No Small Feat

With 15 minutes left in the NCAA championship game and 6'7" Boston College captain Brian Boyle bearing down on him with the puck, Michigan State's 5'6" sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg was thinking big. Stay tall, he told himself. It was a huge moment for both players: A goal by the overpowering All-America forward would give his team, winner of 13 straight and the heavy favorite entering the Frozen Four, a 2--0 lead; a save by the elfin netminder would give his team, a No. 3 regional seed that had exceeded expectations by merely getting into the 16-team tournament, a rallying point. Boyle hesitated, then shot over the falling goaltender, but Lerg reached above his head to glove the puck before hitting the ice. "Given the circumstance," says Spartans coach Rick Comley, "it was one of the best saves I've ever seen."

Lerg's quick reflexes indeed sparked Michigan State to a riveting 3--1 upset. The Spartans tied the score 1--1 on a power play five minutes later, when sophomore forward Tim Kennedy beat Eagles goalie Cory Schneider on a breakaway. Michigan State then outshot BC 9--3 over the last 10 minutes and finally got the decisive goal with 18.9 seconds left. Forward Justin Abdelkader fired a right-circle wrist shot off the goal post, then skated to the slot while Kennedy retrieved the puck behind the net; Kennedy split two Eagles defensemen with a touch pass to Abdelkader, who converted the shot.

The Spartans' first NCAA hockey title since 1986 was a stunning defeat for the Eagles, one of college hockey's swiftest, most skilled teams. If BC was a symphony on ice, Michigan State was dull and ugly by design--forcing foes into errant passes and neutral-zone clutter. "We're not a pretty team," says Comley. "We crash the net, play the walls and force teams to the outside."

The loss of last season's snipers, Drew Miller (who plays for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' AHL team in Portland) and David Booth (now on the Florida Panthers), left Comley with little firepower and no choice but to coax his players into playing a disciplined trapping system. "I wondered if we might have to patch a team together," he says. "I guess the glue worked." But it took awhile. The Spartans were 7-8-1 in December before mastering Comley's strategy. In the Frozen Four semifinal against Maine, the team with the nation's best power play, Michigan State committed only two penalties and scored twice by batting pucks out of midair. "For a second," says Maine goalie Ben Bishop, "I thought I was playing their baseball team." The Spartans finished the tournament on a 19-5-2 roll.

More than any other player, Lerg embodied his team's discipline and resilience. Diagnosed at age four with severe asthma, he's had seven attacks over the last two years, but most were triggered by food allergies. During the NCAA regionals last month, Lerg suffered an allergic reaction at a team dinner and had to rush back to the hotel with the Spartans' doctor to get an injection. The next day he started the game and beat New Hampshire 1--0 for the first NCAA tournament shutout in school history. Lerg, who allowed five goals in four tournament games, delights in disproving naysayers. "It's personal," he says. "I want to outplay the other goaltender and make one highlight save a game."

The hard-fought loss was a bitter pill for BC coach Jerry York, whose team dropped a tight 2--1 game to Wisconsin in last year's final, but he was classy to the end. After junior Chris Mueller's empty-net goal gave Michigan State a 3--1 lead with 1.7 seconds to play and the Spartans began throwing their sticks and gloves in the air, York asked officials to let the clock expire so as not to interrupt the celebration. It was a night when little things made a big difference.