MSU senior defenseman John-Michael Liles has plenty of friends on the Notre Dame hockey team - he was teammates with Fighting Irish forwards Connor Dunlop and John Wroblewski and defenseman Brett Lebda in the U.S. National Team Development Program in 1998-99.
And the last time he got to see those guys, everyone was pretty friendly.
"A bunch of them came up for the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game in September," Liles said. "We hung out with them, and they all stayed with us that night."
Odds are, things won't be quite so amicable when the Spartans (13-9-1 overall, 9-6-0 CCHA) reacquaint themselves with the Fighting Irish this weekend in South Bend, Ind. Both teams will be scrambling for four key points in the league race, and the tension will be palpable.
MSU is part of a four-way tie for fourth place in the CCHA standings. With a sweep, which would be their third straight, the Spartans would remain fourth or move up. Getting swept could drop them as far as eighth in the 12-team league.
MSU senior forward Troy Ferguson said the Spartans are getting used to playing pressure-packed series after pressure-packed series.
"The more we win, the more we set ourselves up for another big weekend," Ferguson said. "Each time we win, every game's now a must-win again. But that's the way we want it.
"We really haven't done anything yet. We've beaten the teams we were supposed to beat, but we can't get ahead of ourselves. We can't get too high right now."
The Fighting Irish (9-11-4, 7-8-1) are ninth in the CCHA, three points behind the fourth-place logjam. Forward Rob Globke, who played for the National team a year after Liles, leads the team with 18 goals and 28 points. Wroblewski is second with 23 points and Dunlop is third for the Irish with 22 points, despite scoring just two goals.
Ferguson also played with Wroblewski, Dunlop and company in the national program, and he thinks he knows what to expect this weekend.
"Dunlop is just a pure play-maker, and Wroblewski is a grinder that gets things done," said Ferguson, who is also friends with Irish forward Michael Chin and defenseman Neil Komadoski. "They're all great guys, to be honest with you. Not only are they great players, but I've noticed Notre Dame recruits great kids.
"Hockey's an interesting sport. Everybody thinks it's so violent, but at the same time, you can compete with somebody so hard on the ice and then, when the game is over, you can be best buddies."
Last February, Notre Dame snapped MSU's 33-game home unbeaten streak with a 3-2 win at Munn Ice Arena. Goaltender Morgan Cey sparkled for the Irish that game, making 34 saves and frustrating the Spartan attackers.
Cey has a modest 3.26 goals against average and .902 saves percentage this season, but the Spartans are expecting to face the same dominant netminder that ruined their home streak a year ago. From Cey on out, Notre Dame head coach Dave Poulin has one of the most talented rosters in the league - including five NHL draft picks - but the Irish are still having trouble translating skill into wins this season.
"They felt so good about their couple years of recruiting with Globke, Lebda and Komadoski and that whole group," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "And when they were picked seventh in the league this year, (Poulin) was offended by that. Last year
