Redshirt-freshman right wing Steve Swistak was in the American spotlight for a couple minutes Monday morning. Or was it a couple of hours?
“It seemed a lot longer than .2 miles,” Swistak said after carrying the Olympic torch Monday afternoon. “You’re going at a good pace, you’re having fun, you’re not thinking about it. Then you get closer and you’re like ‘Is this thing ever going to end?’
“I was there for about 15 minutes afterward, taking pictures with random people who had no idea who I was. But it was a lot of fun - a lot more than I thought it’d be.”
Swistak carried the torch in front of about 100 spectators for one-fifth of a mile along the Westland-Romulus border in suburban Detroit. He said the 3-pound beacon was quite top-heavy and that the kerosene-maintained Olympic flame was not warm enough to cut through the bitter cold weather.
“I stepped out of the Olympic bus and boy was it freezing,” said Swistak, who is enrolled in MSU’s Medical Scholars Program. “Standing there, waiting for the lady to get there (with the torch), it took forever.
“And you kind of get the butterflies before you go because you don’t want to be the guy who makes the news for dropping it.”
Czeching in
In keeping with the red, white, blue and Spartan green theme, freshman center Jim Slater was back practicing with the Spartans on Monday afternoon - fresh off a 21-day jaunt to the Czech Republic for the World Junior Championships.
Slater, who scored a goal and four assists for the fifth-place U.S. team, said he enjoyed the trip - even if the airport lost all of his equipment on the way home.
“I guess it’s floating around Amsterdam somewhere right now,” Slater said Monday. “But I’m happy to be back and seeing all the guys.
“It’s the quickest game over there with the Olympic-size ice. But, just being here, practicing for a week, I should be able to jump back into it.”
The tournament caused Slater to miss four MSU games and lose the team scoring lead to senior right wing Adam Hall.
“I’m glad Hallsy has it, he deserves it and everything like that, but I’ll be pressuring him for it,” Slater said.
Six-up
MSU (15-4-2 overall, 10-3-1 CCHA) held its position at No. 6 in both national polls this week.
The Spartans are still behind No. 1 Saint Cloud State, No. 2 Denver, No. 3 New Hampshire, No. 4 Minnesota and No. 5 UMass-Lowell in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/American Hockey Magazine polls.
On the repeat trail...
Junior goaltender Ryan Miller, the 2001 Hobey Baker Award winner, was the only Spartan to advance past the nomination phase of this year’s “Vote for Hobey.”
In all, 40 players advanced to the voting phase, which started Monday.
St. Cloud forward Mark Hartigan leads the early fan vote with 760 points on a 5-3-1 voting scale. Miller is in 14th place with 85 points - the most of any CCHA player.
College hockey fans can cast their vote for the Hobey winner until March 7 at www.voteforhobey.com or www.hobeybaker.com. The winner of the fans’ balloting gets one out of 61 votes that determine the 10 Hobey finalists.
Bye-bye Badger?
Wisconsin newspapers reported Tuesday that 20-year Badger head coach Jeff Sauer will resign after this season.
Sauer ranks fourth on the all-time wins list with 647 career victories at Wisconsin and Colorado College.
“I know Jeff real well and he’s been real good for college hockey,” said MSU head coach Ron Mason, college hockey’s all-time winningest coach with 912 wins. “I’ll probably talk to him (today), but he probably just felt it was time to move on.
“But to lose a guy like him from college hockey, you’ve lost a pretty good voice.”
