Inside College Hockey | 2005 IIHF World Championship

Mike York

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With more than two dozen former collegians slated to participate in the 2005 IIHF World Championship, our former college hockey heroes will be trying to make memories on one of the sport's biggest stages. With that in mind, Inside College Hockey takes this opportunity to reflect on some of those players' memorable college moments.

Picking a favorite Mike York moment, or Mike York goal, from his Michigan State career is a bit like naming your favorite ice cream. One may stand out, but there are dozens more great choices.

With that challenge in mind, late in Mike's senior season I asked his teammates to try to pick a favorite moment. Their responses, typically, weren't specific, but they certainly were glowing.

"You see him pause sometimes and you can call that he's going to score five seconds before he actually does," said Sean Patchell. "My favorite highlights have to be the goals he has put in from behind the net."

"There's a lot of times in the game," added Damon Whitten, "when he will make a move and you look at the guy next to you on the bench and say, 'Can you believe he just did that?'"

Those answers, and about a dozen more, were collected and published in a game program. That led to what might be my favorite Mike York moment, and it didn't even happen on the ice.

York, as modest a person as he is creative a player, arrived for that game early and started flipping through the program to kill the time. When he came across that feature he stopped, closed the program, and put his head down, clearly humbled by his teammates' praise.