A persistent drizzle Friday night forced Michigan to cancel its only scheduled outdoor practice before “The Cold War” and take shelter inside Munn Ice Arena.
But the host Spartans braved the elements and skated on the portable rink inside Spartan Stadium for about 30 minutes Friday. MSU also practiced for an hour Friday afternoon during a break from the rain that has plagued the Lansing area leading up to Saturday’s potentially record-breaking game.
No. 1 MSU and No. 4 U-M face-off at 7:05 p.m. The game will be shown on Fox Sports Detroit.
U-M head coach Red Berenson said he decided to skate in the controlled climate of Munn instead of in the stadium for physical and psychological reasons.
“When we left Ann Arbor, they said it was dry here,” Berenson said. “But when we got here, it was raining pretty hard. I didn’t want our team to have a poor experience on the ice and then feel they wouldn’t be able to play good hockey tomorrow.
“As long as we get a short skate tomorrow morning, we’ll be all right.”
Still, MSU has a 2-0 lead in terms of practicing in the foreign setting, with both teams scheduled to have morning skates Saturday.
MSU senior right wing and team captain Adam Hall said the stadium ice surface, which has been in the works since Monday, was a little bumpy during practice.
“The ice is just like I remember that frozen lake when I was 12 years old at my friend’s house - it’s a little rough,” Hall said. “But they’re expecting it to get a little smoother as it has more time to freeze.
“The puck’s not laying flat all the time, so the passing is not the best it’s ever been. The skating’s going to be pretty good - (the ice) seems pretty fast.”
MSU junior goaltender Ryan Miller also noticed the bumps, but he still said it was “great ice.”
“It’s a little rocky with all the moisture,” Miller said. “If there’s rain out there (Saturday) there will be a few aspects like the way the puck bounces, the way you can move.
Miller said the size of the venue overwhelmed him early in Friday’s afternoon practice, but it didn’t take him long to get comfortable.
He also said that Saturday’s goalies won’t struggle much with the nuances of the rink - something many people have feared.
“It’s not that much different,” Miller said. “The only thing that’s kind of weird is that there’s no ceiling. It almost feels like you’re floating a little bit.
“It might actually help because Munn has a black ceiling, so you can’t really see anyway.”
Even with all of the hockey subtleties the players and coaches are trying to figure out, most people’s attention was turned to the sky - or at least to The Weather Channel - for the third straight day.
Forecasters predict a cool, damp night Saturday with possibilities of rain and snow, and MSU head coach Ron Mason said the teams are ready for weather-induced play stoppages if need be.
“If it’s raining too hard, we’ll just go into the locker room like a baseball game,” Mason said. “They’ll resurface the ice and out we come. There are some things we can do to make it playable, but we’re certainly not going to play the game if the ice isn’t good.”
