Since Rick Comley arrived at MSU from Northern Michigan his Spartans have won one NCAA hockey title, but no regular season CCHA championship.  And yet as of Friday morning there were the Spartans, at 4-1, alone atop the CCHA standings.  It's more symbolic than anything else at this point, but it's a whole lot better than the 10th place tie at the end of last regular season.

     So how good is this team?  After nine games, it scores more, it doesn't make as many dumb mistakes, like take bad penalties and the goaltending has not fallen off noticeably with Jeff Lerg gone.  The young players are eager and attentive and they want to do well and they have not been intimidated by any road games yet.  Comley thinks MSU could just as easily be 8-1.  There is a long season ahead and who knows how the breaks and injuries will play out.

     And who knows about home attendance.  It sure looked smaller than 3,900 for the game Thursday night which was $1 hot dog night by the way.  I never thought I'd see MSU hockey attendance fall off as much as it has for a variety of reasons of course.  Winning will cure some of it and build up more of a demand and certainly colder weather which will seem more like hockey season, will too.  The Spartans should have a good season, looks like they could make the NCAA tournament and that's in April and the Frozen Four is at Ford Field and who knows how it will play out over the long haul.