Around the CCHA..

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CCHA

Tim Kennedy scored in overtime to give Michigan State a win over Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday. Afterwards, the two coaches — veteran Rick Comley and Alaska's Tavis MacMillan — got into a shouting match, which led to a fight and four game disqualifications. Alaska believed MSU was intentionally running its goaltender. Alaska's Ryan Muspratt and T.J. Campbells, and MSU's Brandon Gentile and Chris Lawrence, all were given five for fighting and game DQs, and missed Saturday's game. "(Comley) took exception to (my assertion about running the goalie) and one of their players grabbed me by the shoulder and our players didn't like their coach getting grabbed," said MacMillan to the Lansing State Journal. ... For his part, Comley denied his team did any intentional running of the goalie, but agreed things got rough. "Coaches don't need to be going after each other. That was an unfortunate incident," Comley told the Journal. "There was traffic around both goaltenders all game and the referee has to step in and eliminate it. ... We're college coaches. This is not the East Coast League and we have to have some class. You take a tough win or a tough loss and shake hands, but you don't incite players because nothing good happens."

Cooler heads prevailed Saturday, as MSU really took care of business and kept the Nanooks in their swoon. Despite a 37-12 shot edge, though, for the Spartans, it was only 2-2 after two periods. But Jim McKenzie scored early in the third to put MSU up for good. With the win, MSU moved ahead of Michigan into third place in the CCHA.

Notre Dame held three different one-goal leads before winning in overtime against Lake Superior on Friday, then completed the sweep Saturday. This put the Irish two points ahead of Miami in the CCHA with two games in hand, because Miami only got a split with Western Michigan.

Mike Santorelli scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season and Bill Zaniboni stopped 36 shots, as Northern Michigan picked up a weekend split at Yost with a 2-1 win Saturday. Friday, though, Wolverines coach Red Berenson earned his 600th win, all with Michigan. He has the most wins in college hockey in the time span since he started at Michigan, in October 1984. At 600-286-63, he is eighth on the all-time win list, and second among active coaches in winning percentage (at least five years of service), behind Notre Dame's Jeff Jackson. Berenson was the first NCAA player to jump straight to the NHL, when he went from Michigan to the Montreal Canadiens in 1962. He had a 17-year playing career, and also coached the St. Louis Blues, winning a Coach of the Year Award in 1981, before going back to college. At 67, he's also the oldest head coach in college hockey.