I was still at Michigan State when they won their last NCAA Hockey championship in 1986. Since their previous championship was 1966, it seems like they were due again, and damned if they didn't come through, beating heavily-favored Boston College 3-1.
Brian Boyle's deflected goal at 6:50 of the second-period put BC on top. It looked like Boyle would get the backbreaker early in the third on a two-on-one, but MSU goalie Jeff Berg jumped the pass, slid across the crease, and robbed him with a top-notch glove save. This seemed to put the spark back into the MSU team, and a few minutes later, Tim Kennedy caught Boyle cheating up after a neutral zone faceoff, blowing by him and beating Cory Schneider up high to tie the game.
It looked like both teams were getting ready for overtime in the last minute, but MSU picked up a turnover at their own blue line and came back with a three-on-one. Although Justin Abdelkader clanged his first shot off the crossbar, MSU kept the pressure on. Abdelkader redeemed himself on a one-timer off a nifty feed from Kennedy behind the net, scoring the game winner with 18.9 seconds to go. Chris Mueller added an empty-netter with under two seconds remaining to finish the scoring.
Although no couches were burned last time MSU won the hockey title, times have changed, so you never know. YouTubage after the break.
Posted by Chris at April 9, 2007 09:12 AM
That was a helluva save!
Posted by: Jay at April 9, 2007 08:36 PMIMO that was pretty much the game-winning play, even though MSU was still behind at the time. With a two-goal deficit in the third, the Spartans would have had to give up their preferred defense-first style and start running with BC, and I think that would have been disastrous.
Posted by: Chris of Dangerous Logic at April 10, 2007 07:36 AM