Michigan State University Athletics
Neil's Notebook: Spartans Welcome Another Tough Test in No. 5 North Dakota
11/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING â€" Whether they're called the Fighting Sioux or the Fighting Hawks, one thing remains constant with University of North Dakota hockey.
It's an elite program with high-end players and most always in contention for conference and national titles, and arguably with the best arena in college hockey.
Michigan State players have never played against North Dakota, now known as the Fighting Hawks, but they're well aware of its presence as a perennial contender.
The Spartans will get a chance to experience playing UND when the No. 5 Fighting Hawks (10-2-2, 5-1 NCHC) face MSU (4-5-2) this weekend in a non-conference series at Munn Arena â€" at 7 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.
"When you think of all the top teams in college hockey over the years â€" Minnesota, Wisconsin, Boston College, Boston U. â€" North Dakota is right there with them,'' Spartans captain Mike Ferrantino said. "They've been good for so many years. And you think of all the North Dakota players in NHL â€" Jonathan Toews and T.J. Oshie and others. They have so much history.
"And there's really a lot of history between our teams, just not recently.''
This weekend will be the first time North Dakota has played at Munn Arena in 35 years. The last time was when both teams were in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The Fighting Sioux swept the Spartans, 6-3 and 7-4, on Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 1980.
Three weeks later, MSU lost two more games to UND in Grand Forks.
The next season, MSU left the WCHA and moved to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, thus ending a yearly rivalry.
The two teams have played eight times since 1980-81 - three times in the NCAA Tournament (finals, semifinals, consolation game, all won by UND), three times in the Great Lakes Invitational (2 wins for UND), once in a tournament in Dayton (MSU win) and once in the Hall of Fame Game in Grand Forks (won by UND).
"I grew up watching the rivalry between North Dakota and Minnesota and those games were huge,'' said MSU senior defenseman John Draeger, who's from Fairibault, Minn.
"There was a lot of intensity in those games. I think North Dakota will bring that same intensity. It'll be a great test for us.
"They're a hard-working and very skilled. We saw them play a little when we were in Maine (for the Ice Breaker Tournament).''
North Dakota started the season 6-0-2 and won five games in a row before losing to Wisconsin, 3-1, Nov. 6, in Grand Forks. After winning four games in a row, including a sweep of Miami, the Fighting Hawks last weekend split with St. Cloud State, winning 4-3 and losing the finale, 6-1.
UND is tied with Denver for first place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference with 5-1 records.
"It doesn't get any easier for us. It gets tougher," MSU coach Tom Anastos said. "They're a terrific team, talented, deep, hardworking, physical and there's high expectations for their program. They're a legitimate NCAA contender.
"We're excited to have them here. I think the fans will love it. It'll be another terrific test for us.''
Anastos has never coached against North Dakota and only played one game against the then-Fighting Sioux in his four years as a Spartan. MSU lost to UND, 6-5 in overtime, in the 1984 NCAA Championship consolation game in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Three years later, MSU and UND played for the 1987 NCAA title in Detroit, with the Spartans seeking their second consecutive national championship. But a powerful Fighting Sioux team, considered one of the strongest in NCAA history, skated to a 5-3 victory.
In 2001, the two teams met again played for the NCAA championship, this time in Albany, N.Y. North Dakota blanked Michigan State 2-0, one day before Ryan Miller won Hobey Baker Award.
Despite UND's dominance in the last 15 meetings, Michigan State won the last time the two teams played. The Spartans pulled out a 2-1 victory in the GLI semifinal on Dec. 27, 2008.
MSU will play the Fighting Hawks again next season, this time at Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.
SCOUTING THE FIGHTING HAWKS: The top five scorers include senior forwards Nick Schmaltz (2-15-17) and Drake Caggiula (7-9-16), freshman forward Brock Boeser (7-7-14), junior defenseman Troy Stecher (3-9-12) and senior forward Bryn Chyzyk (6-3-9).
Caggiula, Boeser and Schmaltz play on the same line, known as the CBS line.
UND is averaging 3.43 goals per game, which ranks No. 12 in the nation. Defensively, the Fighting Hawks have a 2.21 goals-against average, which also ranks 12th nationally. Their power play is converting on 16.4 percent of their chances (tied for 38th nationally). Surprisingly, UND's penalty killing ranks 50th among the 60 Division I teams. The Fighting Hawks have allowed 12 goals on 53 opponents' power plays for only 77.4 percent efficiency.
Matt Hrynkiw, a junior walk-on was supposed to start the season as the No. 3 goaltender behind incoming freshman Matej Tomek and sophomore Cam Johnson, who's from Troy, Mich. But Tomek had off-season surgery and wasn't ready to start the season and Johnson suffered a lower body injury in the third period of the third game of against Bemidji State.
Hrynkiw, who's from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, replaced Johnson and played every minute since until last Saturday when he was replaced by Johnson midway through the third period after giving up three goals in the loss to St. Cloud. Hrynkiw has a 2.11 goals-against average and a .911 saves percentage.
North Dakota has 12 NHL draft picks, including first-rounders Schmaltz (Chicago) and Boeser (Vancouver).
Coach Brad Berry, 50, a UND defenseman from 1983-86 who played and coached as an assistant in the NHL and served as a Sioux assistant for eight seasons, is in his first season as head coach. He took over from Dave Hakstol, who left UND after 11 seasons to become coach of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers. Hakstol led North Dakota to 11 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and seven Frozen Fours. But UND never won a national title during his stay. Its last championship came in 2000 in Providence when Dean Blais was coach. Blais is now at Nebraska-Omaha.
MAKING PROGESS: Despite give up late leads in the last two games and coming away very frustrated with an overtime loss and tie against Michigan Tech, Coach Tom Anastos is convinced his team is improving and on the upswing.
"I think our guys recognize the quality of our game. I don't think you could watch our team and not think the quality of our play has improved immensely over the last couple of years,'' he said. "We keep getting better.
"We haven't got to the point where we're getting the results we want and we think we deserve, so we can't lose sight that the process is working.''
MACEACHERN ON A ROLL: Junior left wing Mackenzie MacEachern has been one of MSU's most dangerous forwards during the first 11 games. Playing on a line with senior center Michael Ferrantino and freshman right wing Mason Appleton, MacEachern has been a consistent scoring threat.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder from Troy has scored at least one point in each of his last five games, and is now tied for the team scoring lead with fellow junior left wing JT Stenglein. Both have seven goals and six assists for 13 points in 11 games.
MacEachern, named the Big Ten's Third Star of the Week after scoring two power-play goals and an assist against Michigan Tech, has four goals and four assists for eight points in his last five games. He's scored one goal each against New Hampshire (Nov. 6), Boston College (No. 13) and in each of the games vs. Michigan Tech last weekend.
MacEachern has been held scoreless in only three games.
Coach Tom Anastos believes MacEachern is thriving because he hasn't had to play as many minutes recently as he did the first few weeks of the season because of injuries.
"I think it's a number of things. He started strong but with the injurie we had, we were asking guys to play minutes that weren't reasonable,'' Anastos said. "We got less quality play out of guys because of all the minutes we were asking them to play.
"But since we've been healing up, the minutes have come down and our quality of play has increased. I think the other part has been the opportunity to build some chemistry with his line.
"His play has been pretty consistent in my mind. He's been playing less and getting more quality out of it. I like where his game is at and I think it's going to continue to get better.''
SPARTAN STATS: JT Stenglein saw his goal-scoring streak come to an end against MTU last Sunday after five games, but he extended his point streak to six games with an assist. He has five goals and three assists over that stretch.
With Stenglein and MacEachern tied for the scoring lead with 13 points, freshman Mason Appleton is a point back with three goals and nine assists for 12 points. Mike Ferrantino follows with two goals and nine assists for 11 points. Thomas Ebbing rounds out the top five with 10 points (2-8), while Joe Cox is next with nine (4-5).
Four freshman have accounted for 25 percent of the team's points: Appleton (3-9-12), defenseman Zach Osburn (3-5-8), Cody Milan (1-3-4) and Brennan Sanford (3-0-3). They've accounted for 10 goals and 17 assists for 27 points.
The Spartans power play is thriving with a 90.5 percent rate of success. The penalty killers have allowed only four goals in 42 shorthanded situations. MSU ranks No. 8 in the nation. The power play has improved since the start of the season and it's now scoring on 17.6 percent of its chances (9-for-51), and is 33rd in the nation.
Michigan State ranks second in blocked shots per game with 18.0. Senior defenseman Travis Walsh leads the country in blocks with 39, an average of 3.55. The Spartans blocked 24 and a season-high 28 in the two games against Michigan Tech.
IN THE BIG TEN: No. 11/12 Michigan is home against Dartmouth on Friday and Saturday, Ohio State is at No. 6 Omaha, also on Friday and Saturday, Minnesota plays host to St. Cloud on Friday and Sunday afternoon, and No. 20 Penn State plays a single game against Vermont on Sunday in Philadelphia. Wisconsin has the weekend off. Next weekend, Big Ten play begins with Michigan State visiting Penn State on Friday and Saturday. In other series on Friday Saturday, Michigan plays host to Wisconsin and Ohio State is at Minnesota.
