Renfrew's Icers Clinch First Place By Downing MSU

Renfrew’s Icers Clinch First Place By Downing MSU

STANDINGS

                                              W    L    T    Pts.

MICHIGAN                             11    2    0    .846

Denver                                    7    2    1     .750

Minnesota                              10    5    0     .667

Michigan Tech                         8    7    0     .533

North Dakota                           4    8    1     .346

Colorado College                    4   10    1    .300 

Michigan State                        1   11    1     .115

By Larry Sullivan

Michigan clinched first place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association last night with a free-scoring, 9-4 win over Michigan State at East Lansing.

The two teams tangle again at 8 p.m. today at the Michigan Rink in a game with little significance other than a tuneup for the Wolverines' start in the league playoffs next Thursday.

Coach Al Renfrew’s Wolverines will oppose the fourth place team in the standings next Thursday and Friday in a two-game set to be determined by total goals. With a victory in the preliminary games the Blue would stage the championship game at the local rink as a reward for the first-place finish.

In other games last night, Denver closed its season with a 3-2 overtime win over Michigan Tech to finish in second place in the association. The Huskies close out their regular season tonight against Colorado College.

Also last night, Minnesota beat North Dakota to ensure a third-place finish for the Gophers. But school’s rules prohibit Minnesota from competing in the playoffs next week because of a conflict with final exams, and the team’s chance to oppose Denver next week awaits a decision from the faculty. If the Gophers don’t play, Michigan Tech could be pitted against Denver and North Dakota or Colorado College could oppose Michigan in the playoffs.

The coveted McNaughton Trophy awaits the league champion, which along with the runnerup team will head for Denver the following week for the NCAA championship.  They will vie with the best from the East.

Last night's victory was the 20th of the season against three losses for the Blue, including an 11-2 league record.  State lost its 16th against eight wins and one tie and sank deeper into the WCHA cellar with a 1-11-1 mark.

Wilfred Martin got things rolling with two goals in the first period, which ended with Michigan in front by a 3-1 score.

In a fast paced second period, Michigan scored five goals and State three as the Blue took a commanding, 8-4 lead.

Hard checking and penalties well strewn throughout the game, continued into the last frame but only one goal-by Michigan-was scored.

Not as rough as the earlier Michigan - Michigan State games, last night’s set-to was marked by close penalty calls calls to the referee as he sent 19 icers to the penalty box. Also in contrast to the earlier meetings, there were no skirmishes which even threatened to resemble fights and no roughing penalties were imposed.

Martin put his team ahead to stay at 2:18 in the first period on a sizzler fired from the right faceoff circle after carrying the puck in by himself. “Fox” got his second marker at 13:42 when he slapped the puck in as it sat right in the goal mouth after a pileup of skaters at the right side of the crease.

State’s Mike Coppo put the Spartans on the scoreboard at 16:58 with a screen shot which bounced under Bill Bieber.

Only nine seconds later, at 17:07, a shot by George Forrest was bobbled by State goalie Alex Terpay and dropped into the net for a score. Michigan carried the 3-1 lead to the dressing

Eight players scored in the wild second frame.

Barry MacDonald made it 4-1, Michigan, at 2:04 on a screen shot fired in from the left point. The power play goal was begun with Gary Butler carrying the puck across the blue line and dropping it onto MacDonald’s stick.

State cut the margin to 4-3 in less than two minutes of play on another power play marker at 3:16 by Rich Hargreaves, lifted high into the net over the backs of both MacDonald and Bieber, and a rebound shot by big Doug Roberts which cut inside the left pole at 4:12.

Four penalties were called in the following seven minutes before Mel Wakabayashi gave the Blue a little more breathing room with a 5-3 lead. He look a pass from Roger Galipeau at center ice, slipped past the one defender in his way and flipped the puck behind a helpless Terpay at 11:19.

Alex Hood salted away the victory at 12:33 by back-handing a shot from straight in front after getting the puck from Martin on a faceoff.

Butler tore in along the right side and caught a slim opening just inside the left pole at 15:11 to make it 7-3.

State got another power play goal at 16:36, just 20 seconds after Henderson was sidelined for holding, as Tony Elliot managed to pull Bieber too far out of the goal and fired the puck easily past him.

Pierre Dechaine broke straight down the center after getting the puck from Capt. Gordon Wilkie and shot from 15 feet out for the final goal of the period at 18:59.

The Spartans, outfired 37 to 16 in the first two periods, finally picked up a slight edge in the final frame, largely as the result of five Michigan penalties. But Bieber, warming up to his job after 40 minutes of comparative idleness, blocked, caught and kicked away 13 shots. MacDonald and Galipeau also managed to cover the puck in the crease on one occasion each in the closing minutes.

Bieber, playing a “bonus” game for his fine showing at Michigan Tech last weekend, had 24 saves for the game as compared with 39 for Terpay. Bieber will yield the goal tonight to Bob Gray, who is returning after sitting out a disciplinary suspension handed down by Renfrew last weekend.

MICHIGAN-9                                         STATE-4

Bieber-------------------------G-----------------Terpay

Henderson-------------------D-----------------Jacobson

Galipeau----------------------D-----------------Lackey

Wilkie-------------------------C-----------------Orme

Butler-------------------------W-----------------Roberts

Dechaine---------------------W-----------------Elliot

ALTERNATES

MICHIGAN:  Day, Martin, Hood, Wakabyashi, Ferguson, Coristine, MacDonald, Forrest, Read, Newton.

STATE:  Musat, Ford, Miller, Mulcahy, Hargreaves, Coppo, Lawrence, Heaphy, Vedejs, Goble, Harper.

FIRST PERIOD

SCORING:  1-(M) Martin (Hood, Forrest), 2:18; 2-(M) Martin (Ferguson), 13:42; 3-(S) Coppo (Jacobson, Hargreaves), 16:58; 4-(M) Forrest (MacDonald), 17:07.

PENALTIES:  1-(S) Lawrence (interference), 5:01; 2-(S) Jacobson (tripping), 6:26; 3-(M) Galipeau (holding), 8:26; 4-(M) Ferguson (slashing), 14:49; 5-(M) Day (illegal check), 18:07; 6-(S) Lackey (holding), 18:32.

SECOND PERIOD

SCORING:  5-(M) MacDonald (Coristine, Butler), 2:04; 6-(S) Hargreaves (Coppo, Jacobson), 3:16; 7-(S) Roberts (Orme, Elliot), 4:12; 8-(M) Wakabayashi (Ferguson), 11:19; 9-(M) Hood (Martin), 12:43; 10-(M) Butler (Wilkie), 15:11; 11-(S) Elliot (Roberts, Lackey), 16:36; 12-(M) Dechaine (Wilkie), 18:59.

PENALTIES:  7-(S) Jacobson (elbowing), 1:18; 8-(M) Galipeau (holding), 2:39; 9-(M) MacDonald (elbowing), 4:38; 10-(S) Orme (hooking), 4:57; 11-(S) Lackey (hooking), 6:27; 12-(S) Musat (interference), 8:04; 13-(M) Henderson (holding), 16:16.

THIRD PERIOD

SCORING:  13-(M) Coristine (Wakabayashi), 5:30.

PENALTIES:  14-(M) Hood (holding), 2:28; 15-(M) Dechaine (hooking), 3:51; 16-(S) Roberts (high sticking), 8:11; 17-(M) Forrest (holding), 9:28; 18-(M) Hood (illegal check), 12:16; 19-(M) Galipeau (illegal check), 18:24.

SAVES

Bieber      6    6     13-24

Terpay    17  12    10-39

OFFICIALS

Bob Gilray, referee; Stan Dubois, John Polomsky, linesmen.