For a minute or so Saturday night, 6,983 fans at Munn Ice Arena had their eyes fixed on Nathan Shopbell.
Shopbell, a 22-year-old electrical engineering senior, isn’t used to being the center of attention. He’s the third-string goaltender - the “practice goalie” - on MSU’s fifth-ranked hockey team. His competitive highlights occur during the team’s weekday practices when most of the other players are thinking ahead to weekend games.
He knows he won’t be part of those scheduled intercollegiate contests. It’s not in his job description. MSU head coach Ron Mason put Shopbell on the roster two years ago to provide an adequate practice challenge for Spartan forwards from Monday through Thursday.
But when CCHA games sizzle on Fridays and Saturdays, Shopbell is usually in the stands wearing a suit, watching his comrades battle on the ice. The goaltending chores are handled quite capably by junior Ryan Miller, arguably the best college goalie in the country, and backup freshman Matt Migliaccio.
Shopbell competes in their lengthy shadows and he is generally unknown, even among avid Spartan hockey fans.
But Saturday was different. There he was, taking a spotlighted lap around the rink on Senior Night as the first senior announced during the annual festivities.
Munn public address announcer Jerry Marshall read his career highlights - all of which came from his three years with the MSU club team - and Shopbell received an appreciative ovation from the crowd and his teammates.
“It was quite an experience,” said Shopbell, a walk-on from nearby DeWitt. “The time I had to be out there and skate around was wonderful.”
Eventually, Shopbell was joined at center ice by the other four seniors on the team - right wing and captain Adam Hall, left wing Joe Goodenow and defensemen Andrew Hutchinson and Jon Insana. The five departing players, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, had pictures taken together and, turning in unison, they acknowledged the fans on each side of Munn.
While Shopbell was recognized as part of the five-man senior unit, he doesn’t really fit the mold of the other four players. Hall, Goodenow, Hutchinson and Insana have combined to play 585 games in their Spartan careers.
Shopbell has never played.
He hasn’t even been on the team for four years - he joined at the beginning of last season after skating three years with the club team. In his last season with the club team, he led the Spartans to a 21-6 record with a 2.50 goals against average. He also earned first-team all-tournament honors at the American Collegiate Hockey Association national playoffs.
“Getting to this point the way that I did was a little bit different than what most people do, but the fact that I made it here is really wonderful,” Shopbell said.
At several points during MSU’s 2-0 win over Ferris State on Saturday, a young lady seated in the last couple of rows on the east side of the arena held up a sign that read, “Ring the Bell, put in #1” - a plea for Mason to insert Shopbell, whose jersey number is No. 1.
Who was she? A love-struck damsel smitten with the player’s mug shot? A die-hard hockey junkie who had followed Shopbell’s obscure career since he came to MSU?
“Yeah, that was my girlfriend,” Shopbell said with a smile. “I saw the sign before it was ever put out there.”
Without question, being the third goaltender is often a thankless job. But it’s one that Shopbell relishes.
His teammates affectionately call him “Shoppie-Bulin” - a play on the name of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.
In an average practice, Shopbell gets a good deal of time between the pipes. Usually, he’ll step in when either Miller or Migliaccio is pulled aside by a coach or needs a rest.
He also takes part in impromptu scrimmages and post-practice shooting contests where he, Miller and Migliaccio take turns facing a barrage of shots from Spartan skaters.
“I love trying to be competitive with these guys,” Shopbell said. “Granted, I don’t play much, but I can give them a run for their money in practice. It’s something I look forward to every day. It’s a stress reliever.”
He made the MSU dress list twice in his career - Saturday and Feb. 10, 2001 - but watched both of those games from the bench. On every other game night the last two years, his jersey No. 1 has been scratched from the lineup.
He didn’t even get into this year’s Green and White intrasquad scrimmage, although he was all suited up and ready to play on the bench. Mason just never gave him the call.
But for an instant, it appeared that Shopbell might get to play Saturday night - a la men’s basketball senior guard Mat Ishbia, who started for the first time Saturday afternoon.
With 36.1 seconds left in the game, Hall was awarded a penalty shot. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to reward Shopbell by putting him in the game for a half a minute. But again, the call never came from Mason.
Was there consideration?
“Oh sure,” Mason said. “If there hadn’t been a shutout going for Miller, we probably would have put him in.
“The third goalie is an important ingredient to a program because you can’t practice Miller and Migliaccio the whole time. The big thing for the third goalie is that he has to accept that he’s the practice goalie, and Nathan’s been great about that. He certainly deserved to dress for a game and be recognized on Senior Night.”
Shopbell said he wasn’t bothered by watching the end of Saturday’s game from the bench.
“It wasn’t a goal of mine to get out there and play,” Shopbell said. “I wanted to win the game as much as anybody else did.
“If I’m out there for 36 seconds, it’s not going to make me a different person. It’s just the fact that I’ve been here as long as I have and I’m a Spartan. That’s the experience that I’m really here for.”
He probably won’t dress again - with MSU now in the ultra-competitive postseason portion of its schedule - but Shopbell will still be at practice every day through spring break and for the rest of the season.
It’s a time-consuming hobby, but hockey rarely gets in the way of his academic pursuits, he said. He is a member of MSU’s solar car team and plans to graduate in May with an electrical engineering degree.
“I got a good degree and that’s what I came to Michigan State for. I never came here to play hockey,” he said. “Having hockey almost made me study more because I knew what I had to get done. As an athlete, you can’t just flunk a class and say, ‘Oh, I’ll just take it over.’ You have to get the grade point and you have to get the credits.
“I don’t anticipate getting drafted or anything, so after school’s done I’m looking for a job. If you know anybody out there who’s looking for an electrical engineer, feel free to send them my way. The market’s looking a little lower than it has in the last few years.”
