Neil's Notebook: Spartans Sweep Their Way Into First Place
3/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com. staff writer
EAST LANSING - Jake Hildebrand's stellar goaltending - 38 saves, second shutout in a row and third in his last five games - wasn't the main storyline on Saturday night for Michigan State.
Neither was Matt Berry's big offensive night - one goal, his third in the last two games, and one assist -- in the Spartans' 3-0 victory at Munn Arena.
Even the sellout crowd of 6,994 that showed up to watch MSU seek its third sweep in a month-and-a-half was a secondary story.
This night belonged to Spartans as a team and where they ended the weekend in the Big Ten race.
At 9:23 p.m., when the green light flashed to signal the end of the game, Michigan State was officially in first place in the Big Ten, with one weekend and two games left in the regular season.
Before Saturday's conference games, this was the Spartans' wish list:
1 . Michigan would lose to Penn State for the second-straight game.
2 . Minnesota would lose at Ohio State, only earning a series split.
3 . MSU would gobble up three more points with a victory and sweep over Wisconsin.
Amazingly, all three wishes came to fruition.
The Nittany Lions held on to edge the Wolverines, 4-3, in State College.
The Buckeyes stunned the Gophers, 5-2, in Columbus.
And with a golden opportunity to climb past Michigan and Minnesota and take over the top spot in the Big Ten, the Spartans took advantage of it. They found a way to beat the Badgers, despite a rough-around-the-edges performance, and claim first place by one point over the Wolverines and Gophers. Penn State is three points behind MSU.
First-place Spartans. It has a cool, pleasing sound to it for MSU players, coaches and fans, many of whom would not have believed this was possible back in the fall when this team opened the season 4-8.
"I told our guys to enjoy the success of this weekend responsibly,'' MSU coach Tom Anastos said. "You don't start the season saying that on the second last weekend of the season, we want to be in first place. Your goal is to do that when the season comes to an end.''
The Spartans can do that next weekend when they face Michigan at 7 p.m. on Friday at Munn Arena and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor.
MSU controls its own fate. It can claim the regular-season championship with a sweep of the Wolverines or with a series split and Minnesota doing no better than a split in its home series against fourth-place Penn State.
"It's exciting for us and we're thrilled to have our destiny in our own hands,'' MSU junior captain and center Mike Ferrantino said. "We have two games left and we have to go in on an even keel.
"It's going to be a great series. We just have to stay focused and be ready to have a good first period on Friday and go from there.''
If the Spartans defeat Michigan on Friday, they'll ensure themselves of finishing higher than the Wolverines, and at worst, a second-place finish and first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, March 19-21 in Detroit.
"I haven't given (the Michigan series) that much thought at this point,'' Anastos said. "But we always talk about those games being very important. They count the same but they don't really. They count for way more.
"Obviously, there's tons at stake for both teams. It doesn't get much bigger.''
Technically, this isn't the first time MSU has been in first place this season.
The Spartans won their Big Ten opener at Ohio State, 3-1, on Nov. 20 to gain sole possession of the top spot because that was the only conference game that night. On Nov. 21, MSU lost 3-0 to the Buckeyes, while Penn State defeated Michigan, 3-2, to earn three points and tie for the league lead. When U-M rebounded to defeat the Nittany Lions, 8-1, on Nov. 22, there was a three-way for first with three points apiece.
MSU, U-M and PSU shared the lead for a week before the Nittany Lions climbed into first after sweeping Wisconsin, 5-2, 4-2, on Dec. 5-6, and the Spartans didn't sniff the top spot until Saturday.
"I feel good about the progress we've been making,'' Anastos said. "I knew were making good progress but now we're seeing tangible evidence - signs that we are getting better.
"I've seen us tracking in the right direction for a period of time. You can watch the quality of our game and it's radically improved over a year ago and the year before that.''
In the 2012-13, the last year of the CCHA, the Spartans finished in 11th place with records of 9-18-1 in league play and 14-25-3 overall.
Last season, the first year of the Big Ten, MSU finished in fifth place with league of 5-9-6-4 and an overall mark of 11-18-7.
After going 9-3 in their last 12 games, the Spartans are 10-6-2-2 in the Big Ten and 16-14-2 overall.
The Spartans' last regular-season title was in 2001-02 - goalie Ryan Miller's junior season -- when they earned the CCHA crown with a 21-4-3 league record and were 33-5-4 overall.
"Before the season, we talked about our goals. They were to be at the top of the Big Ten standings at the end and to win the conference tournament,'' said junior left wing Ryan Keller, who scored MSU's third goal on Saturday and extended his point streak to six games.
"We still have to play Michigan and it's going to be a battle. We're happy where we're at but we have to stay dialed in all this week because it's going to be big.''
MSU, MICHIGAN IN REVIEW: The Spartans and Wolverines have met three times this season, once in the Great Lakes Invitational and in two conference games, both at neutral sites. U-M holds a 2-1 edge.
The Wolverines edged the Spartans, 2-1, in the GLI title game on Dec. 29 at Joe Louis Arena. MSU turned the tables a month later, pulling out a 2-1 victory in Detroit on Jan. 30.
One week later, on Feb. 7, the teams met outdoors at Soldier Field in Chicago and Michigan prevailed, 4-1, with the last goal into an empty net.
Finally, the teams will play at their home rinks to help decide the 2014-15 Big Ten regular-season champion.
There's a good chance MSU and U-M could meet for a sixth time in the semifinals or finals of the Big Ten Tournament.
HILDEBRAND STILL IN THE ZONE: Michigan State got tested Saturday as Wisconsin played a much stronger, energized game than it did in the 3-0 loss to the Spartans on Friday night.
The Badgers had the Spartans out of sync for parts of Saturday's series finale and put a lot of pressure on MSU's defense and goaltender Jake Hildebrand.
But Hildebrand was once again on top of his game, and rejected all 38 shots fired his way to earn his third consecutive shutout over the Badgers - all 3-0 victories.
Hildebrand, who has played in all 32 MSU games and has established himself as the best goaltender in the Big Ten and among the best in the nation, has five shutouts in his last 12 games, six on the season and 10 in his career.
Hildebrand praised his defensemen for their play in front of him, but on this night, the 5-10, 187-pounder from Butler, Pa., had to be outstanding to help his team earn a crucial victory.
"I want to do everything I can to help my team win every night, and luckily, things have been going my way lately,'' he said. "It doesn't hurt to have a lot of shots. I think it's easier for a goaltender to stay in games. But I'll take those 21-shot games when I can get them.''
In four games against Wisconsin, Hildebrand and the Spartans gave up two goals - both by defensemen (Chase Drake and Kevin Schulze) in the Badgers' 2-1 victory in Madison on Feb. 20.
After giving up Schulze's goal at 19:32 of the second period, Hildebrand blanked the Badgers 10 straight periods. His shutout streak against Wisconsin is 200 minutes and 28 seconds.
Hildebrand is believed to be the first MSU goalie to shut out the same team three times in one season. The last time MSU had back-to-back shutouts during a two-game series was when Dom Vicari blanked Nebraska-Omaha, 3-0 and 5-0, on Feb. 20-21, 2004.
Ryan Miller had four consecutive shutouts against Miami over two seasons in 2000-01 and 2001-02, his sophomore and junior seasons.
Hildebrand has lowered his goal-against average to 2.10, No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 20 in the nation. His .930 save percentage ranks No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 11 nationally.
Nobody has more shutouts than Hildebrand. He's got six and he's in a three-way tie for No. 1 in the nation with Alex Lyon of Yale and Charlie Finn of Colgate.
LIKE A ROOT CANAL: Saturday's game for the Spartans was frustrating at times and uplifting at other times. It was not a smooth and sharp performance but MSU found a way to fight through some issues, stay the course and come away with a not-so-pretty victory.
"The game was kind of like a root canal,'' MSU coach Tom Anastos said. "They played a better game (than on Friday) and they forced us, or we made some bad decisions, into turning pucks over. We didn't have good rhythm.
"There were parts of the game in which we looked pretty good and other parts we were not so good. It was kind of an ugly win for us.''
After a scoreless first period, the Spartans took a 1-0 lead on Matt Berry's breakaway goal coming down the left wing and firing the puck past Badgers backup goalie Landon Peterson, low to the left corner of the net. It was Berry's 11th of the season and third in two games.
MSU survived a few scares in the second period and nursed its 1-0 lead into the third period. Mackenzie MacEachern gave his team a little bit of a cushion when he made it 2-0 at 4:00.
Matt Berry's shot from high in the slot deflected off of Thomas Ebbing stick in front of Peterson and slid down low to a wide-open MacEachern on the edge of the crease for an easy tap-in for his 11th goal.
Fifty-four seconds later, Ryan Keller scored his eighth goal when he took a perfect pass from Joe Cox, who was on his knees low in the right circle when he slid the puck over. Keller buried it for 3-0 lead.
Anastos said his message to his team after the second period was to focus on the process and not the outcome.
"I said that (the third) period was the most important 20 minutes of the season and we needed stay together and work together,'' he said. "Just win your next shift. We came into the weekend trying to win six periods and here we are the cusp of winning period six.
"Those were big goals. They took the pressure off of us a little, and I thought we could then play the way we wanted to play. It got the crowd back into the game and momentum shifted.''
Anastos credited Wisconsin for making it a challenging game, despite the fact that the Badgers were without with their top scorer, sophomore right wing Grant Besse (11-11-22), who was injured on Friday night. In addition, Coach Mike Eaves gave starter Joel Rumpel the night off and started backup goalie Landon Petersen, who hasn't started a game since Nov. 21 and has played in only four games (0-2) all season.
"They picked their spots on their forecheck. If they couldn't get in (to our zone), they kind of backed off, and we didn't show the patience we have been showing to break through that,'' he said.
"We were forcing pucks and passing through guys, and all of a sudden, that creates transition. And so now you're scrambling back in a disorganized manner. "It went against what we talked about in pregame (meetings) but those things happen sometimes. The good news is we fought through it.''
After not sweeping a series for more than a year, the Spartans have swept three conference series Jan. 23 - all at Munn Arena. They swept Ohio State, 4-1, 2-0, won twice vs. Penn State, 3-0, 3-2, and earned six points against Wisconsin.
"I liked our approach to the weekend. I liked our approach coming into this game,'' Anastos said. "I would've liked to have seen our performance be sharper than it was. But at the same time, a good takeout was our maturation. We kind of did win an ugly game tonight.''
BIG GAMES, LARGE CROWDS: Saturday's game attracted the largest crowd of the season as 6,994 jammed Munn Arena to see the Spartans extend their home winning streak to seven games and unbeaten streak to eight at 7-0-1.
In each of the six homes games in the 2015 portion of the season, MSU has drawn crowds of more than 6,000 fans.
"Tonight's crowd was outstanding,'' Anastos said. "There was great buzz in the building, and it was so helpful.''
It's expected that Friday's final home game against Michigan will be another 6,000-plus crowd and also could be a sellout.
