Sports: Youthful Icers Need to Gel
Rick Comley expects the talented but youthful 2008-09 icers to vie for another championship.
The thing about youth is that it diminishes with every tic of the clock. And that’s why Rick Comley hopes the 2008-09 icers, characterized by youth, will gel by season’s end and thus vie for another championship.
“When all is said and done, we’ll be in the thick of it,” predicts Comley, now in his seventh season at MSU.
“We have 11 freshmen coming in,” he says. “This is a very good group, a very talented group. What we can’t measure is how quickly they will adapt to the college game.
“No question, our upperclass leaders have to step up.”
Those leaders begin with senior goalie Jeff Lerg, who has won just about every conceivable honor—first team All-CCHA, team MVP, an NCAA title, and the Michigan College Athlete of the Year, a prestigious award bestowed May 12 by the Detroit Athletic Club. "I'm not sure that I've ever coached a more complete, well-rounded student-athlete," says Comley. Lerg should emerge as a leading contender for the Hobey Baker award, emblematic of the best player in college ice hockey.
Other upperclassmen expected to provide leadership are senior forwards Tim Crowder, Matt Schepke and Nick Sucharski, and emerging sophomore forward Corey Tropp. Leading the defense will be Jeff Petry, whom Comley calls “highly-skilled.”
MSU fans rue the fact that three plays left early for the NHL—Justin Abdelkader, Tim Kennedy and Mike Ratchuk.
“No question, they emptied the cupboard,” rues Comley. “Abdelkader and Kennedy, had they stayed, might have been the two best players in all college hockey. And Ratchuk was really coming into his own.”
Some of the newcomers that fans are looking forward to see are Dalton Leveille and Andrew Conboy on offense, Tim Buttery on defense, and goalie Andrew Palmisano—the U.S. Goalie of the Year in junior hockey and Lerg’s heir apparent.