Game #4 – Michigan State Spartans v. The Ohio State Buckeyes – Big Ten Conference - Munn Ice Arena - East Lansing, Michigan

I had season tickets to the Michigan State Hockey Spartans in the late 90’s, when I was in law school there. At that time, the Spartans were in the midst of regular season home sell out streak that would eventually reach 323 games. Coach Ron Mason had assembled a tremendous team, the likes of which hasn't not been seen in East Lansing since. One of the greatest hockey games I ever saw, a 5-4 comeback win over Michigan (then the defending NCAA champions and ranked #1 in the nation), was at Munn. When Ron Mason won his 800^th career game in 1998, also against the hated Wolverines, I was one of the hundred or so students who went on the ice with a paper “800” sign to salute our living legend coach. I was even on ESPN for about half a second. I went to several GLI and CCHA games the Spartans played at Joe Louis Arena and even traveled to Columbus to see them play the Buckeyes in their old, decrepit rink. Tonight, I am at Munn with my friend Csaba, an OSU alumnus and huge hockey fan. My wife Michelle, another rabid OSU alumus, declined to make the trip due to the extreme cold weather. Michigan State University’s hockey program is, their fans hope, on an upward trend. Tonight, against a very good Ohio State University hockey team, there were flashes of greatness of a program in the midst of change. 

The Michigan State and Ohio State hockey teams are charter members of the Big Ten Hockey conference, formed in 2013 when Penn State instituted a varsity hockey program after a wealthy donor gave millions to build a facility for the team to play in. Prior to that, the Spartans and Buckeyes played in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) a motley conference of teams from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and even Alaska. Munn Ice Arena, named after the legendary Michigan State head football coach Biggie Munn, has been the home for MSU hockey since 1974. For most of those years, the team was coached by Ron Mason, one of the greatest hockey minds of his era at any level of the hockey world. Mason was the all time winningest coach in college hockey history when he retired in 2002 to become the school’s athletic director, and the vast majority of those wins came during his time at Michigan State.
 

Indeed, Mason’s arrival and departure were the two seminal moments in MSU hockey history. For most of Mason’s tenure, the Spartans were a perennial college hockey powerhouse, winning numerous league regular season playoff titles, NCAA tournament appearances, a national championship in 1986, and narrowly missing another in 1987. There were two Hobey Baker winners, numerous All-Americans and NHL draft picks. His hand picked successor, the former Northern Michigan Hockey coach Rick Comley, carried on the winning tradition for a while, even winning a national championship in 2007. The 2007 championship was decidedly not an indication of MSU being a perennial winning program, as the team rode a hot goalie and timely goal scoring to win the school’s third national championship. Comley could not capitalize on the success of that campaign, and, after a string of losing seasons, he unceremoniously retired in 2011, much to the approval of the MSU hockey fandom.
 

MSU athletic director Mark Hollis then hired Tom Anastos, the commissioner of the CCHA, to coach the team. Anastos, a former Spartan who played under Mason, was well respected in college hockey circles as an administrator, but had very limited coaching experience. Hollis had a track record of innovation and the move, given Anastos’ reputation as a great hockey man, made some sense at the time. Hollis was the main force behind the first major outdoor hockey game, played at Spartan Stadium in 2001 (appropriately dubbed “The Cold War” for I froze my ass off at the game) and was always thinking outside the box to bring Spartan athletics into prominence. But, unlike his wildly successful hire of Mark Dantonio, Anastos proved to be a disaster, and the hockey program went out of the frying pan and into the fire. Perhaps reading the writing on the wall, he resigned his post in 2017 after the team won only 7 games the entire season. Mason had died unexpectedly the summer before the season started, and the funeral was at Munn, his casket at center ice. With the MSU football and basketball teams enjoying great success, there was a noticeable pall over the hockey program.
 

 

Enter Danton Cole, a Spartan hockey alumnus who played 318 games in the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 1995. Cole was hired after coaching the USA NTDP (see Month of Hockey game #2) where he had produced some impressive teams. He called coaching MSU his dream job, and the move was met with near universal approval from Spartan hockey fans, including me. This season, despite losing many upperclassmen, including their leading scorer from last season, Cole’s team had already won more games by Christmas than the team did under Anastos the entire season before.

 I walk into Munn on this extraordinarily cold evening and the memories come flooding back. Of games remembered but mostly forgotten, of Mason behind the bench, of my friend Becker (a frequent companion to these games), and of Michelle, since Munn is where we had one of our first dates. I even went into Munn one summer afternoon in 1999 when I was taking the bar exam next door at the Breslin Center. I was hot, mentally and physically exhausted, and had one more three-hour session before the exam was complete. I wandered into Munn during the lunch break and it was like a Zen garden. The rink was deserted, cool from the year round ice, and quiet. I was able to mentally regroup, physically cool down, and focus. It was a comfortable, familiar place to be in in the midst of the proverbial war that is the bar exam. I passed, so perhaps my little rally inside Munn played a part in that.

 Munn has changed tremendously since I was a student here. Upper level press boxes and suites were built, and the scoreboard is now current, rather than vintage. We are sitting in almost the exact spot where my student season tickets were, a delightful happenstance. Despite my desires to get up to East Landing to see a game as often as I can, it had been three or four years since I’ve been here. The flip side of that is going to Munn is now a special experience, one that, win or lose, I enjoy.  But I badly want MSU to win. They are on a three game losing streak, including an ugly loss to Michigan, squandering a two goal lead. Tonight, MSU gets on the board first, but Ohio State, having an excellent season (ranked 8^th nationally), eventually ties it, and the teams are even going into the third period. The crowd at Munn, historically quiet during games, is low key again with the student section empty, a casualty of the school’s Christmas break. In fact, the pep band, playing the same, somewhat tired songs that I heard 20 years ago when I was a regular here, is composed of alumni. OSU pulls ahead with a three-goal spurt in the third period, and MSU would score another to cut the deficit to two, but that would be it. 
Final score: 5-3 Ohio State.

No matter. For the Spartans, this is a year of transition. Danton Cole has work to do, but his record of success is a promising indicator of what is to come. I’m confident that in the next two or three years, Ron Mason, wherever he is, will be pleased.