The 1985–86 Michigan State Spartans men's ice hockey team represented Michigan State University in college ice hockey. In its 7th year under head coach Ron Mason the team compiled a 34–9–2 record and reached the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in its history. The Spartans defeated Harvard 6–5 in the championship game at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
Season Michigan State entered the 1985–86 season seeking to overcome previous postseason frustrations. Despite winning four conference tournament titles, the Spartans had failed to advance past the national quarterfinals in three of those instances, leading to public scrutiny regarding Ron Mason's ability to succeed in the NCAA tournament. Although the team lost its top three highest-scoring players from the previous season, they retained the goaltending duo of Bob Essensa and Norm Foster who had helped the Spartans set a new NCAA record with 38 wins. Due to the roster lacking in senior leadership, the captaincy went to junior defenseman Don McSween. To offset the loss of veteran experience, the program recruited a highly touted freshman class featuring top prospect Joe Murphy along with seven other freshmen who would see significant ice time with the Spartans.
Early season struggles MSU got off to a good start with a pair of road wins over Ohio State before splitting a home-and-home with a surging Western Michigan squad. After three wins and a tie against lesser programs, the Spartans took on arch-rival Michigan and split another home-and-home series. After a week of exhibition matches against the Canadian National Team MSU again split a weekend series and while their home record was stellar they had dropped to 3–3 on the road. That mark wasn't improved when they split another road series against the normally hapless Illinois–Chicago and then dropped both road games against a good Lake Superior State team. The Spartans were able to recover a bit in the conference standings with a pair of home wins against the Buckeyes and lift their record to 11–6–1 before losing in their first non-conference game of the year to the former CCHA team Northern Michigan, their only home loss of the season.
Great Lakes Invitational Michigan State entered the Great Lakes Invitational having won the previous 3 years but the team was in need of a shock to the system to shake it out of its doldrums. They got just that when they were pushed to the limit in the semifinal by WCHA bottom-feeder Michigan Tech, escaping with a 2–1 win in overtime. The next night it was almost as if a different team hit the ice when the Spartans cruised to an 8–3 win in the championship over defending national champions Rensselaer. Don McSween was named MVP of the tournament.
Charging up the standings Michigan State had a good deal of ground to make up in the second half of their season and the kicked it off with a sweep of Western Michigan and Miami they were slowed down by Ferris State and Michigan who provided MSU with a tie and loss respectively, but the Spartans were buoyed by playing 7 of their final 8 games at home and they took every game to finish the season at 23–7–2 in CCHA play, one win ahead of both Western Michigan and Bowling Green. The biggest standout for the year was former walk-on Mike Donnelly who had amassed a huge number of goals and was beginning to draw attention from NHL scouts.
CCHA tournament The Spartans entered the CCHA tournament against Michigan and while the Wolverines had beaten MSU twice both had been in the Wolverine's arena and with Michigan State playing host the Spartans were able to drop Michigan in both games to take the quarterfinal series. Michigan State headed down the road to Detroit for the championship rounds, and faced stiff competition from lake Superior State but the Spartans edged out the Lakers 3–2 in overtime. In the championship game the following night MSU's offense, which finished second-best in the nation, failed them and they could only manage a single goal against Western Michigan's Bill Horn, ending their 4-year reign as CCHA tournament champion.
NCAA tournament Fortunately, the Spartans had played well enough over the course of the season to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. They had played so well, in fact, that they were seeded ahead of Western Michigan and would play at home in the quarterfinal round. MSU used the massive home advantage they had to beat Boston College in both games and advance to the Frozen Four. In the semifinal MSU was met by perennial power Minnesota who had upset the top eastern seed Boston University in the quarters. Both teams were built around scoring and that fact shone through the game; Michigan State won the match 6–4 with Norm Foster turning aside 42 shots.
With the win Michigan State made its first championship game in 20 years and only had Harvard left to stop them. Before the game had even started, however, MSU gained an advantage over the Crimson; Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Fusco had injured his knee in the other semifinal and couldn't play in the final. Despite missing their best player, Harvard got off to a fast start gaining a 2–0 lead by the 8-minute mark. MSU cut the lead in half at the end of the first but Allen Bourbeau scored his second goal of the night to give the Crimson their 2-goal lead back. Harvard's third goal was scored on just their seventh shot of the night and it looked as if the Spartans were outclassed. Not to be deterred, however, Jeff Parker cut the lead back to one with Bourbeau's third of the night coming 10 minutes later. Mike Donnelly scored his 58th goal of the season just before the end of the second to give MSU a fighting change in the final period.
Sure enough MSU's offense came through when needed and two freshman found the back of the net before the three-minute mark to give the Spartans their first lead of the night. Harvard responded with the tying goal four minutes later and the two teams fought furiously to regain the lead. with just under three minutes to play Donnelly scored his second of the game to give MSU the lead and the Spartans held on to win the national championship.
Awards and honors Mike Donnelly was awarded the Tournament MOP and was joined by Norm Foster, Don McSween and Jeff Parker on the All-Tournament Team. Donnelly was also named to the AHCA All-American West First Team while McSween was named to the Second Team. Donnelly and McSween both made it onto the All-CCHA First Team while Bob Essensa made the Second team. Joe Murphy was awarded the CCHA Rookie of the Year and would become the first college player to be take first overall in the NHL entry draft. Murphy was joined by 12 of his teammates from the 1985–86 Spartans, an astounding number of NHL players for a college team.
Mike Donnelly's 59 goals was the highest total scored since the NCAA created Division I in 1973. Only Phil Latreille has scored more in a season, doing so in the early 1960s, before there were any divisions in college ice hockey.
Rick Tosto became the first player in NCAA history to win national titles with two separate teams. After winning with Renssealer in 1985 he transferred closer to his home of Dearborn Heights, Michigan and won with the Spartans.
Standings
Schedule
!colspan=12 style="color:white; background:#007A53" | Regular season
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|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|Michigan State Wins Series 9-5
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|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0" |colspan=12|Michigan State Wins Series 10-6
Roster and scoring statistics No.Name Year Position Hometown S/P/C Games Goals Assists Pts 14 Senior LW Detroit, MI 44 59 38 97 65 8 Sophomore RW Lansing, MI 45 19 52 71 112 12 Junior RW Regina, SK 38 24 40 64 36 9 Freshman C London, ON 35 24 37 61 50 16 Junior F Burnaby, BC 44 17 39 56 104 27 Freshman C Penetanguishene, ON 45 14 24 38 78 5 Junior D Detroit, MI 45 9 29 38 18 11 Junior RW White Bear Lake, MN 41 15 20 35 88 21 Sophomore D Trenton, ON 42 9 25 34 48 17 Freshman LW Thunder Bay, ON 45 14 18 32 68 7 Freshman RW Pontiac, MI 43 11 10 21 22 15 Freshman RW Fenton, MI 45 9 10 19 26 4 Senior D Vancouver, BC 41 3 15 18 40 10 Freshman LW Bergen, NOR 39 3 11 14 14 3 Freshman D Calgary, AB 43 3 10 13 52 19 Sophomore F Dearborn Heights, MI 30 4 8 12 10 22 Sophomore D Nepean, ON 40 4 7 11 40 6 Freshman D Detroit, MI 38 1 5 6 29 25 Senior D Pittsburgh, PA 28 0 5 5 12 28 Senior LW Dearborn, MI 12 0 3 3 6 26 Junior F Amherst, NY 19 2 0 2 14 41 Junior G Vancouver, BC 24 0 1 1 0 33 Junior G Toronto, ON 23 0 1 1 2 18 Sophomore F Pontiac, MI 1 0 0 0 0 Bench - - - - 45 - - - 14 Total 245 406 651 955
Goaltending statistics No.Name GamesMinutesWinsLosses Ties Goals Against Saves Shut Outs 33 23 1333 17 4 1 74 548 1 .881 3.33 41 24 1414 17 5 1 87 620 0 .877 3.69 Total 45 – 34 9 2 161 – 1 – –
1986 championship game
(W2) Michigan State vs. (E2) Harvard
Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st HARSteve ArmstrongFollows and Ohno 2:15 1–0 HAR HARAllen BourbeauMacDonald and Smith 8:10 2–0 HAR MSUMitch MessierShibicky 17:55 2–1 HAR 2nd HARAllen BourbeauBarakett and Pawlowski 20:53 3–1 HAR MSUJeff ParkerMiller and Tilley 26:48 3–2 HAR HARAllen BourbeauKrayer and Benning 36:09 4–2 HAR MSUMike DonnellyMiller and Messier 38:30 4–3 HAR 3rd MSUBrad HamiltonMessier and Shibicky 41:06 4–4 MSUBrian McReynoldsRendall and Parker 42:15 5–4 MSU HARAndy JanfazaCarone and Chiarelli 46:46 5–5 MSUMike Donnelly – GWMurphy 57:09 6–5 MSU
Players drafted into the NHL
1986 NHL entry draft = NHL All-Star team= NHL All-StarPlayers are identified as an All-Star if they were selected for the All-Star game at any time in their career. = NHL All-Star and NHL All-Star team= Did not play in the NHL RoundPick Player NHL team 1 1 Joe Murphy Detroit Red Wings 2 30 Neil Wilkinson† Minnesota North Stars 3 149 Don Gibson† Vancouver Canucks 6 115 Mike O'Toole† St. Louis Blues † incoming freshman
References