Neil's Notebook: Spartans Excited for Trip to Boston and Matthews Arena

Dec. 18, 2015

By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer

EAST LANSING â€" Three-and-a-half years into their college hockey careers, Mike Ferrantino and Travis Walsh have played on the road in some special arenas with unique looks and exciting atmospheres.

The Michigan State seniors have played in rinks all over the United States â€" from Alaska to Maine.

They've competed in old buildings like Hobey Baker Memorial Rink at Princeton and Yost Arena in Ann Arbor. There have been trips to new arenas at Penn State and Notre Dame and still fairly new facilities at Miami, Denver and Boston University.

"It's been cool to be able to see so many different buildings and play in different environments,'' Ferrantino said. "One of the things that makes college hockey so special is that every building is unique and has a different feel.''

Ferrantino, Walsh and fellow seniors Jake Hildebrand, John Draeger, Ryan Keller, Matt DeBlouw and Justin Hoomaian have also played in three NHL arenas and practiced in another and competed in a tournament in an American Hockey League facility.

And then there are the outdoor games at baseball and football stadiums â€" Comerica Park in Detroit in December, 2013, and Soldier Field in Chicago last February.

When added up, Spartan seniors have skated games in 25 different arenas or stadiums.

"We've been really fortunate to play at so many places,'' said Walsh. "We got a taste of almost all the CCHA rinks in the last year of the league, and since then we've played at tons of places. It's been a great experience."

The Spartans will add one more to the list this weekend when they play Northeastern, another Hockey East team, at Matthews Arena in Boston, the oldest hockey arena in the U.S., and oldest multi-sport facility in the world.

The Spartans (5-10-2 overall, 1-3-0-0 Big Ten) and Huskies (2-12-3, 0-8-3) meet in a non-conference game at 7 p.m. on Saturday at an arena that is 105-years-old and used to be the home of the Boston Bruins in the 1930s and Boston Celtics in the late 1940s, when it was known as the Boston Arena.

Of course, the home of the Huskies has been renovated a few times.

"It's going to be great, really cool,'' Ferrantino said. "I haven't had a chance to see it but I've been googling it, trying to get a feel for it. I've heard a lot of good things about it.

"The Bruins played there at one point and the Celtics, too. It has amazing history.''

The contest is part of a special MSU-Northeastern weekend which also features the Spartans' men's and women's basketball teams playing the Huskies at Matthews Arena.

Michigan State's women's team tips off the weekend against the Huskies at 8 p.m. on Friday. The Spartans' No. 1 men's basketball team and Northeastern collide at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Then the arena gets converted from the basketball set-up to a hockey rink, just in time for the puck drop at 7 p.m.

"I think it's going to be an awesome experience,'' Walsh said. "We'll see the men's basketball team playing on it on Saturday for the first half, then when we come back, it'll be a hockey rink. I love playing in old rinks like that.''

Since it's renovation in 2006, Mathews Arena seats 4,666, and is 200 feet long and 90 feet wide, five feet wider than most college rinks but still 10 feet shorter than and Olympic ice sheet.

Boston Arena opened on April 16, 1910. The first Bruins hockey game was on Dec. 1, 1924, and Northeastern started playing there on Jan. 17, 1930. The Celtics' first home game came on Nov. 5, 1946. The arena was the first home for several area college hockey programs â€" Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, MIT and Tufts.

Meanwhile, the arena has been home to receptions for Charles Lindbergh (1927) and Amelia Earhart (1928), a presidential rally for Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932), and John F. Kennedy appeared at a veterans' rally with Admiral Chester Nimitz in 1946. There have also been numerous concerts in the building.

Northeastern University purchased the arena in 1979 and it was renamed for George J. Matthews, a 1956 NU graduate, and his wife, Hope. Matthews is chairman emeritus of the Northeastern Board of Trustees.

Walsh will now be able to say he played in another arena in which his grandfather, Ron Mason, played in during his career at St. Lawrence, and in another building in which his father, Shawn Walsh, coached, during his career at Maine.

Mason, who played at Princeton in the early 1960s, never faced Northeastern but played at Boston Arena in the 1962 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament. In the semifinals, St. Lawrence rallied from three goals down to beat Harvard 6-5 and then topped Clarkson in the title game to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Mason said the rink itself is vastly different today from the one he played in 53 years ago.

"It was a weird rink because of the way the corners were. It was almost like they intersected behind the net,'' he said. "The boards took a sharp turn inside near the goal line, so when the puck went around the boards, it would shoot out in front (in the scoring areas).

"We were a good team and Harvard was up by three goals going into the third period, and we're thinking ‘there go our chances of going back to the NCAAs.

"I was the captain and I remember saying in the dressing room that I was going to get the next goal and I wasn't sure who was going to get the second and third, but that we were going to tie the game and win it. And we did.

"We still talk about that game when our guys get together. That was a great win.''

For the Spartans, Matthews Arena will be the last new building they'll play in during the rest of the regular season. They visit Joe Louis Arena later this month and play at Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and at Excel Energy Arena in St. Paul for the Big Ten Tournament.

Over the last four years, MSU played in six then-CCHA arenas â€" Bowling Green, Miami, Notre Dame, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Ohio State, Michigan and Alaska Fairbanks.

In fact, the Spartans made two trips to Fairbanks in three weekends, including a playoff series they won 2-1, in 2012-13.

But the Spartans seniors never played at Northern Michigan.

"We got a taste of almost all the CCHA rinks, like those barns at Western Michigan and Bowling Green,'' Walsh said. "With Alaska, we were there a little too much. Twice in three weeks.''

There's been games at three Big Ten rinks other and U-M and OSU â€"Wisconsin, Minnesota and Penn State.

MSU has played at five Hockey East schools â€" Boston University, Boston College, UMass-Lowell, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and in a tournament in Portland, Maine, an AHL facility.

The only ECAC school on the seniors' list is Princeton. MSU played at Michigan Tech of the WCHA in 2013-14 and at Denver of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference this season in October.

The NHL rinks include Joe Louis Arena and Xcel Energy Arena in St. Paul, and the Spartans practiced at the TD Garden in Boston a month ago when they were in town to play Boston College the next night.

"Playing at Princeton last season was awesome. That's a great old rink,'' Walsh said. "I really liked getting to play in all the Hockey East rinks.

"Notre Dame was a new building when we played there and Penn State is new and has a great atmosphere.''

Walsh said he doesn't have a favorite road rink but he said his most memorable road game was at Lawson Arena at Western Michigan in 2013-14 as a sophomore.

"I don't know if it was the most fun but it was pretty memorable because their student section is pretty crazy,'' he said. "I got a penalty (early in the first period) and they were getting on me in the penalty box. They knew stuff about me personally â€" about my girlfriend, Chelsea, who's now my wife.

"Then Western scored while I'm in the box and so for the next five minutes, they chanted, ‘Thank you, Travis.'

"Then I got another penalty (late in the first period). So they're chanting ‘Welcome back, Travis,' And they gave it to me for another five minutes.''

Walsh said his favorite place in the Big Ten is Minnesota.

"For some reason, I really like playing at Mariucci. They get a good crowd and I like the set-up,'' he said. "It's a giant bowl and really steep. The ice is good, it's Olympic size so that makes it different. That rink has been pretty cool for me.''

Actually, it wasn't very cool for Walsh last February when he took a puck in the face and suffered a fractured jaw and missed the rest of the season.

Ferrantino said Princeton was unlike any rink he's ever played in.

"It's an old building and there are stone walls and it looks like an old cabin kind of thing and there's a hockey rink in it,'' he said. "There's like 10 rows of seats but it got really loud.

"Boston University was cool and so was Denver. I didn't get to play at Denver (because of an injury) but it was good to get to see it. Going to Minnesota is a ton of fun, and obviously, Yost Arena is a blast. It doesn't get much better than that.

"I can't narrow it down to the best one or two, but there have been a lot of special places that we've played. It looks like Northeastern will be another one.''

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES: Northeastern and MSU have something in common â€" both teams are disappointed with the start of their seasons and eager to head into the holiday break with a victory.

The Huskies, 2-12-3 overall and 0-8-3 in Hockey East, are coming off a solid series against No. 4 Boston College in which they tied the Eagles 3-3 at BC last Friday and then suffered a 4-3 loss at home in the series finale.

Northeastern has lost seven games by one goal.

Both of the Huskies' victories have come against Colgate. They opened the season with a 2-1 win over the Red Raiders at home, then lost five straight, tied Vermont, then lost three more games.

After a 2-2 tie at Notre Dame, Northeastern lost two games against defending NCAA champion Providence, still ranked No. 1, and one game vs. UMass-Lowell.

The Huskies finally ended their 13-game winless streak (0-11-2) with a 7-1 victory over Colgate in the Friendship Four series over Thanksgiving weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Standout senior forward Kevin Roy, an All-American last season and one of the favorites this year for the Hobey Baker Award, has missed the last seven games, reportedly due to a concussion. Surprisingly, Roy did not have a goal and only five assists in his first 11 games, before being injured against Notre Dame on Feb. 13. It's not known if Roy will play on Saturday.

In three seasons at NU, Roy has scored 17, 19 and 19 goals and 34, 46 and 44 points, respectively.

The Huskies' top scorers include junior forward Zach Aston-Reese, who has five goals and 10 assists for 15 points, and sophomore forwards Nolan Stevens (7-5-12) and Dylan Sikura (2-8-10). Junior forward John Stevens and freshman forward Eric Williams have scored four goals apiece.

Northeastern has a junior and a freshman in goal. Ryan Ruck, a freshman, has started 11 games and has a 3.05 goals-against average and a .889 saves percentage. Derick Roy, a junior and the brother of Kevin Roy, has started six games and has a 3.02 GAA and .833 saves percentage.

Special teams haven't been a strength for the Huskies. The power play has converted on only 13.9 percent (11-for-79) of their chances. Their penalty killers have successfully killed off only 76.3 percent (45-for-59 of opponents' power plays.

Coach Jim Madigan is in his fifth season at NE and has a 59-79-20 record. Madigan played for the Huskies from 1982-86.

THE RIVALRY: MSU holds a 6-2 edge in the series which started with a 7-1 Spartan victory in the Boston Invitational on Dec. 26, 1958. The last time the Huskies played at MSU was on Oct. 14-15, 1983. The Spartans swept the series, 5-2, 1-0.

The last meeting between teams was in Boston and this one didn't have a good ending for the Spartans. The Huskies topped MSU, 6-5, on Oct. 27, 1996.

ANASTOS VS. THE HUSKIES: Tom Anastos has never coached against Northeastern but he did play against them twice when he was a junior in a feisty series to start the 1983-84 season. The Spartans won the opener 5-2 and scored a third-period goal to win 1-0 in the penalty-filled second game, which featured a brawl.

Anastos was assessed a five-minute major in the second period, and was likely ejected for leaving the bench to engage in the skirmish.

"One minute into the second game, the penalties started. The (scoresheet) says I got a five-minute major but I don't remember getting thrown out,'' Anastos said.

Jim Madigan, the current Northeastern coach, played in that series.

"Randy Bucyk played in that game for Northeastern, too, and two years later we were teammates (in the Montreal Canadiens organization) in Sherbrooke of the American Hockey League. He got called up to the Canadiens late in the season and won a Stanley Cup with them.''

EAGER TO REBOUND: The Spartans are coming off a split with Wisconsin â€" a 4-3 win and 3-0 loss â€" and the way they lost the series finale left a bad taste for everyone involved.

So MSU is striving to get back to playing the way it was in early and mid-November, cut down on defensive miscues and be aggressive and tough to play against.

"It's important for us to go out there and find a game we can feel good about going into the (holiday) break,'' Anastos said. "I think a lot of this group. It's a very close-knit group and we're battling through some things. We haven't had as good of a first half as we hoped for, but there's a lot of fight in this team and our goals are still ahead of us.

"Guys understand that when you put things together, you can get on a roll and build confidence and have success, and it breeds more success.''

Said captain Mike Ferrantino:

"It's an extremely important game, not only to get the win but for our mentality going into the break, to feel good about ourselves. Feeling good about a win, getting refreshed by being home and seeing our families will help our guys a lot.''

POWER PLAY OUTAGE: In this day and age of low-scoring games, a consistent power play that can deliver a big goal or two can be the difference in feeling good about a game or frustrated. Michigan State's power play was being counted on to make a difference this season, but so far it hasn't been a positive factor.

MSU scored four power-play goals in its first two games but in the last 15, the Spartans have converted on only seven of 51 power-play opportunities.

For the season, MSU is 11 for 70 for 15.7 percent, which ranks sixth in the Big Ten and 40th in the nation.

Last week against Wisconsin, MSU was 0-for-1 in the first game and 0-5 in the second contest.

What are the major issues with the power play?

"There are a number of things,'' Anastos said. "Our puck decisions haven't been good. Sometimes, when you're feeling frustrated, the way you start playing is you force things that aren't available.

"We're not taking what's given to us and showing patience and finding things as they open. In spite of practicing pretty good, since we moved some things around, when it's been time to execute, we haven't and that causes more frustration than momentum.

"I didn't like anything about the power play on Saturday. We didn't come up the ice with any speed. There was nothing to like.

"We'll go back and change some personnel around and keep working at it. We have to find a way to win special teams. And our penalty killing has given us that chance.''

SPARTAN POTPOURRI: The Spartans will fly to Boston with the men's basketball team after practice on Friday. They'll check in to their hotel and have a hoops-hockey team dinner, then head to Matthews Arena to support the women's team in its game against the Huskies.

On Saturday, the hockey team will have its morning skate at Boston University, only a few miles from Matthews Arena. Then the Spartans will head to Northeastern to watch part of the men's game. Then it's back to the hotel for a team dinner and rest and then back to Matthews Arena for the third game between the two schools.

Next season, Northeastern's three teams will visit East Lansing to play the Spartans at Munn Arena and Breslin Center. . .

There's a four-way tie for the MSU scoring lead with Mackenzie MacEachern, JT Stenglein, Michael Ferrantino and Mason Appleton all with 14 points. MacEachern and Stenglein each have seven goals and seven assists. Ferrantino has four goals and 10 assists and Appleton has three goals and a team-leading 11 assists . . .

After Saturday's game, MSU players will head home for a one-week Christmas break. They'll return to campus for an evening practice on Dec. 26 in preparation for the 51st Great Lakes Invitational. Anastos said they'll probably practice twice on Dec. 27 and once on Dec. 28 and then head for Detroit. The Spartans open the GLI against Michigan Tech at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 29, with Michigan facing Northern Michigan in the second semifinal at 7 p.m. On Dec. 30, the third-place game is at 3:30 p.m., while the championship game is at 7 p.m.