Michigan State Rivals GLI Preview.

Check out the GLI preview from Michigan State Rivals right here. (Click here) Go WCHA (MTU and UND) It would be nice to see the real Huskies beat the Michigan Wolverines but I don't think it is in the cards, not this year's Husky squad (please make a liar out of me if you would like). MTU has had a rough 1st half of the season, injuries galore. In fact every thing that could go wrong and every bad that could happen to the Huskies has. It is almost like someone put a curse on them.

It’s the holiday season and that can only mean one thing for the city of Detroit…. It’s time for the 44th annual Great Lakes Invitational. In years past, this tournament hosts the top teams in the country, and this season is no exception with the name recognition. Co-hosts Michigan and Michigan Tech and pseudo host MSU welcome North Dakota as the 4th team to this year’s tournament.

The only thing that is different about this tournament is that every single team is looking for a much better second half of the season. Spartan fans know this tournament has always been a springboard to a strong second half under Coach Comley. This season MSU fans know the hockey team is looking for something, anything, ANYTHING to grasp their hands on to what has been a disastrous first half.

The Schedule:

Saturday, December 27th:

3:05 pm Michigan vs. Michigan Tech
6:35 pm Michigan State vs. North Dakota

Sunday, December 28th:

3:05 pm 3rd place game
6:35 pm Championship Game

All games can be seen on FSN Detroit.
730 AM will have the radio coverage on Saturday
1240 AM will have the radio coverage on Sunday

The Records:

Michigan 11-7-0 (7-5-0-0 CCHA, T-5th place)
MSU 4-11-3 (2-8-2-2 CCHA, 12th place)
North Dakota 9-8-1 (6-5-1 WCHA, 5th place)
Michigan Tech 4-14-2 (1-11-2 WCHA, 10th place)

North Dakota:

Speaking of improvement, the Fighting Sioux have been coming on strong over the last 3 weekends. After a rough 4-7-1 start, the Fighting Sioux have won 4 straight and 5 of their last 6 game. If anything, it shows things can be turned around in a hurry.

The Fighting Sioux are led on the offensive end by Seniors Brad Miller (4-14-18), Ryan Duncan (7-8-15), and Ryan Martens (7-7-14). Junior defenseman Chay Genoway (2-16-18) has been a stable force on the blue line all season long.

In goal freshman Brad Eidsness (9-5-1, .909 %, 2.72) has been somewhat of a surprise with his solid play in his first year of college hockey.

However, the biggest reason why North Dakota has been winning has been their offense. In their last 4 games the Fighting Sioux have tallied 24 goals, including a 10 goal effort at Harvard on December 5th. By comparison, MSU has scored only 29 goals all season.

ND is currently 3rd in scoring in the WCHA at 3.33 goals/game. On defense, ND ranks 10th in the WCHA at 3.06 goals allowed/game. The Sioux power play ranks 3rd in the WCHA at 19.7%. The PK ranks 5th in the WCHA at 82.5%.

Michigan:

The University of Michigan has been looking for some consistency from night to night, and they think they might have found something in their sweep over MSU. The team has been playing much better in front of Bryan Hogan, and while they would say their effort at Munn Ice Arena wasn’t the greatest, they did enough at the end of the game to pull out the victory.

Michigan will be without the services of forwards Matt Rust (2-6-8) and Aaron Palushaj (8-17-25). They will be at the World Jr. Tournament.

Michigan is paced by Caporusso (14-7-21), Carl Hagelin (5-10-15), Travis Turnbull (4-9-13), and David Wohlberg (8-4-12).

In goal senior Bill Sauer (2-6-0, .903 %, 2.64) and sophomore Bryan Hogan (9-1-0, .909 %, 2.24) have been splitting time, but Hogan finally got both starts against MSU. The team has given Hogan more offensive support than Sauer.

Michigan’s offense is ranked 4th in the CCHA at 3.22 goals/game. Their defense is ranked 6th in the CCHA at 2.56 goals allowed/game. Their power play ranks 6th in the CCHA at 15.0%, and their PK is ranked 9th at 83.3%.

Predictions:

North Dakota 5 Michigan State 1
Michigan 4 Michigan Tech 1

Michigan State 3 Michigan Tech 2
Michigan 4 North Dakota 3