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Glen has already posted the score and Jeff the boxscore to I-H-L, so it would seem up to me to post an analysis of the win which moved Michigan State into sole possession of first place in the CCHA. The game started at 6:45 to avoid running into commencement (which didn't make much difference except fore fact that about half the stands were empty for most of the first period except for the last few minutes). About 25 seconds into the first period, Anson Carter took a tumble near the Western goal and appeared to have sprained a knee, but was back before the end of the period. According to today's LSJ, he hit the post with both legs and "they felt numb." Carter was pretty much ineffective the rest of the game. MSU made it 1-0 midway through the first, when Tony Tuzzolino, on a pretty good individual effort, spun in front of the Western net and backhanded a pass to Steve Ferranti, who beat Marc Magliarditi. Spartans ended up outshooting WMU in the period 15-7. The game seemed to settle down a lot in the second, with a lot of whistles and scrums resulting in penalties. MSU went up 2-0 when Jeff Kozakowski hit Taylor Clarke with a pass on the Western side of the red line after he had beaten the defense. Clarke dove to stop the puck from icing, had time to get up and skate into the Western zone ahead of the Bronco defense, and beat Magliarditi high to the stick side. The Broncos never seemed to be able to get their offense on track throughout the game and managed a total of 18 shots, many of which were easy saves for Chad Alban, who posted his second shutout of the season. The only difficulties Alban seemed to have were not clearing the puck from in front and forgetting to look up and count how many men are in the zone when you leave the net (he actually went after a loose puck with all 10 players in the MSU zone and only 2 or 3 above the faceoff circle). MSU's shot totals ended up at 35, but many of these were fairly easy saves for Magliarditi, since many came from the point with no screen in front. Neither team scored on the power play, with WMU going 0-4 and MSU at 0-7. The rougher play started in the third, with Western's frustation added on top of the fact that these two teams always seem to get into extra action whenever they meet. Some of this had started in the second, with some extra shots after the whistle by Kyle Millar, which landed him and Mike Watt in the penalty box for two each. The third saw Cardwell for WMU and MSU's Vanstaalduinen go at it after Cardwell checked Vanstaalduinen into the boards after an icing call. The major fight of the evening occured with about 3 1/2 minutes left, when Jamal Mayers checked MSU's Brian Crane from behind in front of the MSU bench (for which he received a 5-minute major) and the gloves dropped from there. Crane picked up an extra 2 along with the fighting 5 and the game DQ (surpris- ingly, this was MSU's first DQ of the season) to go with Mayers' 5 and DQ. The extracirriculars culminated with delay of game penalties for Carter of MSU and Maloney of WMU, when Maloney hit Carter after Carter had been stopped by Magliarditi on a semi-breakaway. (Looked more like it should have been 2 for Maloney for roughing and 2 for Carter for trying to stop the punch with his head.) MSU put it away with an empty-net goal by Sean Berens (who has a point in 12 of the last 13) at 17:48 (before Crane's 2-minute penalty had expired, and MSU would have gotten a power play for the remainder of the game). Ferranti's goal in the first turned out to be his fifth game-winner of the season, and earned him #2 star. Alban received #3 and Clarke #1. Out for Saturday's games will be Mayers of WMU and Crane of MSU, which is a much bigger loss for the Broncos. Michigan State, now with a two-point lead over Western Michigan, 4 over Michigan, 8 over LSSU, and 9 over BGSU, will host the Lakers tonight at a snowy Munn Ice Arena. Western will go home to play Michigan, coming off their second consecutive "let's put a snowman on the scoreboard" rout in their victory over LSSU at Yost. G. M. Finniss Michigan State University 11-2-0, 14-4-0 Congratulations to the Michigan State women's volleyball team, who at approx- imately 2:45 am EST this morning (I was up watching) advanced to the Final Four with a come-from-behind, huge upset win over the Rainbow Wahine of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. MSU lost the first two sets 15-6 and 15-8 and trailed in the third 5-2 before winning the third 15-10, trailed in the fourth before winning that set 15-7, and led 8-3 in the rally-scored fifth before allowing Hawaii to tie at 11 and then managing to retake the lead and hold on for a 15-12 win in the fifth set. (Spartans were down 6-0 at one point of the fourth set [or game, sorry, I'm mixing my terminology].) The Rainbow Wahine had been undefeated at 31-0, including 23-0 at home, leading into last night's match. The Spartans will now advance to the semifinals in Amherst, MA on Thursday to play the winner of the Nebraska-UCLA match in Lincoln. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.