Michigan State University Athletics
MSU Hockey Opens Season With Friday's Green-White Game
9/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Sept. 27, 2001
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TONIGHT
The Michigan State hockey team begins its 61st season of competition with the annual Green-White intrasquad game. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
THE MSU HEAD COACH
Ron Mason (St. Lawrence '64) enters his 23rd season with the Spartans and 36th year as a college coach. The winningest mentor in college hockey history, Mason has piloted the Spartans to a 608-261-64 (.686) mark since taking over for the legendary Amo Bessone in 1979. His overall record currently stands at 897-371-78 (.695). He guided MSU to its second NCAA hockey championship in 1986 and his 21 NCAA Tournament appearances are an all-time record. Mason has also taken eight teams to the NCAA Frozen Four, including seven Spartan squads.
Mason has more victories at one school than all but two coaches in NCAA hockey history. He's surpassed by only Bob Peters of Bemidji State (703 wins), who retired at the end of the 2000-01 season, and Jack Parker of Boston University (616). His number of wins with the Green and White are more than all but five coaches have during their collegiate careers.
The seven-time Central Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year led the Spartans to league regular-season titles in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1998, 1999 and 2001. He's also guided MSU to CCHA playoff crowns in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1998, 2000 and 2001. The league honored Mason by renaming the CCHA playoff trophy in his honor last year.
Mason, who won the Spencer Penrose Award as national coach of the year in 1992, has coached 20 Spartans to All-American honors and seen 44 of his former MSU skaters move on to the NHL.
MASON TO MISS GREEN-WHITE GAME
Ron Mason will not be at the intrasquad game in order to attend funeral services for Shawn Walsh, the former MSU assistant and Maine head coach who died Monday after a 15-month battle with cancer. Mason plans to return to the Spartan bench for Saturday's exhibition vs. Queen's at Munn Ice Arena. Please see page five of this release for more on Walsh's passing.
THE 4-1-1 ON 900
Mason will break into uncharted territory once again this season. The Spartans' mentor needs just three wins to post his 900th career victory. Mason, who won his 600th game behind the MSU bench against Michigan at Joe Louis Arena last February, enters the 2001-02 campaign with a 897-371-78 record in 35 seasons at Lake Superior State, Bowling Green and Michigan State.
A THOUSAND POINTS OF LIGHT
The Spartans come into 2001-02 with a 991-738-85 (.570) record in 60 seasons of intercollegiate hockey competition. Nine more wins will make MSU the second CCHA school and tenth in NCAA history to reach the 1,000-win plateau. Michigan leads the way among CCHA programs with 1,253 victories.
HE'S BAAAAAAACK!
Junior goaltender Ryan Miller returns to East Lansing this season after putting together arguably the best season by a netminder in college hockey history. The East Lansing native won the 2001 Hobey Baker Memorial Award after posting a 31-5-4 record, a 1.32 goals against average and a .950 saves percentage - the best single-season saves percentage in NCAA history. He also etched his name into the NCAA record books by notching his 18th career shutout, two better than the previous mark set by Clarkson's Wally Easton and matched by Niagara's Greg Gardner.
Not only did Miller become the second Spartan and second goaltender to win the Hobey, but he also was named college player of the year by both USA Hockey and The Hockey News and earned the Big Ten Conference's Male Athlete of the Year honor, beating out standouts such as Purdue quarterback Drew Brees and Indiana basketball player Kirk Haston. Miller became the first hockey player and first MSU male athlete to earn the Big Ten award.
THE BIG GAME
Michigan State kicks off the 2001-02 regular season with a showdown against arch-rival Michigan at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Oct. 6. A sellout crowd of more than 72,000 fans is expected for the contest, which would shatter the current world record for attendance at a hockey game - 55,000 people packed Lenin Stadium in Moscow for the 1957 International Ice Hockey Federation championship game between the Soviet Union and Sweden.
The MSU-Michigan tilt, arguably the most publicized game in college hockey history, will be seen in more than 38 million homes in North America. Fox Sports Net Detroit will broadcast the contest live to 2.6 million cable subscribers in Michigan, northwest Indiana and northern Ohio. Nine other Fox Sports Net affiliates - FSN Bay Area, FSN Chicago, FSN Florida, FSN Midwest, FSN New England, FSN North, FSN Ohio, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain - will carry the game on a tape-delay basis. The game will also be reach 6 million Canadian viewers via CTV Sportsnet, which will televise the contest on a same-day delay on its four affiliates across the nation.
SPARTANS FIRST IN CCHA MEDIA POLL
MSU is the choice to repeat as Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion according to the league's media. The conference office released the results of the annual preseason poll at its media gathering in Detroit Tuesday (Sept. 25).
The Spartans, who won both the CCHA regular-season and postseason titles in 2000-01 earned 22 of 26 first-place votes and 306 total points. Michigan was second with 273 points and one first-place tally. Third-place Nebraska-Omaha had 241 total points, including one first-place mention. Fourth-place Ohio State, with 207 points, also earned one first-place vote. Northern Michigan, with 184 points, and Miami, with 182 points including one first-place vote, rounded out the top six.
Filling spots seven through 12 were Western Michigan (172 points), Bowling Green (110), Lake Superior State (101), Ferris State (98), Notre Dame (90) and Alaska Fairbanks (64).
