MSU to face No. 1 Miami in Thursday, Friday set

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A new rivalry is slowly building for the MSU hockey team.

Lately, when the Spartans have played Miami (Ohio), a lot has been on the line. In 2005, is was a CCHA Playoff series. In 2006, it was the CCHA Tournament Championship.

Although the stakes aren’t as high as they’ve been, one of the biggest early season series in college hockey will take place today and Friday as the No. 3 Spartans and No. 1 RedHawks play for national supremacy at Munn Ice Arena.

“We kind of have a little rivalry going,” senior forward Chris Mueller said.

“With them being the No. 1 team in the country right now, we’re going to take that personally and it’s going to be a good, rough game, and I look forward to it.

“If we want to be ranked No. 1, if we want to be considered a Frozen Four-potential team, we have to beat Miami. It’s going to be a test, it’s going to be a sign of maturity, and we’re going to see if we can answer the bell or not.”

Miami dropped its first game of the season last weekend against Notre Dame but rebounded for a series split.

MSU is riding an eight-game winning streak and have not tasted defeat in a month.

Miami boasts two of the top tandems in college hockey — forwards Nathan Davis and Ryan Jones pace the offense while goaltenders Jeff Zatkoff and Charlie Effinger are one of the premier one-two punches in college hockey. Zatkoff has seen the majority of the time this season after splitting time the past two years.

“You have to play well against them,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “You can’t play sloppy, you can’t turn it over and that’s one of the things that we still struggle at is trying to make something out of nothing.”

Chances are high that this series could be won or lost in special teams. MSU boasts the nation’s No. 1 power play while Miami lays claim to the country’s No. 4 penalty kill, allowing just three power play goals all season.

Comley said Miami will present the biggest test for his power play this season.

“It’ll be a challenge,” he said. “They pressure like crazy. We’ve played a lot of teams that sit back and try to defend the middle of the ice and they’re not going to do that. They’re going to put pressure on our guys and take away time. They’re always an excellent penalty killing team.”

This will be the Spartans’ second crack at the No. 1 team, and they’re hoping it goes better than last time — a 6-0 loss to North Dakota in the season opener, a game in which Comley said his team didn’t “answer the bell.”

“We didn’t react very well to the North Dakota game,” Comley said. “We’re better now than we were that opening weekend. We’ve had some questions answered, and I think our kids will be ready for this.”

“These are games you wait for,” senior defenseman Daniel Vukovic said.

“These are the games that can make or break your season — not fully, but definitely can really help out your season or hurt it.”

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