Sophomore center Jim Slater was the meat in a hockey player sandwich Friday night - and his left elbow paid the price.
As Slater released a wrist shot in the third period of MSU's 2-1 loss to Niagara, a pair of Purple Eagles smashed him from both sides.
In obvious pain, Slater immediately threw his stick and gloves to the ground, left the ice and headed straight for the MSU locker room.
The diagnosis was a hyperextended left elbow.
But moments later, Slater was back on the ice, diving for pucks and body-checking Purple Eagles while trying to notch a game-tying goal.
"He's got a football mentality when he plays the game," MSU head coach Rick Comley said afterward.
There's a reason for that. The 6-foot, 194-pound Lapeer native is the son of a former NFL player.
Bill Slater played offensive and defensive line in the 1970s for the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots.
And although the fact his son proved his grit by returning to the ice so soon after the injury, Jim Slater's performance Saturday was even more impressive.
MSU's volunteer goalie coach, Joe Blackburn, said a hyperextension injury "usually isn't too bad that night, but you really feel it the next day."
Slater did feel it.
In fact, he sat out of MSU's afternoon skate, and he was scratched from Comley's preliminary lineup Saturday night.
But after getting taped by trainer Dave Carrier and going through the pregame skate with a full range of motion, Slater asked Comley to put him in the lineup.
The coach obliged and the player rewarded him with two goals and an assist in MSU's 5-4 overtime win over Niagara.
"Slater put himself in. It was his choice," Comley said."If there's one guy we can't play without right now, it's him. He's a guy I do trust a lot, obviously, because he plays a lot."
Just 45 games into his collegiate career, Slater has earned the respect of his teammates, too.
"He had an unbelievable game for how injured he was - I guess (the elbow) is pretty bad," said sophomore defenseman Duncan Keith, Slater's freshman-year roommate. "It just goes to show you the type of player he is, the type of person he is."
Slater, 19, said he didn't tone down his fiery style Saturday. He can't play any way other than full-steam ahead. He said he even threw a couple of checks with his left side and "it hurt a little bit" but he kept chugging along.
"When you're hurt, you can't think about it because it's all in the mind," Slater said. "The only time I felt it was when I came off between periods and you're just sitting there and it starts to throb. When you're playing, the adrenaline's pumping, and you just don't think about it.
"If I didn't score goals or any assists tonight, I was still going to play a good defensive game and keep throwing my body around."
That moxie is probably part of the reason why Slater became the first Spartan since 1990 to be picked in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. The Atlanta Thrashers chose him 30th overall in June.
He tallied 32 points as a freshman at MSU last season, which was good for fourth on the team. He has six points (three goals, three assists) in eight games this year.
Slater is also one of MSU's three assistant captains this season, and as the only underclassman in the bunch, he seems to be a shoo-in for team captaincy next year.
"I'm not really a talkative kind of guy in the locker room, but when things need to be said, I'll be there to say it," Slater said.
"I like to lead with my actions and, hopefully, I can continue to do that for the rest of my year here and, hopefully, for my junior and senior years, too."
