GRAND RAPIDS - In his four years with the MSU hockey team, senior left wing Damon Whitten has seen a lot.
But the Spartan assistant captain has never played against North Dakota - MSU’s first opponent in the Frozen Four - nor has he ever been to Albany, N.Y. - the site of this year’s event.
So the next few weeks will be somewhat of a learning experience for him.
“I wouldn’t have minded going somewhere warm like California (the site of the 1999 Frozen Four) again, but we’ll take a Frozen Four no matter where it’s at,” Whitten said. “It was one of our goals at the beginning of the year and we’ve got that accomplished and now we’ll focus on taking care of business out there.”
North Dakota (28-7-9) is the defending national champion and it holds a 59-34-2 all-time record against MSU.
The teams have not met since 1988, but MSU has had some success against other Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams this year.
The Spartans’ 5-1 romp over Wisconsin in Sunday’s West Regional final pushed their record to 5-0-0 against the WCHA this season.
To avoid competing head-to-head with the Final Four of college basketball, the NCAA Hockey Tournament won’t continue play until April 5.
The scheduling gives MSU its first weekend off since before the Great Lakes Invitational in December.
Spartan head coach Ron Mason said the layoff shouldn’t affect his team at this point of the season.
“These guys are student athletes and they’ll go back and concentrate on school,” Mason said. “We’ll probably work out pretty light for a couple of days and then put together a plan to get us ready to go into Albany.
“This is the fun part of the year and we’re going to enjoy it, that’s for sure. Any coach will tell you that when you’re practicing this time of year, it’s been a heck of a year. There’s only three other teams practicing with you now.”
Sophomore defenseman Brad Fast agrees the off-weekend won’t be detrimental.
“We’re just happy to be there and we’ll take it when we can get it,” Fast said. “It’s a long way off right now, but we’re really looking forward to it.”
MSU has had some tough luck in the NCAA Tournament in recent years and senior right wing John Nail is looking to put those bad memories behind him.
“This is something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives and we don’t want to make the same mistakes we made before,” Nail said. “New York was definitely one of the goals we set out for at the beginning of the year and now there’s only one goal left on our list.”
But when asked about the Fighting Sioux, Nail - like the other Spartans - couldn’t say much.
“I know they’re from North Dakota,” Nail said. “I don’t know that much about them except that they have a great organization and have had one of the top teams for the four years I’ve been here and I’ve always wanted to play them.”
