(If you're wondering why it seems no one else from MSU is writing at the moment,Spring Break started today.)
 
The Spartans won a tough, physical game Friday night against WMU.  Given the
Broncos' style of play (very physical, somewhat chippy), you could pretty much
expect a lot of penalties in this game.  The box score shows that.  (One week
earlier on the same ice surface, MSU and Ferris had a total of three power playsbetween them.)  The calls, however, were very inconsistent.  Minor infractions
were called while blatant attacks were ignored.  You'd think that Piotrowski
had been adopted by the Shegos family.  (If you ever want to see a real circus,
watch whenever the two Shegos brothers [I think they're brothers] referee to-
gether.  Neither one of them knows what the hell is going on.)
 
MSU opened up the scoring very early, when Chris Slater sent a blast from the
point which beat Renfrew clean with only :12 gone.  MSU controlled the play
for probably the first 5 minutes until Albers took the holding penalty.  WMU
scored after only :11 on the power play (WMU was killing off a cross-check
called on Code at 3:16) when Brekke loaded one up from the blue line that beat
Buzak high and right (from my angle, it was tough to tell if Buzak was screened
or not).  Western seemed to keep the Spartans penned in to their own end most
of the rest of the period.  The late penalty on Galentine led to one of the
better yet unproductive Spartan power plays I've seen in a few weeks.  MSU got
off five or six excellent shots before the buzzer sounded with :08 left on the
man advantage.
 
MSU was unable to take advantage of the power play to open the second, but addeda goal :10 after the power play ended when Steve Guolla skated behind the net
and found Kelly Harper in front of the net, who sent one screaming past Renfrew
(OK, actually, I think Kelly may have partially fanned on it and it took almost
5 seconds for the puck to cross the line, but I'm taking poetic license, and a
goal's a goal, anyway).  The rest of the period became a chore of which ref
could blow the whistle more.  MSU was unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 late in
the period, during which Anson Carter was called for interference to make it
4-on-3, at which point Ron Mason appeared to be ready to jump over the boards.
The trip called on Bart Turner in the last minute appeared to be a good hip
check, which was whistled by Shegos.  Bart then did his best to try to destroy
what had become Nick Perrault's home for most of the evening (Nick doesn't lead
us in penalty minutes for nothing).
 
The third period opened with WMU on the power play.  It seemed as if the teams
needed time to feel each other out again (OK, all you perverts in the audience
stop snickering).  When WMU's Kenny was called for interference at 5:01, the
Spartans went back on the power play.  The second power play unit for MSU, whichdoesn't get a ton of ice time (Harper, Burkett, Slater, Perrault, and tonight
Crane, but usually Tuzzolino) had been mostly unproductive this year.  Caught
in the midst of a line change on the power play, half this unit was on the ice
with Suk and Guolla from the first unit.  When Suk received the puck from Guollaat the right point, he spotted an open Crane near the left side of the net.
Crane was able to slide the puck past a sprawling Renfrew, who was unable to getback to cover, which gave MSU a 3-1 lead.  Clifford took a slash at 8:03, which
the Broncos were able to capitalize on :09 later when Ward lifted a shot off
the rebounds past a sprawled Buzak.  The game continued pretty much evenly
after that until Western was called for a somewhat questionable "too many men
on the ice" penalty.  The Spartans were able to take advantage when Perrault's
blast from the point was stopped by Renfrew, who gave up the rebound to Guolla.
Renfrew stopped Guolla's shot only to have Crane shoot it past him on the secondtry.  The Spartans concluded the scoring with :22 on the clock when Guolla was
able to fake out a sprawled Western defender and slide the puck into an empty
net.
 
An overall good performance for Michigan State.  The Spartans are still making
a few too many defensive miscues which could cost them later in the playoffs.
Fortunately, Western was unable to capitalize tonight as they have done in
recent encounters vs. the Green and White.  They also don't seem to be able to
mainti
 (oops) maintain pressure in the offensive zone for more than 20 or 30
seconds.  Most of their even strength goals come on rushes up the ice as op-
posed to third and fourth shots around the net.  The effect of being burned by
Ferris on a large number of 2-on-1 breakaways has created more of a defensive
posture for the team, similar to the way they played earlier in the season.
It could be that the 5-1 win over UM at the Joe gave the team a false sense of
being able to play a wide-open game and depending too much on Buzak to keep themfrom giving up the breakaway goal.
 
Now the Spartans sit and wait.  Should LSSU lose tonight, MSU would find itself
in second place with a likely first-round matchup with OSU.  Otherwise, it's
third place and probably UIC coming to town.  The Spartans have had more recent
success against the Flames than the Buckeyes.  Should they advance, they will
most likely be looking at either Bowling Green or Alaska-Fairbanks in JLA.  IMO,the Spartans have to at least reach the semis and play well in order to secure
an NC$$ bid.  Prediction: Spartans get the East 6 seed, given a likely 7-5 splitin favor of the West.
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?
TA UNIONS STILL SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!