Saturday, 22 January 1994 at East Lansing
UM- 1 2 0 - 3
MSU- 1 0 0 - 1
First period- 1, MSU, Burkett (Vanstaaulduinen, Suk) 7:06
2, UM, Knuble (unassisted) 13:05
Penalties- UM, bench minor (served by Legg) 3:27
Wiseman, UM (cross check) 8:10
Shields, UM (slashing, served by Willis) 9:55
Knuble, UM (holding) 16:42
Second period- 3, UM, Legg (Hilton, Schock) pp 1:36
4, UM, Botterill (Wiseman, Oliver) 13:31
Penalties- Harper, MSU (holding) 0:57
Suk, MSU (elbowing) 5:44
Wiseman, UM (tripping) 17:23
Luhning, UM (slashing) 18:47
Third period- No scoring
Penalties- MSU bench (too many men, served by Wiegand)
8:41
Hogan, UM (high stick) 15:59
Goaltender saves- UM, Shields 8-5-4---17
MSU, Buzak 5-12-6--23
Power play- UM 1-3, MSU 0-7
Referees- Piotroski, Matt Shegos
Linesman- Kelly
A- 6,695 (146th consecutive regular season sellout at Munn)
3 stars (as if anybody really deserved any) 1. Shields, UM
2. Stone, UM
3. Suk, MSU
Analysis- To sum it up in a word, this game really SUCKED. Neither team really played well. UM made the plays that needed to win, MSU did not.
Simple as that.
First period- Bench minor called on Berenson for a rather
vehement outburst at the ref, due to a check by
Carter that was a bit away from the puck and
somewhat high. First (and only) Spartan goal
came after the Spartans were able to hold the
puck in the UM zone for over a minute. Vanstaal- duinen's shot from the blue line was redirected
in front by Burkett and Shields basically had no
chance at it. UM tied it six minutes later when
Knuble scored from just below the right faceoff
circle after Buzak had been knocked out of the
way by a rush from the right corner. Knuble
basically shot through a crowd and found the
empty net. Most of the play for the period was
in the UM zone.
Second period- UM took the lead for good early in the second,
on a 2-on-1 rush. Beautiful pass from Hilton on
the left to Legg, who beat Buzak clean. Second
goal of the period came on a rather sloppy play
by MSU, where the puck was just sort of left in
the defensive zone. Wiseman broke in on left
wing and circled behind the net. A scramble in
front led to Botterill poking it past a prone
Buzak. Most of the play in the period was in the MSU zone. MSU defense extremely sloppy, with
almost no pressure on Shields. To give you an
idea of how bad it got, on MSU's 5-on-3 late in
the period, UM was not only able to clear the
puck but get a shot on goal. As someone near me
remarked, MSU looked like they skated the whole
period a man down.
Third period- No scoring, very little action. UM seemed to be
content with just clearing the zone, while MSU
couldn't mount any offense if it tried.
Overall- Not a game either team will be proud of when it's all said and done with. Particularly sloppy play from what have been two
MSU stalwarts, Guolla and Murray. Suk, as usual, was being
Suk. I usually lose my voice yelling at him to shoot more
than I do any other time. I'm sure UM won't give the two
points back. For the weekend, MSU showed that they can play
with the best and win, and then they showed that they didn't
know how to play. UM struggled both nights. While they are
still the best team in the country and still get my vote for
#1, the image is a little bit more tarnished than it was 48
hours ago. Three stars for the night should have gone to the
two refs and the linesman, since they looked better than any-
body else did.
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?
P. S. My apologies to those of you in Houghton. I didn't realize that the
Eastern time zone was that screwed up that you guys, who are "west of
Chicago", as was pointed out to me, were in it. I've been to Marquette
(during much warmer times) but never to Houghton.
P. P. S. To John, whenever we meet, remind me to dig out MY Vancouver Canucks
jersey. It's one of the old crappy-looking yellow ones. Must be
some kind of connection between East Lansing and Vancouver (though
I bought mine when I was in Knoxville).
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