Michigan State defeated Michigan in a – let’s just keep things simple and say entertaining – football game last weekend.
Spartans’ head coach Danton Cole was asked if his team could possibly feed off that energy and keep things rolling when the two schools meet in a home-and-home series on the ice this weekend.
“Well, we weren’t here,” Cole said with a laugh, referring to MSU’s road split at Ohio State last weekend. “It’s unfortunate. We’ve got two groups of young men, our freshmen class and our sophomore class, and then some of the older guys that came in this year, that haven’t really been around a football Saturday like that.”
Cole did say that he thinks having excitement from other teams on campus is helping his squad.
“You do see it from afar and, you know what, when football’s playing well things are exciting around here,” he said. “Some of that has bled over to hockey, our student section has been outstanding and our crowds have been outstanding.”
Forget not experiencing a football game with a crowd, a lot of Michigan State’s players haven’t experienced the in-state rivalry that they play in with people watching live. That’ll change this weekend at both Munn Ice Arena and Yost Ice Arena.
“I think we do get some of that and the guys know it’ll be a big crowd,” Cole said. “The newer guys, and even again the second-year guys that haven’t been around a series with fans here at Munn or down at Yost, they should be looking forward to it.”
They’ll be looking forward to a heck of a challenge. Michigan has stumbled the past two weekends, splitting with Western Michigan and Wisconsin, but this will be a very tall task for the Spartans.
“As a team, you’ve got to look forward to challenges,” Cole said. “Playing Michigan is a special thing, as we know, for a lot of different reasons. They’re one of the best teams in the country and we’ve got a chance to match up and see where we’re at fairly early in the season.
“You should look forward to that, we want guys that want to compete and want to go out there and battle. You just have to be ready with matchups up and down the lineup.”
Cole alluded to the fact that he’d probably be happy with a split this weekend, but not strictly because the opponent is Michigan. More so because it’s a conference series.
“The Big Ten tends to be a conference in hockey that you get your splits as much as you can and try and sneak out some sweeps there, and make some ground that way,” he said.
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After starting its season by hosting a nonconference series, playing home-and-homes with two in-state rivals and hosting a conference series, Minnesota will finally leave Minnesota for the first time this season.
The Gophers won’t have to travel far, though, as their first road test of the season will be a border battle at Wisconsin.
“We are fired up to get on the road, it couldn’t come at a better time,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said on his radio show earlier this week. “Team building, spending a handful of days in a hotel, getting on the road. … we’re looking forward to this, especially with Wisconsin.”
The Gophers are coming off sweeping Notre Dame at home and the Badgers will look to build on their most impressive result of the season — downing Michigan at Yost last Friday.
“No team has lost more production and what led them and drove their program a year ago than Wisconsin,” Motzko said. “They’ve kind of got to reinvent this season and how they play. I think that win for them (Friday), I think that was a season-saving win. That was a trademark win that they can really staple to their group.”
The Badgers went 3-1 against Minnesota last year during the regular season, a record that helped them capture the conference title. The two teams met again in the conference tournament championship game with the Gophers winning that one 6-4.
“It’s always a great rivalry,” Motzko said. “The fans are there (and) we have fans that can get over to the building. We’re looking forward to it.”
