A dose of déjà vu nearly befell Munn Ice Arena on Saturday night, as a Zamboni mishap delayed the start of the second period by about 15 minutes. During the first intermission, a Munn employee sitting on the Zamboni attempted to throw a giveaway T-shirt into the crowd, but his toss failed to clear the glass in the northeast corner of the rink.
MSU head coach Ron Mason earned his 900th career win the way he has earned so many others Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena. The top-ranked Spartans (3-0-1 overall, 3-0-1 CCHA) relied on a tested defense and solid goaltending to beat Ferris State 2-0 in front of 6,732 fans. Junior goaltender Ryan Miller made 23 saves and recorded his second shutout of the year to help Mason, already college hockey’s all-time winningest coach, push his career record to 900-371-79.
MSU head coach Ron Mason has achieved milestones before. Just last February, he won his 600th game as a Spartan. About eight and a half years ago, he surpassed Len Ceglarski as college hockey’s all-time winningest coach with his 674th overall victory. He was also the first college coach to reach both the 700th- and 800th-win plateaus.
MSU kept its top spot in both of this week’s national polls after sweeping a two-game series with Lake Superior State by a combined score of 11-1 last weekend.The Spartans (2-0-1 overall, 2-0-1 CCHA) garnered 31 first-place votes and 587 points in the USCHO.com poll, keeping them well ahead of No.
The Spartan hockey team will receive even more national exposure this week, stemming from its record-setting outdoor hockey game on Oct.
Reporters weren’t asking Joe Goodenow the questions he expected to hear in his first three seasons at MSU.Instead of queries about hat tricks, tape-to-tape passes or bone-rattling body checks, Goodenow has had to explain separated shoulders and groin pulls.Those are certainly not the topics the 5-foot-10, 196-pound Toronto native wants to be synonymous with his collegiate career.“The last four years have really been a struggle to be healthy,” said Goodenow, a senior left wing and center.
Top-ranked MSU’s two-game series against Lake Superior State wasn’t much more than target practice for the Spartans, who outshot the Lakers 85-33 Thursday and Friday at Munn Ice Arena.MSU’s re-emphasis on offensive production was plainly evident in the sweep, as the Spartans (2-0-1 overall, 2-0-1 CCHA) torched the Lakers (0-2-0, 0-2-0) for 11 total goals - a number the Spartans only eclipsed in one CCHA series last season.Ron Mason, MSU’s head coach of 23 seasons, has encouraged this year’s team to utilize its raw offensive talents, even at the expense of the Spartans’ time-tested defensive tradition.At one point in the second period of Friday’s 6-1 win, all five Spartan skaters darted below the circles in the Laker zone - a move that would have been sacrilegious for a Mason-coached team in recent years.“Our system that we’re playing gives us an opportunity to pursue a little bit more,” said Mason, who earned his 899th career win Friday.
As dominant as MSU was in its 5-0 shutout of Lake Superior State on Thursday night, the top-ranked Spartans looked even better in Friday‘s series finale.The Spartans (2-0-1 overall, 2-0-1 CCHA) peppered the Lake Superior net with 46 shots and rarely allowed the Lakers to mount an offensive attack in a 6-1 win at Munn Ice Arena.Senior left wing Joe Goodenow led the Spartans with two goals and an assist as the Spartans outshot Lake Superior (0-2-0, 0-2-0) 46-19 for the game.Freshman center Lee Falardeau added a goal and two assists and junior defenseman Brad Fast and junior right wing Steve Jackson tacked on a goal and an assist each.Falardeau put MSU up 1-0 at 3:46 of the first period with his first goal of the season.
The winningest coach in college hockey history is now the best paid.The MSU Board of Trustees approved a 13 percent increase and extended head hockey coach Ron Mason’s contract through 2005.
MSU hockey head coach Ron Mason is scheduled to receive a roughly $20,000 raise to his annual base salary at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting Friday.The Board will vote to increase his salary from $153,215 to $173,215.
The unknowns of christening a new hockey venue are now in MSU’s rearview mirror, but the Spartans still don’t know exactly what to expect in their next series.After tying Michigan 3-3 in “The Cold War” at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, top-ranked MSU (0-0-1 overall, 0-0-1 CCHA) returns to Munn Ice Arena for a two-game set with Lake Superior State today and Friday.
MSU junior left wing Steve Clark said Saturday was “maybe the biggest disappointment” of his career.It seems like an odd statement considering Saturday was the day the top-ranked Spartans hosted “The Cold War,” broke the world hockey attendance record and tied archrival Michigan 3-3 in Spartan Stadium.Many of Clark’s teammates actually called Saturday one of the best, most memorable days of their lives.
MSU head coach Ron Mason and Michigan head coach Red Berenson didn’t just leave the door open for the possibility of another massive outdoor hockey game occurring - they all but took it off the hinges. After “The Cold War” set the world record for hockey attendance (74,554) and basically went off without a hitch Saturday night, the long-time coaches said a follow-up was inevitable. But where will it happen next? “The world of professional hockey and the world of college hockey will both look at it,” Berenson said.
Two things were expected going into “The Cold War” on Saturday at Spartan Stadium - it would be big and the game would be a close one.After 74,554 MSU and Michigan fans spilled into the stadium’s stands and aisles, easily breaking the world record for attendance at a hockey game, that much came true.And after overtime ended with a 3-3 tie, most of those fans gathered their blankets and hats and walked down the ramps to the concourse without a second thought that a game between two top-five teams should have ended any differently.But it was unexpected factors - the crowd, the noise, the pregame hoopla, the lighting, the cold, the board and ice conditions - that made the night one the Spartan players and fans said they won’t soon forget.“As soon as we walked out and everyone in the stands saw us, they just started going nuts,” senior right wing Adam Hall said.
Top-ranked MSU and archrival No. 4 Michigan helped break a world record Saturday night, but 65 minutes of hockey was not enough to break the 3-3 tie the teams skated to in “The Cold War” at Spartan Stadium.U-M center Mike Cammalleri notched two goals and an assist, and it looked like that would be enough to propel the Wolverines (0-0-1 overall, 0-0-1 CCHA) to victory on hostile turf.But MSU freshman center Jim Slater electrified the partisan Spartan crowd with a last-minute goal - his first as a collegian - that sent the game to overtime.Both teams threatened but couldn’t score in the extra frame, bringing about a somewhat anticlimactic ending to a highly hyped event.
MSU had to have an extra skater to manage a 3-3 tie with Michigan in “The Cold War” at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.
Sports fans proved Saturday that weather, time and even sporting genre don’t matter when universities put on their game faces.The only thing that does matter is rivalry.“I don’t care if they’re playing Tiddlywinks, this is MSU versus U of M,” said Tom Ludwig, a resident of Chelsea who began tailgating at 2:30 p.m.“You can watch this on TV tomorrow, but there’s no replacement for seeing this live.”Spartan and Wolverine fans alike packed campus for “The Cold War”, the record-breaking hockey game between U-M and MSU in Spartan Stadium.With temperatures hovering just a few degrees above freezing at their coldest, the number of tailgaters entering campus just as the sun began to shine were down from the average football game.But by noon, the hockey Saturday looked just like a football Saturday.Most lots normally designated for alumni donors were open to the public, giving students and hockey fans a chance to feel the thrills and chills of tailgating and rivalry for their sport of choice.And there were chills for hockey tailgaters to match the ice crystallized over Spartan Stadium’s turf.“We’re beyond freezing,” said telecommunication senior Miranda Dietrich, who had been hopping up and down for warmth at her tailgating spot, near the tennis courts on Wilson Road, since 9:30 a.m.“We’ve got layers and layers.
MSU freshman center Jim Slater wasn’t about to let his first collegiate hockey game end in a loss to archrival Michigan in a season-opening CCHA battle in front of a world-record crowd in Spartan Stadium.So Slater introduced and endeared himself to the Spartan hockey faithful with a memorable game-tying goal late in “The Cold War” on Saturday night as No.
Most of the top-ranked Spartans’ outdoor playing experience hasn’t extended beyond friendly shinny games on cold winter afternoons.That will change at 7:05 p.m.
He was there on business, and his business was ice.And despite the warm weather and the inch of water that topped the rink’s frozen base Wednesday, Al Osterloh donned a full-fledged smile.Osterloh wheels and deals in keeping things frozen.