An East-West Showdown at Bright

WHEN the Michigan State University icemen roll into Bright Hockey Center tonight, Harvard fans will see a few interesting matchups.

On one end of the rink will be the goalie with the third-lowest goals-against average in the NCAA's Division I. the Crimson's own Grant Blair. And at the other end will be the netminder with the next best mark, the Spartans Ron Scott.

One of the leaders of the ECAC champions is a finalist in the voting for the Hobey Baker Award given annually to college hockey's top player senior defenseman Mark Fusco. One of the mainstays for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) champions is also a finalist candidate for the trophy junior netminder Ron Scott.

Harvard also boasts one of the NCAA's best forwards, a center whose performance is often crucial to his team's performance--Scott Fusco. And the skaters from East Lansing. Mich, have one player who more than any other, has carried his team in its drive to the NCAA quarterfinals whom the younger Fusco will have to vanquish it Harvard is to prevail this weekend.

Who is he? That's right, he's Ron Scott. Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Rookie of the Year two years ago therefore the Spartans switched leagues, last year and this year picked as the first-team All-CCHA and All-Americans goalie and called by many college hockey's best goaltender.

"Yeah, he's a good one," says Michigan St. Coach Ron Mason when asked about Scott, laughing at his own understatement. "He's very consistent. He can come up with an occasional great game but more than he's consistent which is what you really want in a goaltender: he can keep us in the game." (Scott, however, may not be up to par tonight, due to a sprained ankle that caused him to miss two late-season games and is still bothering him.)

It's not as if this is really just a one-man team challenging the Crimson in the NCAA two-game total-goals quarterfinal series tonight and tomorrow. It does include some forwards worth watching out for, the starting trio of center Gord legel (17 assists and 24 goals for 41 points) and his wingers, senior Co-Captain Mark Hamway (29-27-56) and Kelly Miller (15-19-34).

And lest you think the West's fourth-ranked team might be a pushover for the best in the East consider that NHL teams already have the rights to nine Spartans (compared to two Harvard players)--and that doesn't include Scott, who will probably head for the pros next year.

Still MSU is not know for an explosive offense. The leading scorers' stats might look fearsome on an ECAC team but the Spartans have played 10 more games-they're 30-10 entering the Nationals: Harvard is 21-8-1.

A closer look at their goals-per-game average shows that MSU's strength clearly lies mostly with its defense. They've scored and allowed fewer goals than Harvard. Their best player, outside of Scott is probably senior defenseman Ken Leiter (first-team All-CCHA this season) the defensive minded blueliner (3-28-31) in a starting pair with sophomore Dan McFall (11-14-25).

"If you have a strength," Mason says, "You play to it. Our strength is in goal."

Mason might well point to himself, were he less modest. He can take most of the responsibility for turning around a mediocre team in short order. The Spartans went 14-24 in his initial year. 1979-80. The next year Scott made his debut in the net and Michigan St's goals-against mark plummeted Last year, the Spartans chalked up their first winning season in free years and captured the CCHA crown falling finally at New Hampshire in the NCAA quarterfinals.

In the mid-`60s, the Spartans were frequent WCHA contenders: they followed up some mediocre regular seasons with strong post-season showings, including a national title in 1966. But in the late `70s, they fell on some hard time--interestingly, just as Harvard did. In the last two years, they turned that around with good seasons, just as Harvard did. Last year they made their first appearance in the NCAAs in quite some time, losing on the road in the quarterfinals. And this year they tied for second in their league in the regular season, taking the second seed into the playoffs by beating the team with which they tied (Ohio State). Then, in the playoffs, they Knocked off the top seed (bowling Green) in the championship game. And now they're returning to the NCAAs.

Sounds like Michigan St. and Harvard have been following similar paths. That comes to an end this weekend.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard has split its four previous games with MSU. The last encounter was a 6-4 Spartan win in the consolation game of the 1980 Great Lakes Tournament in Detroit a Michigan version of the Beanpot which invites a non-local team to join MSU. Michigan and Michigan Tech (and which last year drew the largest crowd ever to see a hockey game--21 347--for the finals.)