It’s time for the Denver hockey team to hit the road in Week 3 of the college hockey season, but DU coach Jim Montgomery was gracious enough to take some time talk about a variety of subjects in the latest installment of Take 2 with Monty.

You’re facing another team with a young lineup in Michigan State, which had a rough start to their season on the road. What is your read on the Spartans?

Michigan State has a good freshman class and is going to be really good this weekend. It’s their first appearance at home, so you know they’ll be fired up. It’s hard to start on the road as a young team.

It’s also their first home game since the passing of legendary college hockey coach (and later athletic director) Ron Mason. What are some of your thoughts on this giant in our game?

The biggest thing was how much he cared about the growth of college hockey and expanding college hockey. His coaching tree was impressive, and he had huge impact on my college coach Shawn Walsh (at Maine), so indirectly it impacted me through Shawn Walsh through Ron. I talked to Ron when I was in Dubuque and his son was at Muskegon (of the USHL) about how he did things and ran a good program. When I was done playing he gave me a lot of guidance on becoming a coach.

The Pioneers bounced back in a big way last weekend against (then No. 2) Boston University. What did you and your staff take away from that series?

The main thing is how hard we were to play against both games and the development of some line chemistry. How certain players had success offensively and how certain had success defensively. It was good for team growth and individual growth.

Now, can we gain consistency? Our first two weekends we were at polar opposites in compete level and in puck support. I’d like to see us be the same as we were last weekend. As a coaching staff it would be nice to be able to know what we’re going to have.

One development I’ve heard several college hockey coaches talk about already this season is that referees are calling games much tighter. Does this increase your emphasis on special teams?

Yes it does. We just watched tape of the Lake State-Michigan State series, and there was a sequence when it went from someone scoring 5 on 4, then there was a 5 on 3, then 4 on 4. The flow of the games is a big concern right now. I understand the crackdowns – interference and hooking in the hands and obstruction was starting to get too much away from where the game was five years ago. Everyone is concentrating on where the puck is, and most of the interference is coming away from the puck.

Let’s lighten things up. Suppose you could select a presidential ticket from the hockey world, who would it be?

My president would be Scotty Bowman. His running mate would be Mike Babcock. They have the leadership qualities, the ability to cut to right to what matters and doing what’s right. And they’ve always done what’s right by their teams and for the game of hockey.

@MagnessMayhem