Neil's Notebook: Spartans Looking to Rebound on Saturday
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
MADISON, Wis. - Tom Anastos warned his team all week.
Anything short of a high-level performance against Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday would end in disappointment and frustration, the Spartan coach stressed over and over.
In other words, a loss against a team that had won only three games all season.
The Spartans, supposedly eager to gobble up six points this weekend, stumbled in a big way on Friday, not playing with the energy and work ethic needed to put themselves in position to win.
Wisconsin scored two unanswered goals in the second period - both by defensemen - and held off a slight MSU push in the third period to skate off with a 2-1 victory in the Big Ten series opener in front of an announced crowd of 9,122 at the Kohl Center.
"I didn't think the week of practice we had was good enough to come in here and get two wins,'' said sophomore forward Joe Cox, who had MSU's only goal. "And obviously, it showed in the first two periods, especially in the second.
"One we got the goal, the guys tried to jump in and (worked to get back in the game). Hopefully, that transfers over to tomorrow's game. I guess it was just a lack of preparation.''
A victory Friday would have lifted the Spartans (12-13-2 overall, 6-5-2-2 big Ten) into sole possession of second place in the conference, one point ahead of Michigan and two behind first-place Minnesota.
Instead, MSU remains tied with Penn State for third place, after the Gophers edged the Nittany Lions, 2-1 and Ohio State upended Michigan, 5-3.
Two weeks ago, Wisconsin had won only two games all season. Now, the Badgers have won four, after starting their two-game streak with a 3-2 victory at Ohio State last Saturday.
"Our performance wasn't good enough. I don't think we had everyone going,'' Anastos said. "We're not a good enough team to win against anybody if we don't have 20 guys going every night.''
The Badgers will take records of 4-19-4 (overall) and 2-9-2-2 (Big Ten) into tonight series finale at 8 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
"Parts of the game, some guys were fine and other guys weren't. I wasn't a physical thing, it was a mental thing,'' Anastos said.
The Spartans didn't play with the same jump and togetherness they displayed in recent sweeps over Ohio State and Penn State, while compiling a 7-3-2 record since early December, going into Friday's contest.
After Cox scored on a power play at 2:11 of the third period to cut the Badgers' lead to 2-1, MSU came alive and threatened at times to tie it. But goaltender Joel Rumpel (32 saves) was sharp and an alert Badger defense limited quality scoring chances to just a few.
"We weren't able to score when we needed to score, and as a result, we got what we deserved,'' Anastos said. "We have to regroup but I'm more concerned about our mental approach to the game.
"And while we've been talking all week that this team is very capable of beating us, with us on the road, apparently we didn't get that message through and we learned the hard way.''
Late in the third period, Rumpel made clutch saves on MSU defenseman Josh Jacobs from the right point and then on the rebound by Matt Berry.
"We played fine in the third period but why did it take so long?" Anastos asked. "Do we have to wait to score a goal to get going? That's not good enough. That's what's disappointing to me.''
The Spartans outshot the Badgers, 33-18. MSU goaltender Jake Hildebrand gave up two goals Friday on excellent shots by defenseman Chase Drake - from the point in the middle of the ice through a screen - early in the second period, and by defenseman Kevin Schulze -- from the middle of the left circle with 27.1 seconds left in the middle period.
On Schulze's game-winner, right wing Grant Besse, Wisconsin's leading scorer, stole the puck behind the net from MSU defenseman Rhett Holland, came around the net and made a great pass to Schulze the left circle. Schulze's quick shot caught the top right corner of the net.
Cox scored his third goal of the season to cut Wisconsin's lead to 2-1 at 2:11 of the third period.
"One we got the goal, the guys tried to jump in and (worked to get back in the game),'' he said. "Hopefully, that transfers over to tomorrow's game. I guess it was just a lack of preparation.''
Cox's goal came at the end of MSU's third power play. The Spartans kept the puck in the Wisconsin zone, worked it behind the net and Ryan Keller made a perfect pass out front, right on Cox's stick.
"Ferrantino and Keller made a great play out of the corner. I knew that if I backed up in the slot a bit, their defenseman would have to choose to cover me or Keller,'' Cox said. "He went with Keller and Keller slid it to me and I had most of the net to put it home.''
Michigan State hoped to take the momentum from the goal and tie it and pull out a victory, but it couldn't solve Rumpel and the Badgers defense was solid.
"Rumpel played really well. He definitely saw the puck a lot better tonight,'' Cox said. "I think we need to get more wide-angle shots so we get some rebounds, as we're crashing the net. We weren't going hard to the net.
"Our plan was to come in and get six points and that didn't work out so now we have to re-evaluate, watch video and get refocused. We need to come back strong and get three points tomorrow.''
MSU junior captain and center Mike Ferrantino was also puzzled by his team's sluggishness for most of the first 40 minutes.
"We had about half the team ready and the other half was not. That's on me and our leadership guys,'' he said. "We have to get us ready to go.
"Give Wisconsin credit. They're a young team but they're skilled and they played well. They did a good job of clogging us up in the neutral zone. Rumpel held his own. We had some scrambles in front and came up with some big saves.
"We had our chances. There were plenty of chances for us to score but we couldn't get it done.''
AVOID GETTING SWEPT: Michigan State has avoided getting swept in a two-game series all season, although the Spartans lost back-to-back games in October at Boston University and UMass-Lowell.
MSU has swept two series - home against OSU and Penn State. The Spartans have split four non-conference series - Massachusetts and Ferris State at home and New Hampshire and Princeton on the road. In the Big Ten, Michigan State has split at Ohio State, lost and tied against Minnesota at home and tied and lost vs. Penn State on the road.
The Spartans have played one game on a weekend four times. They lost at home against Boston College, won at home vs. Clarkson, won against Michigan in Detroit and lost to Michigan in Chicago.
THE NUMBERS GAME: Sophomore center Thomas Ebbing and freshman defenseman Josh Jacobs led MSU in shots on goal on Friday with five apiece. Sophomore right wing Joe Cox had three while center Michael Ferrantino had three shots on goal and hit one goalpost. Senior right wing Matt Berry had two shots on goal and he deflected a shot off the crossbar on a power play in the second period.
MSU goalie Jake Hildebrand made some clutch stops but faced only 18 shots. He made six saves in each of the first two periods and only four in the third. Last Saturday against Penn State, Hildebrand made 20 saves alone in the second period of MSU's 3-2 victory.
The Spartans were 1-for-4 on the power play, although their last manpower advantage lasted 8.6 seconds as Wisconsin took a penalty at 19:51 of the third period. They had nine shots on goal on the first three power plays.
MSU took only one penalty - in the first period - and skated it off, allowing only one shot.
IN THE BIG TEN: Minnesota extended its winning streak to six games and its unbeaten run to seven (6-0-1) with a 2-1 victory at Penn State. With the win, the Gophers moved ahead of Michigan and into first place with 27 points, three ahead of the Wolverines.
The Nittany Lions' loss was only their second at home this season.
PSU led 1-0 after the first period on David Goodwin's goal, but the Gophers scored two goals within 2 minute and 38 seconds early in the second period to go up 2-1. Christian Isackson and Justin Kloos scored for the Gophers.
Minnesota junior goaltender Adam Wilcox, last season's Big Ten Player of the Year, made 35 saves, including 15 in the third period.
Meanwhile, Ohio State, 1-7 in its last eight games, shocked Michigan 5-3 in Columbus. The loss was the Wolverines' third in a row. In two previous games against U-M, Ohio State lost 8-3 in Ann Arbor and 10-6 in Columbus.
The Buckeyes fell behind on Dylan Larkin's early first-period goal for U-M, but rallied to take a 2-1 lead later in the period on a pair of goals by Matt Johnson at 7:35 and 18:16.
After the Wolverines' Zach Hyman tied it early in the second period, Tanner Fritz gave OSU a 3-2 lead at 7:11. The Buckeyes went up 4-2 on Darik Angeli's goal at 17:55, but Michigan's Tyler Motte scored an extra-attacker goal at 18:31 to make it 4-3.
Ohio State wrapped up the win on Nick Schilkey's empty-net goal at 19:16. Buckeyes goalie Christian Fry made 36 saves, while U-M's Steve Racine stopped 27 shots.
In addition to Saturday's MSU at Wisconsin series finale, Penn State plays host to Minnesota at 5 p.m. Michigan and Ohio State conclude their series with a 5 p.m. Sunday game in Ann Arbor.
