Miami (Ohio) rolls into East Lansing tonight with a high-octane offense and one of the CCHA’s premier players in forward Jason Deskins.
But the RedHawks (6-3-1 overall, 4-1-1 CCHA), who finished second to MSU in the CCHA last year, were the pupils of a Spartan defensive clinic in the teams’ last meeting.
The choking Spartan defense halted Deskins and humbled Miami into 1-0 and 5-0 losses in January at Munn Ice Arena.
Does No. 4 MSU (6-2-1, 5-2-1) expect more of the same tonight and Saturday?
“No, no, no,” MSU head coach Ron Mason said. “We’re not the same team as last year. If we get a shutout (this weekend), it will be because (junior goaltender) Ryan Miller gets a shutout.
“Last year, a lot of times, it was good team play that enabled him to get a shutout.”
Blanking Miami won’t be an easy task. The RedHawks will invade Munn with the league’s third-best offense (3.90 goals per game) in tow.
Deskins, a native of Warren, leads the team with 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in 10 games this season and forward Greg Hogeboom has quietly amassed 14 points (8 goals, 6 assists).
The Spartans, who boast the league’s second-best defense at 1.89 goals per game, are well aware of Deskins’ abilities, even if they don’t know his first name.
“They’ve got a good player up front named John Deskins, so we’re going to key on him a little bit,” junior right wing Troy Ferguson. “And they’re definitely capable. Their coach (Enrico Blasi) will have them ready and they definitely won’t be a pushover.
“They’re always a pretty physical team, for sure, so we gotta play hard and be on our game.”
The RedHawks are ranked No. 13 in this week’s USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll despite an eye-catching 9-4 loss to ninth-place Bowling Green last Friday.
But they rebounded to win 5-2 the next night, prompting Mason to call the RedHawks a “Jekyll and Hyde team.”
“It seems like when they get beat, they get beaten badly,” Mason said. “But they bounce right back. What that is, I don’t know, but I expect a good team coming in here.
“They’ve got a lot of things coming in here that show me they’re the kind of team everyone thought they’d be. We’re playing a contender, we’re not playing an also-ran.”
Miami is the last team to sweep MSU at Munn, doing so in February 1995, and it also swept the Spartans at home in November 1999.
And the RedHawks will get four cracks at the league-favorite Spartans this year because the teams share a CCHA scheduling cluster along with Ferris State and Ohio State.
So with a visit to Oxford, Ohio ,looming in February, MSU wants to secure a pair of wins at Munn, where the Spartans haven’t lost in 13 months.
“We haven’t played many road games, so all the home games are important that we take care of business,” sophomore defenseman Joe Markusen said.
And while this weekend’s series may seem nondescript to some people, the Spartans know they have to remain mentally sharp or become upset victims.
“I think this league’s good enough to where you can expect a tough game out of any team,” junior right wing Steve Jackson said. “Especially when teams come in playing, you know, one of the top teams in the league, they’re obviously going to give us their best game.
“This could be a make-or-break for Miami and it’s kind of a breaking point for both of us.”
