. Therefore, Lerg is the winner.

• Most Improved Player — Lerg has taken his game to the next level this season. His rebound control has drastically improved and he is accustomed to being peppered every night. He’s constantly improving his game through hard work in practice every day and has developed into one of the best goalies in the country. This was an easy one for Lerg to lock up.

• Spartan Fitness — There’s no hiding that Lerg is ripped. While he is short in height, he has built his body horizontally to withstand blows from the puck and opposing teams running at him. Even though Lerg has severe asthma, he’s still really quick (i.e. skating off the ice when there’s a delayed penalty). With those pads off, he’d be even faster. Saturday was the first game he hasn’t dressed in his career at MSU, and with such a clean sheet of injuries, Lerg takes home this one.

• The Goofus Award (team clown) — Without a doubt, Lerg is a funny guy. But unfortunately, he doesn’t have the time to chime in a lot of jokes because he is busy getting mentally focused for every game. Without this seriousness, the Spartans would be in big trouble every night. Can’t punish him for being in the zone all the time. Lergie is the winner here.

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Hockey reporter Alex DiFilippo and Sports Editor Matt Bishop take you inside both MSU hockey and professional hockey four times a week.

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Commentary:

irritated

03/04/09 9:58pm

Excuse me I would just like to point out that this is a TEAM sport not a one man show. I think it would be really nice if you would write more about the team as a whole. Like the sign says in the locker room the name on the front of the jersey is more important then the one on the back. Yes Jeff is an amazing gaolie but he didnt win all by himself he had help!The team has all worked very hard and I dont think its fair to say he is the only one that did anything this year!

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Lighten Up

03/05/09 2:29am

irritated: Lighten up … the author is writing with a bit of humor and giving Lerg his props for what he has done, not seriously suggesting that every award should really go to Jeff.

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Seriously

03/05/09 8:47am

I agree with the writer and Lighten Up…the TEAM sucked and Lerg was usually the only one to show up to the game consistently. Because he is getting robbed of the chance at another championship title, they should at least give him the most props at the banquet. Clearly, he wouldn’t win every award – the author is making light of the sadness that was this season. Either way props to Lerg and hopefully we’ll have a better season next year.

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wth?

03/05/09 5:49pm

Dude, what the hell are you talking about? Lerg had NO help whatsoever this season.

The defense hung him out to dry in pretty much every game this season, and the offense wasn’t giving him any goal support whatsoever.

The Michigan State hockey team this season consisted of one super-human goaltender and 24 anonymous road cones.

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a hockey girl

03/06/09 8:36am

Major props to Lerg—it’s been a rough year. But contrary to what a lot of you are saying, I’d never think that it was a one-man team. That’s just ignorant.

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ron mclean

03/06/09 1:39pm

ignorant? that team S-U-C-K-E-D and they knew it. they played like they knew it too- with the exception of petry. he just played like he wished he had left the team after last year. you’re living in a dream land if you think otherwise.

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