Spartans Meet Eagles Tonight in Beantown

No. 2 Boston College and Michigan State will meet tonight for the 27th time in NCAA hockey competition, and for just the fourth time ever at BC’s Kelley Rink. MSU leads the all-time series, 17-8-1, according to BC’s game notes, although the Eagles won, 3-2, last year in East Lansing in the first meeting between the two schools since 2011.

I won’t be making this trip, although I was tempted to point the car north today and keep going until I hit Chestnut Hill. I last saw BC and MSU meet live at the 1996 Great Western Freeze-Out in Inglewood, Calif. when I was the Spartans’ publicity contact. MSU won that game, 5-2, and also won, 5-3, in the first-ever meeting at Kelley Rink in 1989, the only other BC-MSU match-up I’ve attended in person, when I was just starting my junior year on the Heights.(Maybe it's better I stay home tonight, for BC's sake.)

Michigan State is 4-3-1 so far this season, has won three straight games, and is coming off a two-step sweep at home of New Hampshire (5-0, 7-4). Boston College has shut out its last two opponents (UMass, 7-0, and Maine, 3-0 and 2-0) as part of its current seven-game winning streak, and is 8-1-0 on the year.

The Spartans last played at BC in 1996, a 4-3 win by the Eagles. All-time, BC has faced MSU in NCAA Tournament competition in no less than 10 games, more times than any other opponent except Minnesota, with MSU defeating BC for the 2007 NCAA title in St. Louis. In addition, MSU coach Tom Anastos' daughter, Andie, is a forward on BC's women's hockey team.

We’ll see how it goes tonight in a venue where the series is all even at 1-1-1.