JohnH (our Yoda of Yost, the Blue Ice Man) wrote:
>(F) Speaking of the Spartans, has anyone else noticed that their
>decrease in goals allowed is directly attributable to a decrease
>in shots allowed (about 6 less per game) from last season.
 
That number has been coming up recently.  Alban faced a lot of shots in the
GLI and in the first two games at UAF.  Overall, though, the defense has been
a little better in keeping the opposing shot totals down a bit from last year.
That's also remarkable considering that we've been playing the same six
defensemen (Vanstaalduinen, Smith, Slater, Harlton, Bogas, and Kozakowski)
pretty much all season, since Ryan Fleming has been down with mono (his
other speaker broke [I know, bad pun]) and Jon Gaskins has been out, as John
mentioned.  With Gaskins coming back (and hopefully Fleming), the Spartan
blue-liners may get a little bit of a rest before MSU hits the really
tough stretch of their schedule starting in Kalamazoo on February 9.
 
>I
>don't want to belittle (some pun intended) netminder Chad Alban,
>but he's been drawing plenty of raves even though his save
>percentage is less than that posted by Mike Buzak a year ago.
 
Chad's save percentage has been coming up recently, especially during the 10-
game "I ain't givin' up more than 3" streak.  He's also played a TON of
minutes, which is probably in a way his own fault.  Since he's been on his
game and playing more calmly (according to Ron Mason, and attributed primarily
to the tutelage of Mike Gilmore), Ron's been reluctant to take him out.  Thus,
Chad played all three games in Alaska.  His only two losses during that
streak (LSSU at Munn and Michigan at the Joe) could probably be attributed
more to defensive breakdowns (or, in the case of the GLI, the defense simply
running out of gas) and the offense's inability to score (both games saw
low shot totals from the Spartan offense) than to any failure on Chad's part.
 
Goaltending appeared to be a question mark for MSU heading into this season;
it ain't no more.
 
>How about giving some credit to the MSU defense.  They're only
>going to get tougher with a healthy Gaskins.
 
That is true.  But MSU still hasn't shown itself able to win the big games
consistently, and have had some defensive breakdowns that have cost them.
They're in the midst of, like Michigan (according to Red Berenson), the
"must-win" stretch of their schedule, playing for the most part teams that
they should beat (and have so far this year, to the tune of 12-0 against the
bottom six in the CCHA).  This will be the time to get the defense in top
form, since the Spartans' last seven games include six against the other top
4 teams in the conference (with 2 against Michigan).
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University 14-3-0, 18-6-0
 
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