I know, a lot of varied topics, but we'll hit 'em all.
 
Last night in Ann Arbor, what could be described, and was by Ron Mason, as
a team victory for Michigan State.  Watching on PASS (BTW, exactly what are
the dimensions of Yost Arena?  It looks huge compared to Munn, but then
again, everything looks bigger on TV.), I didn't really see any "clear"
evidence that Michigan came out flat.  Shields didn't look particularly
spectacular in goal, unless you count the rather phenomenal save he made
in the first, where he stopped it and then had to reach back while falling
down to swat it out of the air.  I did expect more out of Shields than a
14-of-19 save night.
 
Buzak for MSU played about as well as he usually does.  The second period
for him was an unqualified disaster.  Letting in the shot from the point
by Halko on the power play was one of those "oh, by the way, I let it get
through my pads" goals.  UM's third goal at the end of the second period
was a different story.  I really think they should have given Buzak an
assist on that one.  To come that far out of the crease when a forward is
barreling down on you, especially when he has to fight off a defenseman
to get there, is unconsionable.  (Fortunately, for Buzak, he got an assist
on MSU's fifth goal, so he sort of made up for it.)
 
The backbreaker for UM was Tuzzolino's goal in the third.  As Neil Koepke
describes it in this morning's Lansing State Journal:
 
        "Suddenly, Brian Wiseman got the puck all alone with his back to
the Spartan net. He spun around and let fly a quick shot that could have
tied the game.
        "Instead, Mike Buzak, MSU's junior goalie, made a spectacular,
sprawling save and the puck slid into the right corner.
        "Spartan left wing Rem Murray got possession and spotted Tony
Tuzzolino, breaking free at the blue line.
        "Murray hit him with an 80-foot pass and Tuzzolino, a freshman right
wing, raced in alone.  He went in deep and beat Steve Shields, UM's senior
goalie, to the top right corner.
        ""Shields intimidates me.  He always stops the puck.  So here I am
thinking that I can be a hero and that I'm going to choke," Tuzzolino said.
"Coach always says go to your best shot and that's my best shot."
        ""It's my only shot.""
 
Well, I don't know if it's his only shot, but it wasn't too bad.  He had the
time to see Shields move, and just sort of put it where he wasn't.  The
remainder of the game was just sort of a test to see if MSU could hold on
and win where most teams had sort of folded under UM's pressure.  The empty
netter by Murray iced the game with a little less than 2 minutes left.
 
So, what do we expect tonight?  A damn good game.  It's my impression that
UM will come here pretty pissed off (more than usual) and will be out to
show why they are the best team in the country (and I don't dispute that)
to the people that probably hate them the most, the Spartan faithful.  I'm
not expecting that they'll come in fighting or vengeful, just that they'll
have a definite mission when they step on the ice at Munn.  MSU will pro-
bably try to play the same type of hockey they played last night.  Minimize
the dumb mistakes, don't take the bad penalty, don't make the bad pass.
Round 1 of the war is over, and the Spartans drew first blood.  It only
remains to be seen how UM will respond.
 
Brady Clark's recent post mentioned something about jet-lag and that, only
for teams like Alabama-Huntsville, this might be a problem.  While it is
true that distance has a lot to do with how tired a team is, a bigger factor
is the time difference.  For Alabama-Huntsville, the time difference is only
3 or 4 hours (I can never remember if there is a 4 or 5 hour difference
between Eastern and Alaska time) since they are in the Central time zone.
Of the current teams in the WCHA, only NMU is in the Eastern time zone, such
that when they travel to Anchorage (usually, a day or two before the game)
and play at 7pm Alaska time, to them it feels like 11pm or midnight.  And,
conversely, when UAA travels to Marquette and plays a 7pm game, it feels
like 2pm or 3pm to them.  For teams like Denver or CC, in the Mountain zone,
the time difference is less and the effect is less.  To give another example,
when the Raiders played in Buffalo at 12:30 EST last week, it felt like 9:30am
to them.  Who the hell wants to play football at 9:30?
 
However, I do agree with Brady that it might be time to think about 3 "Western"
conferences.  If I may be so bold, the MWCHA could easily comprise the teams
which "border" on Lake Michigan, namely the 7 Michigan schools, Notre Dame,
and UIC.  We'd let Wisconsin in, of course, if that's what the Cheeseheads
want. :-) (Actually, I love the state of Wisconsin.  Best baseball food in
the country: County Stadium in Milwaukee.)  Actually, John's idea of us all
forming a school on the West Coast and lacing 'em up isn't bad.  We don't
even need to form our own school, we could just take over the University of
Oregon (but we'd definitely have to change that Duck symbol).  So, what
does everybody think?  Westward, ho?!?!
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?