MiHockey’s 2015 Hockey City Classic Preview

By @SKubus –

You don’t have to travel back too far to revisit the match-ups in this weekend’s Hockey City Classic at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Michigan and Michigan State squared off last Friday (Jan. 30) at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, where the Spartans edged the potent No. 13 Wolverines. Meanwhile, Western Michigan and No. 9/8 Miami battled to a 3-3 tie in Kalamazoo the next night.

One week later, the Wolverines will have an opportunity at revenge, while the Broncos and RedHawks seek a resolution to their conflict this time around.

Western Michigan and Miami will renew their rivalry at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday at historic Soldier Field, while Michigan and Michigan State meet four hours later.

The U-M/MSU rivalry needs no introduction, and their history of battles in the frozen Michigan tundra only accentuated their storied past.

The Oct. 6, 2001 outdoor game between the two teams, The Cold War, saw nearly 75,000 pack Spartan Stadium in East Lansing and essentially marked the birth of the modern outdoor game. After skating to a 3-3 tie, the Spartans and Wolverines clashed again in the frigid Michigan conditions nine years later. That time, at The Big House, Michigan won by a convincing 6-0 final.

In 2013, the Great Lakes Invitational was taken outdoors to Comerica Park in Detroit, and though neither advanced to the championship game, the two schools squared off in the consolation game, where the Spartans shut out the Wolverines.

Counting the two games at the GLI, this will be Michigan’s seventh outdoor game – the Wolverines defeated Ohio State in 2012 at Progressive Field in Cleveland’s Frozen Diamond Faceoff and fell to Wisconsin in the 2010 Camp Randall Hockey Classic in Wisconsin. Michigan State will be skating in its fifth outdoor tilt.

Western Michigan also competed in the 2013 GLI, first defeating the No. 3 Wolverines in overtime, a huge 3-2 win. The Broncos then followed that up with a 1-0 victory over Michigan Tech in the championship game, also in overtime for the first back-to-back OT wins in program history since 1988.

Not bad for the Broncos’ first pair of outdoor games in program history.

They look to remain perfect outdoors when they face a sound RedHawks squad that sits in the nation’s top-10.

More Outdoor Hockey

Revisit Western Michigan’s outdoor GLI championship

The last time Michigan and Michigan State met outdoors

 

Last week’s Michigan vs. Michigan State showdown at JLA