Retro Diary: 2007 NCAA Hockey Title Game vs. Boston College

Last month, Jeremy did a retro diary of the semifinal victory over Maine. Now it's time to relive the championship game.

Like Jeremy, I was in St. Louis for the games. It was my senior year at Michigan State, my fourth year in Slapshots (the hockey equivalent of the Izzone, though nowhere near as large or well-organized, sadly), and I was making the rounds of graduate school visits at the time. With one of the early-round sites being just a short drive away in Grand Rapids, I had hoped that none of the visit programs for my two final choices would interfere. Fortunately, they did not; Purdue's visit weekend for electrical engineering was the week after, and Illinois's was two weeks later, on the weekend of the Frozen Four. I wasn't really worried about that far ahead - Michigan State's spot in the tournament wasn't even finalized until they won the CCHA Tournament's third-place game (a loss, thanks to a strange quirk of the Pairwise Rankings at the time, would have also sufficed; however, a tie - possible because the CCHA did not want to delay the start of the title game - would have put the tournament bid in jeopardy, and Lake Superior State scored twice in the final 1:06 to force overtime).

Once we had gotten through the regionals against Boston University and Notre Dame, I still wasn't really thinking about going; I had figured tickets would be difficult to get. However, there were some available through the athletics department, and I decided to myself: I'd only be missing half of one day (out of the two full days of the visit program) at Illinois, and Champaign is already more than halfway to St. Louis. I kind of have to do this.

I drove to Champaign after classes Wednesday night, went to the Thursday morning portion of the program, then took off at lunch to try to make the 2:00 start of the semifinal. Finding parking turned out to be a pain, and I walked into the Scottrade Center just as Maine scored their second goal. After the comeback, my friends and I stuck around to watch Boston College hold off everyone's least favorite team (North Dakota), then I drove back to Illinois for the Friday sessions of the visit program. Saturday morning, I drove back to St. Louis (with plenty of time to spare this time) and got ready for the game.

Here's how it went.

First Period

20:00 (0-0) - MSU again starts with the third line. BC wins the opening faceoff.

18:56 (0-0) - Pretty uneventful first minute. BC has a lot of puck possession early, but all that comes out of it is a blocked shot. MSU dumps it in and BC's goalie, Cory Schneider, covers up.

18:48 (0-0) - First good chance of the game, as an MSU shot bounces high off a deflection and catches Schneider's arm. Rebound is quickly cleared.

15:04 (0-0) - Hard-hitting game so far. Lots of flow but few shots anywhere near the target, much less dangerous opportunities. Nearly four minutes without a whistle before MSU gets called for offside.

14:55 (0-0) - Two quick chances for MSU after the faceoff. Daniel Vukovic's shot from the point gets through some traffic, and I'm not sure Schneider actually saw it. Rebound landed just in front of him, and Schneider almost whiffs on the clearing attempt, knocking it right back into the slot for Tim Crowder.

14:23 (0-0) - The ESPN crew points out that Schneider is 6'2", 200 pounds. MSU's goalie, Jeff Lerg, is listed at 5'6" and 150, and that's probably generous.

14:00 (0-0) - Another quick shot for MSU off an offensive-zone faceoff, this time by Zak McClellan. It's really been all MSU so far, though mostly off of faceoffs.

12:13 (0-0) - BC finally gets a couple of decent chances, as Brian Boyle unloads from the blue line and Lerg has trouble handling the rebound.

11:45 (0-0) - Another BC shot from the left point, and this one goes just wide. Lerg didn't react at all; appears to have gotten screened.

11:15 (0-0) - A little chance for MSU as Schneider plays the puck behind his net right to a forechecking Tim Kennedy at the boards along the goal line, who blasts it through the crease hoping for a deflection. No such luck.

10:47 (0-0) - Some grumbling from BC fans as Andrew Orpik goes down while dumping the puck behind the MSU net. Also some grumbling from MSU fans who think he should have gotten called for a dive.

10:14 (0-0) - MSU botches a couple of clearing attempts, leading to a penalty on Chris Snavely for interference. Coming back from commercial, ESPN displays across the bottom of the screen: MSU has killed off 13 penalties in a row, going 185 minutes since the last power play goal allowed. (The number is wrong, as 185 minutes would take it to the first period of the NCAA tournament opener against BU, but BU's goal was at even strength. The real number is about 195 now, going back to the last minute of regulation against Lake State.) This feels like a jinx.

9:57 (0-0, SH) - ESPN has so far showed only the behind-the-net view during the power play, which is supremely irritating. Can't see anything happening in the half of the zone that the puck isn't in. They finally switch out of this once the puck gets cleared 15 seconds later.

9:05 (0-0, SH) - Best chance of the power play so far has gone to MSU, as Kennedy and Justin Abdelkader set up a 2-on-2. Abdelkader tries to go five-hole, but Schneider makes the save.

8:26 (0-0, SH) - Brief scare for MSU as Joe Rooney comes around from behind the net unmarked on Lerg's right and tries a wraparound. Puck scoots through the crease untouched, but if there had been anyone on the other side of the crease, that had doom written all over it.

8:07 (0-0) - Penalty is over and BC ices the puck for good measure. Shot-on-goal totals at this point are 5-4 favoring BC but MSU's have been more dangerous.

7:27 (0-0) - Turnover in the slot leads to a shot from Nathan Gerbe (man, this BC team was loaded - Boyle, Gerbe, Schneider, and Ben Smith are all still in the NHL). Lerg makes the save, and the rebound rolls under Vukovic (sprawled out trying to block the shot).

6:31 (0-0) - Scramble in the slot at the other end with McClellan, Bryan Lerg (Jeff's cousin), and a couple of Eagles leads to McClellan teeing one up, just wide.

5:03 (0-0) - Yikes. 3-on-2 for BC, Matt Greene elects to just shoot it, and Lerg can't find the rebound. Matt Price does, but luckily for us, it slides right onto Lerg's stick being held just in front of the goal line. Going to review this one on the video, but it's clear that the puck never made it onto the line, much less across it.

3:37 (0-0) - Puck's been stuck in the MSU end for a while now, and a deflection across the front pops up high for Orpik, who can't quite get a stick on it. Puck gets cleared quickly after that, and a dump-in by MSU goes high off Schneider and bounces back into the slot before it's cleared.

2:33 (0-0) - Kennedy takes a little bit of a whack across the shins while trying to set up a pass, goes down, and slides right into another BC player. He's slow to get up and eventually heads back to the dressing room. That would be a major loss; Kennedy led the team in points for the year with 17 goals and 24 assists coming in.

2:26 (0-0) - Dan Bertram picks up a holding the stick call, and MSU is headed to the power play. Huge opportunity to get late in the period, though Kennedy was by far the team leader in power play goals (9), so missing him for this is unfortunate.

2:09 (0-0, PP) - Not a great start to the power play, as a routine clear-out springs Gerbe for a near-breakaway. Lerg makes the save but again has trouble finding the rebound, and a scrum breaks out after another BC player, Brock Bradford, makes a run at the net looking for a rebound. Gerbe and Ethan Graham take matching minors for unsportsmanlike conduct.

2:04 (0-0, PP) - Rooney rips another one off the faceoff, and MSU still hasn't touched the puck in the offensive zone. MSU's power play was apparently 16th nationally, but you'd never guess it from this.

0:34 (0-0, PP) - Finally a shot from Abdelkader at the right point, forcing a glove save from Schneider. Matt Schepke was camped out front and almost managed to get a stick on it as well. How about we get a shot off before the final 10 seconds of the power play next time, eh?

0:00 (0-0) - Period ends quietly, no further chances for either side. MSU's down 13-6 in shots on goal, but survived the first period still tied. Good start, but it's been all BC since.

Second Period

19:23 (0-0) - Coach interviews are so often exercises in stating the obvious. During a halt in play for icing, Clay Matvick helpfully points out that Rick Comley was not happy with the speed of the game and that MSU would have to slow it down, while BC's coaches were thrilled with the fast pace. Thank you for pointing out what we can easily see with our own eyes.

19:10 (0-0) - Oh, good. Kennedy's back out on the ice.

17:34 (0-0) - Bit of a misplay by BC leads to some sustained pressure from MSU for a minute or so, but no shots on goal (a few blocked).

16:54 (0-0) - Chris Mueller manages to almost make something out of a 1-on-4 rush, stealing the puck away twice and eventually forcing an icing.

16:26 (0-0) - Benn Ferreiro managed to get ahead of Abdelkader into a dangerous position, and Abdelkader takes the hooking penalty. Probably wise, because otherwise that's a one-timer in the slot with no defensive help.

15:15 (0-0, SH) - Crowder manages to get a 1-on-1 breakout, but couldn't quite fake out the defenseman. Shot was partially blocked and easily handled by Schneider. Then Kennedy nearly manages to steal the puck a foot outside the crease. Excellent PK so far; in fact, it's had better pressure from MSU than the power play at the end of the first period.

15:00 (0-0, SH) - Just when I opened my big mouth. Crowder takes a hooking penalty, pulling down Gerbe on the offensive left, and BC's about to have 34 seconds of 5-on-3. This is not a team you can get away with giving that much power play time to.

14:27 (0-0, 3v5) - Well, so far so good. No shots on goal during the 5-on-3, a couple blocked, and Bryan Lerg even managed to threaten a breakaway for a moment before the second defender recovered.

13:46 (0-0, SH) - Defensive lapse leaves Boyle all alone in the left slot, but Lerg manages to stop both the initial shot and the rebound. PK unit looks like it's starting to tire a bit.

13:40 (0-0, SH) - ESPN goes back to the stupid over-the-net view for a few seconds. Mercifully, MSU manages to clear the puck and force them to switch back.

13:10 (0-0, SH) - 3 and a half minutes of penalty killing in a row turns out to be about 15 seconds too much. Jim McKenzie gets the puck stolen from him just as he's about to attempt to clear it, and Boyle deflects a shot from Bradford just off the top of Lerg's glove and in. (ESPN gives the goal to Bradford, but it would later be changed.)

12:46 (0-1) - Quick and totally unnecessary icing by MSU. Not good. The commentators are pointing out that MSU doesn't play well from behind, and while our style certainly does lend itself to sitting on a lead instead of chasing the game, it seems ... a bit incongruous to say we can't afford to give up the first goal when we did it against BU and Maine (even the first two against Maine) and won.

11:26 (0-1) - McKenzie took a bit of a knock and is getting looked at on the bench. No idea why, as Melrose is too busy yammering about how BC's got all the momentum to have noticed him being slow to get up. Probably just blocked a shot that managed to sneak past the shin guards or something.

11:22 (0-1) - Offensive zone faceoff for MSU turns into another opportunity, this time via a penalty call as Tim Filangieri gets sent to the Box O' Shame for interference immediately after winning the faceoff.

11:11 (0-1, PP) - Blast from the point from Tyler Howells, and Schneider gives up a big rebound, as he has pretty much all game when we've gotten shots through. Kennedy has a wide open net, but the rebound goes just beyond his reach.

10:07 (0-1, PP) - Snavely blasts one from the right point, but it's handled easily. Nobody is there to screen or chase the rebound.

9:29 (0-1, PP) - Boyle takes down Mueller, and now it's MSU's turn for a 5-on-3 (albeit only 7 seconds).

9:23 (0-1, 5v3) - MSU wins the faceoff but can't get a shot off, and it's cleared. So much for the 5-on-3. Still most of the second power play to go.

8:30 (0-1, PP) - Schneider's had a couple of misplays behind the net that got to MSU players and just barely gave him enough time to get back in front.

8:10 (0-1, PP) - Two big chances for Crowder, somehow all alone in front on the left side. Deflected a shot from the left circle, then chased down the rebound but tried to jam it low, and Schneider turns him away.

7:28 (0-1) - MSU tries to dump to the point as the penalty ends, but no one's there. Luckily, it's on the side away from the penalty boxes so it doesn't spring a breakaway for Boyle.

7:02 (0-1) - Schepke and Nick Sucharski spring loose for an odd-man rush; Schepke's shot is easily handled but the pair draws a slashing penalty on Carl Sneep. With nearly six minutes of power-play time in a 6 1/2 minute span, MSU has to cash in on this one.

6:48 (0-1, PP) - Vukovic tries to unleash a cannon from just above the slot on the right, but his stick bounces just a little and he doesn't quite catch all of it.

5:37 (0-1, PP) - Sustained pressure from MSU on this power play, but the shots aren't getting through as BC's selling out to block most of them.

4:58 (0-1) - Just after the power play ends, both Kennedy and Mueller have chances at a loose puck near the crease but can't get it past Schneider. After it's cleared, an MSU dump-in attempt hits Bradford's helmet and nearly springs him for a breakaway. Starting to have one of those "not our day" feels to it.

4:11 (0-1) - Shots on goal are 12-4 MSU for the period, but it hasn't felt that dominant.

3:28 (0-1) - Back-and-forth game right now with lots of blocked shots at both ends. Then a huge collision between Vukovic and Matt Greene. Vukovic is slow to get up. Seems like MSU has had a lot of that in this game.

3:04 (0-1) - Kennedy manages to steal the puck at the blue line and go 1-on-1 with a defender, but puts it just wide of the far post. Then an MSU defenseman falls down, springing a BC semi-breakaway which Lerg stops easily.

1:40 (0-1) - Sucharski, coming off a line change, absolutely levels Price as he enters the zone. Best hit of the night so far.

0:00 (0-1) - Pretty dull finish to the second period. MSU has nearly caught up on shots on goal (down only 19-18) and looked pretty solid for the latter half of the second period, but it's BC in front, and the way BC has defended, it's going to take something special to get through.

Third Period

19:52 (0-1) - ESPN's coverage seems to have missed the first five seconds of the period; as we come in, MSU already has the puck in the zone and McKenzie gets off a shot with another big rebound, but BC chases it down again and clears.

18:58 (0-1) - Abdelkader blasts one from the right circle. Looks like a shot, but it's a pass (or a whiff on the shot, can't be sure) to Kennedy in the left slot, who puts it just wide of the far post with the net wide open in front of him. Chances are still coming, but they just won't go in.

18:25 (0-1) - Crowder's soft shot seems to handcuff Schneider, who leaves the rebound right out in front again. A BC defenseman clears it, but not before Abdelkader decides to chase after it. He knocks the defenseman into Schneider and gets a penalty for interference. Just what we don't need.

17:55 (0-1, SH) - Dangerous chance as Boyle skates in to around the right dot. Lerg makes the save, and the rebound deflects off Brandon Gentile and over the net. BC had someone waiting for the rebound too.

17:28 (0-1, SH) - MSU manages to force an offensive-zone faceoff as Jeff Dunne shoots on a 2-on-2 and Schneider holds on.

16:50 (0-1, SH) - A BC shot goes high, caroms off the back wall, and nearly springs Kennedy on a breakaway, but the defense is just fast enough to keep him from sneaking through. MSU's definitely taking some chances on the PK now to see if they can steal a goal.

16:21 (0-1) - Penalty is over as Matt Greene skates in for a shot from the offensive left. Except instead of shooting, he tries to jump over Lerg. Lerg may be short, but he's not that short. He gets bowled over, the net goes flying off, and an immediate scrum breaks out. The linesmen are quick to break it up, and Greene's the only one headed to the box.

15:36 (0-1, PP) - Terrible start to the power play, as BC clears the puck, MSU turns it over, BC plays keep-away for a few seconds before dumping it down again, and Rooney comes very close to a center-ice steal and breakaway.

15:25 (0-1, PP) - MSU gets the puck dumped into the zone but barely gets a stick on it before it's brought out again. Rooney is flying down the offensive left boards. The TV angle doesn't show it, but Boyle is barreling down the other side. From my seat at the arena, mid-level in the corner over Lerg's left shoulder, I could see it all too well.

15:24 (0-1, PP) - Watch any sport often enough for long enough, and you begin to see plays before they happen. It's happened to me in football occasionally but much more often in hockey.

The key to defending a 2-on-1 is that the defender has to take away the pass and force the shot to come from the side where the puck currently is. Do that, and the goalie can cheat over and leave very little room for the shooter to aim at. However, there is a downside - if the pass gets through, the second attacker is looking at a wide open net, and the goalie has to react impossibly fast.

I'm not certain what made me so sure - a positioning error by Graham? the spacing of Rooney and Boyle? - but by the time Rooney crossed the center line, I could already see it happening. Rooney was going to pass. It would get by Graham. Boyle would one-time it, top shelf, glove side. And there would be nothing Lerg could do about it.

15:21 (0-1, PP) - The pass gets through.

15:20 (0-1, PP) - One-timer.

15:19 (0-1, PP) - Top shelf, glove si--HOW IN THE WORLD DID HE STOP THAT? Incredible glove save, and Lerg just casually holds up his glove and tosses the puck to the ref like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

15:11 (0-1, PP) - Crowder tries to dump the puck in and lofts it into the netting. We looked better killing off a BC power play than on this one.

14:53 (0-1, PP) - Puck dumped in deep and it takes a wacky bounce off of one of the glass supports back out front, catching Schneider out behind the net. Unfortunately, it hops over Abdelkader's stick and skips all the way back down the ice.

14:25 (0-1, PP) - Jeff Dunne lets loose from the point and forces a save from Schneider, but no one is there to screen or take a whack at the rebound before he can regather it. Four seconds left on the power play, and that's the first shot. One more comes as the power play ends, but it's not a particularly dangerous one.

13:27 (0-1) - After that last power play, I'm not sure I want to see BC take any more penalties.

12:40 (0-1) - Wraparound attempt fails, as BC packs the crease area with bodies. They break out with a 3-on-2, but this rush gets handled by the defense with no difficulty.

12:09 (0-1) - Getting chippy as Bradford and Graham get into a bit of a shoving match in the corner to Lerg's right. Then Kyle Kucharski comes flying in and picks up where Bradford left off. He gets sent to the box for slashing, while Graham goes off for roughing. 4-on-4 will open things up a bit, which is nice since we need a goal, but it's also dangerous with BC's speed in space.

11:50 (0-1, 4v4) - Schneider turns the puck over behind the net again, but he gets back before MSU can capitalize. He's been living dangerously all night on some of those.

11:02 (0-1, 4v4) - Teams have traded chances with relatively comfortable saves so far on the 4-on-4.

10:13 (0-1, 4v4) - BC held the zone for a good 30-35 seconds before it was finally cleared, but a turnover at center ice leads to a hooking penalty on Filangieri, who took down Mueller to prevent a potential 1-on-1 rush. Four seconds of 4-on-3 coming, followed by the rest of the power play.

10:10 (0-1, 4v3) - Kennedy picks up the faceoff just outside the BC zone and manages to beat Boyle, who had cut inside for some reason. He's in all alone with Boyle and Mike Brennan just a step behind ...

10:07 (0-1, PP) - Kennedy beats Schneider near post! Tie game!

9:15 (1-1) - The way these two teams have been defending all game, it feels like we could be here a while. But that's fine by me. I've got nothing but an eight-hour drive planned for the day after.

8:36 (1-1) - MSU might have dodged a bullet here, as Boyle went down at the blue line with a defender in tight. No call.

7:46 (1-1) - Once again, Schneider just knocks the puck into the corner from behind the net and two MSU players beat BC to it. He's always been just quick enough to get back in net, but it feels like this should come back to bite him sooner or later. It hasn't yet.

6:31 (1-1) - Kennedy has a shot lined up from the left circle but the puck hops over his stick at the last second.

5:15 (1-1) - Playoff overtime hockey is one of the most fun sports to watch - unless your team is involved. The stress of knowing that every innocent-looking shot with a potential screen or deflection, every blue-line turnover, every failed clearing attempt could be the one that spells doom, of wondering if that shot that glanced off the pipe or bounced over a stick at the last instant was your team's last best chance to end it? I'm not sure "fun" is the right word for that. And while it may not be overtime yet, it's starting to feel like it might as well be.

4:53 (1-1) - Kennedy puts a bouncer on net, but Schneider knocks it away easily. Not many shots are getting through at this point; both defenses are selling out to block them all.

3:32 (1-1) - Schepke leads a 2-on-2 rush but can't get by his defender.

3:08 (1-1) - Crowder rips a shot off a faceoff but it deflects high and out of play.

2:32 (1-1) - 3-on-3 rush for BC leads to a relatively easy shot from an angle, which Lerg handles without difficulty. Vukovic, sliding to try to prevent a pass or block a shot, then takes out both Lerg and the net. Faceoff to Lerg's left.

1:38 (1-1) - MSU's had the better chances since the game was tied. An optimist would say that if that trend continues, they're likely to be the team to break the tie. A pessimist would say that means we've used all our chances and BC's going to cash in once they get one. I've seen too many weird endings to hockey games to be an optimist.

1:22 (1-1) - Just as I say that, BC blasts one wide from the point that I'm not sure Lerg saw until after it hit the boards and kicked back around. BC's been screening much more effectively than MSU for most of the game.

0:58 (1-1) - BC ices the puck. Offensive zone faceoff.

0:40 (1-1) - Crowder and Abdelkader both get taken down in the left corner. BC coming up ice with a 4-on-3 rush. I'm already terrified, though it's not the weirdly specific premonition that I had 15 game minutes earlier (that turned out to be right in all the details except the important one), just the sort of vague unease that happens any time there's an odd-man rush against one's team in a "next goal wins" sort of situation.

0:35 (1-1) - The puck gets poked away at the blue line by Kennedy as Crowder and Abdelkader catch up to the play. Looks like a 3-on-1 developing, though BC quickly recovers to make it a 3-on-2.

0:29 (1-1) - Abdelkader launches one, and the PING off the crossbar is loud enough to easily carry to the other end of the arena. The puck flies harmlessly into the right corner. Everyone in my section is thinking "crap, that was our chance".

0:23 (1-1) - Howells holds the puck in along the right boards and dumps it behind to Kennedy.

0:21 (1-1) - Instead of continuing around behind, Kennedy spins away from a check by Bertram and passes it into the slot ...

0:19 (1-1) - ... where Abdelkader is waiting, pretty much right at the same spot he hit the crossbar from. And he's not going to miss twice.

I was at the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl in pretty much all-MSU sections, and after the fourth down stop and the last touchdown, both of those were absolute pandemonium. This was different. Partly out of disbelief - you don't score the game-winner 10 seconds after hitting the post on a 3-on-1, that's just not how these things work - but also partly because football has a build-up to these things. There are plays before the deciding play that all contribute to it, and you know that the game is either going to be won or lost at that moment. You're ready to celebrate because the possibility is obvious.

Hockey, when it's down to "next goal wins"? That can come out of anything or nothing; you never know when to expect it or how much longer the game will go. On a breakaway, you might be expecting it, but on what looks like a routine cycle behind the net (especially from the far end where we could see little other than the red light)? You can't be totally ready because that happens all the time, and playoff overtime hockey (or close enough to it that it might as well be) is stressful enough without a hundred letdowns over routine plays that ended up as nothing more. We were half celebrating and half trying to find someone to convince us that we hadn't just hallucinated that. I'm not sure any of us quite managed the trick, to be honest.

Coach Comley jumps up on the bench to celebrate (along with everyone else, of course), but manages to lose his footing and has to catch himself on the glass. Several of the BC players are slumped over in despair - which, yeah, I get that. I'm a Vikings fan, and at this point I've just sat through four years of John L. Smith football. I know what it feels like to watch a win disappear in the blink of an eye. I can only imagine how much worse it is when you're on the team.

0:19 (2-1) - Boston College calls their timeout, which gives me just enough time to realize that it's not over yet. They go empty net straight from the face-off.

0:13 (2-1) - Puck gets into the MSU zone but is quickly cleared out.

0:08 (2-1) - Gerbe dumps it in and tries to center, but Vukovic is right there waiting for the puck. He passes it to McKenzie along the boards.

0:05 (2-1) - McKenzie skates it out and passes ahead to Mueller ...

0:01 (2-1) - ... who calmly buries it from the blue line. Now we can celebrate.

MSU's bench empties, as they'd been counting down the seconds to the final horn, and the goal horn sounded at about the time that the clock would have run out. Of course, since the puck went in, the clock stopped and time hasn't actually run out. The refs briefly try to clear the ice, and for a moment I'm trying to figure out what will happen. Delay of game penalty? Then I snap out of it and realize that even 6 on 0, BC probably couldn't score off the faceoff twice in 1.2 seconds.

0:00 (3-1) - Evidently everyone else has reached the same conclusion, as BC coach Jerry York asks the refs to just run the clock out. The scoreboard and the trophy being brought out say it's official: Michigan State has won the 2007 NCAA Division I Hockey Championship. But for me it didn't really sink in yet, even having been at the game and watched the celebration. Watching the highlights on ESPN, including Lerg's ridiculous save (which made #4 on the SportsCenter Top 10, and coming from ESPN, a hockey highlight making it at all is impressive), didn't totally convince me. The State News front page on Monday (which I still have) didn't either. It wasn't until I was at the parade on Tuesday, watching three players drive the Zamboni down Grand River, that it finally clicked and I realized Holy @#$%, that was real, that really happened.

You can order a DVD of the whole game from Amazon. Some of the highlights (Lerg's save and the three MSU goals):