It's not a coincidence that no player has ever worn the jersey No. 13 in the history of MSU hockey.
"I think a couple of kids asked me to wear it, and I just said 'no 13s,'" said former head coach Ron Mason, who ran the MSU program for 23 years. "I've never had a No. 13 on any team I've ever coached. I grew up like that. In the old days of Canadian hockey, there was no No. 13."
Superstitiously, the No. 13 is considered unlucky, and Mason admitted the negative stigma was the root of his prohibition. But he also mentioned that his youngest grandson, Travis Walsh, now wears No. 13 for his local youth hockey team.
"There's a bit of irony for you," Mason said. "If a kid asked me today, I don't know if I'd have a problem with it."
Freshman left wing David Booth (No. 12) and sophomore center Ash Goldie (No. 14) flank the vacant No. 13 slot on this year's MSU roster. They both said they never wanted to be No. 13.
First-year head coach Rick Comley said he allowed players to wear No. 13 at Northern Michigan, where he coached before coming to MSU. Comley said he won't ban the number just to keep with the Spartan tradition.
"If someone wanted it, it wouldn't bother me at all," he said. "I think the number is kind of a European thing. They brought it over here."
Eleven players in the NHL wear No. 13, including All-stars Mats Sundin and Bill Guerin. Six of the 11 players who wear the number are from countries outside North America.
Broke
Comley and hockey assistant coaches Tom Newton and Dave McAuliffe took on three football assistants in a free-throw shooting contest at halftime of Tuesday's MSU-Indiana men's basketball game.
The contest raised money for the Pediatric Emergency Room at Sparrow Hospital, 1215 E. Michigan Ave.
The football staff - Reggie Mitchell (running backs), Paul Haynes (cornerbacks) and Jim McElwain (wide receivers, special teams) - won 4-3. McAuliffe sank two rainbows, and Newton made one for the hockey crew. Comley, a southpaw using a one-handed shooting technique, never found the bucket.
"I said I'd participate as long as the amount of money the kids get in the charity isn't dependent on how many free throws I make," Comley said before the event. "If it is, they're in trouble. I was going to practice, but then I thought, 'Basketball players practice all the time and they never make them.'"
Dad in pads
John Liles, the father of Spartan senior defenseman John-Michael Liles, will be MSU's goaltender in its 27th annual charity broomball game against the Legal Eagles next week.
The elder Liles paid $575 at an auction for the honor.
The two-period game will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Munn Ice Arena. Tickets are $4, with proceeds going to Sparrow's Pediatric Emergency Room. Tickets are available through the MSU Athletic Ticket Office.
Dear Mr. Postman
Right before sophomore center Jim Slater took the team's first penalty shot of the season Saturday night, he conferred with MSU sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio.
"I knew I could beat him glove-side," said Slater, MSU's leading scorer. "That's what I usually do on Migs in practice. Before the shot, I went down and told Migs I was going high-glove, and he said, 'Yeah, that's your shot.'"
On the play, he had Fighting Irish goaltender Morgan Cey beaten, but the shot hit the left post and caromed away. It would have given MSU a 3-1 lead in the second period. The Spartans ultimately tied the Irish, 3-3.
"That's the kind of night it was," Slater said.
Sweet 16
The Spartans (14-9-2 overall, 10-6-1 CCHA) still aren't ranked, but they're getting closer. MSU is one spot out of the top 15 in this week's USCHO.com national poll and the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll.
