5-4 Ferris State
MSU Loses lead in 3rd period aftering taking a 3-2 lead than ties it back up at 4-4 only to see it slip away less than a minute later.

They are going to need to win these next 2 games to stay in top 10 contention. 1 out of 3 puts them on the outside looking in; 0 wins and its pretty much game over. Hopefully they can pull these wins out though.


Best of Luck fellas

This is a very true statement

Their JV team may be the better team.

and that is a BS statement

MSU varsity clearly has some problems being a team. Not sure if it starts with the coaching situation (coach lives in St. Louis) as it is surely tough to put your brand on your team without consistently reinforcing your message in practices. But I'd also be concerned if the captain of my team led the team in penalty minutes. I'm pretty sure that is not the type of leadership I'm looking for in my captain.

Their defensive coverage in their own zone is terrible. It looks like a confused mess out their at times. A little organization in the defensive zone would tremoundously cut down on their GAA.

Defensive zone coverage looking disorganized is created in large part by the offensive role that they have their defenseman taking. When your late getting back into your zone your going to look disorganized. The fact that the defense has to try and create offense is understandable when you look at the goals that aren't being scored by their 2nd thru 4th lines.

I'm all for defenseman jumping up in the play when the risk is warranted but they are doing it with little discipline. Which goes back to their captain leading them in penalties. If your captain is not leading with a disciplined style of hockey and your coach can't be at a lot of practices I'm not sure how your going to achieve that necessary disciplined component.

This team has a lot of talent, probably the most talented MSU team ever. But that don't play a a very disciplined style of hockey and subsequently don't achieve what they are capable of achieving. If I were the coach of this team I'd bring up the JV team's top line and play them as a line and create some competition. This line competed well with the best gold teams out west. This team is sorely missing scoring from a line other than their top line and they need for their defenseman to be able to stay home.

What they are doing now clearly isn't working and any hope of a national appearance is quickly slipping away.

Well it's Deja Vu all over again only this time it's worse. Last year the MSU varsity team took jv players and put them on their roster (with little hope of actually playing) about this time of year and they appear to be doing it again this year.

So why is this worse you might ponder? Last year the rationalization was that the varsity team was headed to the nationals and these players were necessary insurance.

This year the logic completely escapes me as the varsity team is headed to the same place as the JV team which is the macha playoff's where their season will end. Although they lost a couple players at the semester they also added a player which still leaves them with plenty of forwards.

Both JV forwards are second line players so a lot of the nucleus stays in tact and the JV team should still compete well but this is just nonsense. These kids all pay well over $1000 to play for what is now the same goal (macha championship) and to minimize the JV teams chance of success with this kind of bs is just wrong.

I guess it would make some sense if the varsity coach was moving them up to stay or to be evaluated for next keeping next year. But the one forward just brought up was one of the players who they brought up last year who was back with the JV team again this season. Also consider that this varsity coach probably won't be back next year so he wouldn't appear to be evaluating for next year.

I'm done whining, JV came within an OT goal of winning the macha tournament last year and I can only hope they are good enough to win in spite of this move. Better yet the varsity coaches will still realize that this is wrong and not lock at least one of these players up and only use him for this weekend where I trust their is a legitimate need (injuries/conflicts?)

5-5 Tie
MSU Down 4-2 and 5-3 and come back for a big Tie.

Although clearly better than another loss. A loss and a tie to the 14th ranked team does not bode well for the next ranking. Not sure how the Bear's climb back into the top ten. There going to need a lot of help and pull off a big win or two against their D1 opponent.

Very disappointing to see the Bear's second leading goal scorer take himself out of the game with a misconduct in the third period. Might be an indication of what type of problems this team is dealing with when that kind of selfishness is displayed at the worst possible time. This assumes he is smart enough to know how important this game was to their hopes of qualifying for the regionals.

They are definitely out of the top 10 now. And you're right about the selfish play of some of the players. A captain leading in penalty minutes? That's not leadership, that's someone thinking their stuff don't stink...
No competition in the goalie ranks either - all the eggs in one basket. Competition never hurt.

Bring up the #1 JV line? Interesting, though I'm not sure it fixes anything. I can only assume the current V players may not like it and that could cause even more harm on the ice.

It's a shame, because the previous posters are right - this is a team with talent, but it's all INDIVIDUAL talent. Give me players who play together and mesh well over individual talent any day. I don't think having former players one year removed as coaches is helping the team either. No offense, but they're too close to the situation.

The captain is not leading in penalty minutes, but the bears do need to work on team work. They started passing the puck more which is good, but they are not passing it to the team, they start passing blind expecting someone to be there and it doesn't work.

Using the current ACHA statistics after 24 games he leads his team in penalties by 7 minutes with 50. So maybe he slipped to second? Still not the category you want to be one of the two team "leaders"

Who won MSU's game on Saturday?

Central Michigan, 4-3, Guemp did good for it being his first full game but offense could not win it. Unless something magical happens, the ice bears national hopes are gone.

there hopes aren't gone at all. until other teams play michigan teams close, they will be fine. like it or not.

The bears lost and tied to two teams that are lower ranked than them, the remainder of the season before the final ranking is teams that are not ranked, other than Central OK which is ranked 11 in Div 1.

Oh and for the record i would love to see them make it into regionals but i dont think its possible

I am glad to see we have a secondary G to use now!

Thats a tough way to go out on the road trip; 2 one-goal losses and a come from behind tie. As far as future rankings go, barring SIUE, or MU getting ranked, Mo State plays 0 ranked D2 opponents the rest of the way. So getting back into the top 10, they would pretty much need to win out, and are going to rely a ton on teams 4-9 in front of them (and now RMC-Maroon (very tough schedule), CMU, and Ferris also). I hope they do it, we need the representation, and the possibility of them getting to nationals is just a matter of winning 2 games.

It's great that Mo State is playing UCO, its a great challenge and a great experience, but I really dont see that series affecting how Mo State is ranked down the road, even if they sweep UCO. To me, you get ranked against playing other D2 opponents; the D1 ranking system is completely different, and via the criteria other than winning or losing, there isnt really a way to use that series to rank them against the rest of the pack. You also have the questions about if UCO is playing their top guys? Are they just running 4 lines? Did their #1 tender play both games? D1 vs. D2 games are as close to an exhibition game as they come. Its definitely an intense exhibition game, but exhibition none the less.

My only question about the trip... Why wasnt Guemple given game 2 vs Ferris, going back to Pep for the higher ranked opponent in CMU?

Any Scores for Loyola/Northwestern?

Poepping would have played all three but he left with an injury in the second Ferris game.

Can anyone provide insight into why the Bear's best defenseman didn't make this trip? Not knowing any details I can only offer that I hope it was for a "really" good reason. What was the most important trip of the year and your best defenseman doesn't show up is not a good thing and as it plays out was a terrible thing as all hopes for a national appearance evaporated. (They were also missing one of their leading scorers but I understand he is done for the year because of grades and a speedy freshman player was also missing.)

Who are these people you are talking about?

If your affiliated with the Bears these are fairly obvious but here you go:

Best Defenseman: Joe Combs

Third Leading Goal Scorer: Johnny Spellman

Freshman With Speed: DeWitt

That is who I figured you meant but I wanted to make sure. The fast freshman is what really confused me, mainly because DeWitt is a Sophomore.

You are correct about Dewitt, forgot he was a transfer. I knew this was his first year with MSU and he's small enough to be a Freshman.... in High School!

i thought Shaw was the best Defenseman on the team?????? didnt know anyone gave combs the credit for doing what he does on the ice. Nice to see that someone knows hockey on here.

Although I don't think it's even close about him being the best defenseman on the team (he is the best by far) I still would like to know why he didn't make the most important trip of the year. Anybody have that information?

Yes there is no arguing Shah is really good, but he also has way to many penalty minutes, that only hurts the team.