Hockey Preview: Michigan St. Vs. No. 2 Notre Dame

Friday and Saturday’s contest between Notre Dame (25-5-3, 19-4-3-3) and Michigan State (10-19-5, 7-15-4-3) should be an exciting match-up. The Fighting Irish have been red hot all season. Notre Dame has scored 48 power play goals and ranks first nationally with a .240 percentage. Meanwhile, the Spartans have scored just 19 power play goals with a .114 percentage. The Spartans are having a hard time finding the back of the net. They’ve registered a mere 56 goals in 34 games (1.65 per game), ranking 57th out of 58 teams.

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For the Irish to maintain their momentum—6-1-0 in their last seven games—they’ll have to beat  5-foot-6 senior Jeff Lerg, who has been the backbone and face of the Spartans’ program for the past four seasons. Lerg, who led the Spartans to the 2006-07 national championship, has 76 career victories to his credit. Success has been much harder to come by this season as defections, graduation and suspensions have hit Rick Comley’s team hard. Michigan State enters Friday’s action tied for 10th in the CCHA with just 21 points—23 less than the Irish.
Spartan opponents have taken 1,216 shots on goal compared to Michigan State’s 833. That averages out to 11.2 more shots per game by Spartan opponents.

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