Colgate Falls at Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The No. 9/9 Michigan State men's hockey team celebrated its 2007 national championship with a 6-3 win against Colgate in its home opener on Friday, Oct. 19, at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans (1-1-0) jumped all over the Raiders (2-1-0) and built a 5-0 lead by the beginning of the second period and never looked back en route to the victory.

The Spartans used their second power-play of the night to take the 1-0 lead. Daniel Vukovic took the puck from Bryan Lerg, and shot high over the goal. The puck banged off the glass above the zamboni entrance and bounced back in front, where Matt Schepke was waiting to sweep it in behind Colgate senior Mark Dekanich (North Vancouver, B.C.).

With 5:02 left in the opening period, the teams faced off to the right of the Raider goal. Bryan Lerg won the puck clean back to Dustin Gazley, who sent a quick shot over Dekanich's right shoulder.

MSU made it 3-0 with less than a minute to play in the first. Bryan Lerg had the puck in the right corner, and he sent it up to Schepke at the hash marks. Schepke sent the puck toward the goal, where Dekanich made to play it aside while drifting away from his crease. However, instead of a teammate, he found Gazley, who skated around the out-of-position goal and scored into the open net.

Michigan State continued the assault on the Raider net with its fourth goal less than two minutes into the second period. Schepke skated in from the left circle and put the puck on net. Dekanich appeared to have stopped it between his pads, but Bryan Lerg poked at it and it slipped over the goal line between his legs. The goal was enough to chase Dekanich from between the pipes, and he was replaced by classmate Justin Kowalkoski (Young America, Minn.).

The Spartans wasted little time in getting past the second Raider netminder of the night. Less than 45 seconds after Kowalkoski took over the crease, Kurt Kivisto sent a hard shot from the blue line past a diving Colgate defender and over Kowalkoski's glove.

Kowalkoski, however, remained unrattled the remainder of the second period, and allowed his team to get on the board during a 4-on-4 situation at the 14:02 mark. Senior captain Jesse Winchester (Long Sault, Ont.) took the draw in the right faceoff circle, and won it back to junior Mark Anderson (Hastings, Neb.) along the boards. Anderson dropped it off for senior Matt Torti (Oxford, Mass.), who sent it back to Winchester at the right of the crease. Winchester sent a nifty drop pass between two defenders and through the slot to classmate Tyler Burton (Langley, B.C.), who was waiting on the other side of the crease to complete the play with his second goal of the season.

MSU netted its sixth goal of the game during a power play at the four-minute mark of the third period. After Jeff Petry's initial shot, the Spartans crashed the net, where Kowalkoski made a save on Tim Crowder before Justin Abdelkader got the puck on his stick and stuffed it behind the Raider goalie. Shortly after the goal, Michigan State was sniffing for its seventh of the night, but Kowalkoski came up with a glove save on a breakaway by Bryan Lerg.

The Raiders answered a short while later. Junior Tom Riley (Ottawa, Ont.) carried the puck into the zone, and handed it off to classmate Joe DeBello (Oswego, Ill.). DeBello rifled a shot from the top of the right circle, and the rebound came out to freshman Brian Day (Danvers, Mass.), who was near the bottom of the circle. Day scored on a low-angle shot for his fourth goal of the season. The assist was DeBello's first career point.

Colgate collected its second straight goal on the power play at the 14:21 mark to make it a three-goal game. The Raiders set up in the zone, and junior Nick St. Pierre (St. Etienne, Que.) took the puck at the blue line. He passed it down to Burton in the right circle, who fired on net, where it was tipped on the way in by Winchester. MSU junior goaltender Jeff Lerg made the save but gave up the rebound, and sophomore Jason Williams (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) swept it into the open side.

Jeff Lerg finished the game with 22 saves for the win, while Kowalkoski finished his appearance with 17 stops. Dekanich made six saves before leaving the game. Colgate won the battle in the faceoff circle, 46-28, led by sophomore David McIntyre (Pefferlaw, Ont.), who was victories on two-thirds of his draws (14-of-21).

The Raiders will look to come away with a weekend split when they return to Munn Ice Arena for a rematch with the Spartans on Saturday, Oct. 20, starting at 7:00 p.m.