In another rare Thursday night CCHA affair, the Michigan State Spartans will travel up US 131 to Big Rapids to face the first of two big hurdles in their drive to reach the NC$$ Tournament when they visit Ewigleben Ice Arena to play the Ferris State Bulldogs, a team who has won four straight vs. the Green and White. MSU pretty much finds itself in a "must-win" situation. Considering the overall strength of the WCHA this year, it is extremely unlikely that the NC$$ is going to invite four CCHA teams to the Big Dance. Thus, it becomes imperative that the Spartans find a way to finish third in the conference AND make it to the CCHA final game in Detroit. The easiest way for them to finish third is to win their final two. Without two victories, the Spartans need help (esp. from UIC and OSU). A fourth or fifth place finish puts them in the same half of the draw as Michigan, which actually isn't too bad, con- sidering that the Spartans have played well against UM this year (we just suck against teams like Ferris and Western). But, they would almost have to win the CCHA tournament to get into the Dance. For a team that has been referred to as the Otis Team (they're up and down more often than your average elevator [Ken Landau]), this would be a tough task. Not impossible, but extremely difficult. Ferris in recent times has appeared to have MSU's number. As someone stated once (probably on Hockey-L, but I forget who it was, so don't get too P.O.'ed if I don't give the proper credit), Craig Lisko must sleep with a picture of Ron Mason over his head. The Bulldogs at times appear to be playing out the string until the next MSU game comes up (Western used to do this too, but has played well in other games this year besides against us). Evidence: after Friday's win at Munn, the Bulldogs went back to Big Rapids only to get blasted by Notre Dame 8-3 (ND's first win in 10 games). No offense intended to Ferris, but the MSU games are their Super Bowl and Stanley Cup final all rolled into one. After MSU, the Bulldogs get a day off before travelling to Ann Arbor to play (I don't want to use the word "slumping" but I can't think of a better word to describe them at the moment) the slumping Michigan Wolverines. Ferris is guaranteed of a seventh-place finish in the conference, which means that they will travel to the fifth-place finisher for a 3-game set in the first round of the CCHA playoffs (unless a higher seeded team takes UAF, then Ferris would go to the sixth-place finisher). At the moment, given a choice between playing Ferris or UAF in the CCHA's, MSU might have to flip a coin. The Spartans have had, according to Mason, "good practices" this week. (Oh, I bet they just LOOOOOVED that 6am'er on Saturday.) One can only hope that they play Ferris like the Bulldogs were wearing Maize and Blue. G. M. Finniss Michigan State University WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when? P. S. For those of you at MSU who have followed the "TA Union" debate, the "This is blatant stupidity" quote was mine. TA UNIONS SUCK!!!!!!!!