Spartans ready to get season officially underway

By Alyssa Girardi –

EAST LANSING – After a long offseason of going over the tribulations and disappointments of last year, Greg Wolfe is eager for MSU hockey to begin this season with a renewed attitude and fresh slate.

“Anytime you have the type of year like we did last year, you’re obviously going to be thinking about it,” said Wolfe, the captain senior forward and Canton native. “You have a lot to think about, you have a lot of time. I think guys embraced that, and they went home for the month and a half that they were able to go home and they worked hard and they came back with a fresh attitude and are ready to get after it.”

MSU will travel to Amherst, Mass., to open the season in a two-game series against the UMass Minutemen (0-2). UMass began their season last weekend with two losses, one at No. 15 Boston University, 3-1, and the other at No. 9 UMass-Lowell, 5-2.

The Spartans took the ice for the first time this season in the Green and White game, an intrasquad scrimmage coached in part by members of the local media. On Oct. 9, MSU took on Western Ontario in an exhibition match, which the Spartans won 4-1.

Now, the team is eager to lace up for the “real stuff,” as head coach Tom Anastos calls it, but he is grateful for the scheduling that allowed an extra week of preseason preparation.

“UMass started last week; they didn’t have as much preparation time for their first week of the season,” Anastos said. “Now, they’ve had a week to actually play and work through playing situations and prepare for their home opener, which I think is an advantage. At the same time, we’re happy that we’ve had more time to prepare, especially because we’re a pretty youthful bunch.”

MSU will be without freshman forward Villiam Haag on Friday, who is serving a one-game suspension by the NCAA.

“I don’t even know how to specifically describe it,” Anastos said. “It’s related to where he played before Sweden and he traveled with the team and they deemed he needed to sit out one game of NCAA to be eligible.”

In the exhibition game against Western Ontario, Haag tallied one goal and put up six shots.

Junior forward Tanner Sorenson will miss this weekend’s series as part of his five-game internal suspension for violation of team rules. Anastos said he won’t be making the trip to Amherst, Mass., or lace up in next weekend’s games against UMass-Lowell and Boston University.

Sorenson was second on the team in scoring last season (13), behind sophomore forward and Canton native Matt Berry (15) who currently is out with a lower-body injury. Sophomore defenseman John Draeger and sophomore goaltender Nate Phillips (Jackson) are out with the same injury, and all three are expected to return sometime in December.