Neil’s Notebook: Optimistic Spartans Eager to Get Going
10/11/2018 9:20:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – After two months of summer workouts and skating on their own at Munn Arena, a month of limited practices with the coaches, the Green and White scrimmage, an exhibition game and a week of regular practices, Michigan State is ready to skate into the 2018-19 season.
Finally.
The Spartans are optimistic about what's ahead as they prepare for their season-opening, non-conference series against Northern Michigan – at 7 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena.
"It's going to be awesome. Our whole team has been waiting for this moment – waiting to get past everything – workouts, practices, the Green and White game and the Windsor game,'' Spartans' senior defenseman Zach Osburn said. "Everyone wants to hit someone and not feel bad about it.
"Our guys are looking forward to competing, and trying to make a big dent in the Big Ten and in the NCAA this year.''
Michigan State players and coaches believe there are plenty of reasons for optimism. They're confident that there will be major improvements in all areas of the Spartans' game – goaltending, defense, offense and special teams.
"We have a little bit of everything right now,'' Osburn said. "We have a lot of talented, young guys that can really fly. We have incoming freshmen who could play a lot of meaningful minutes.
"We've added size to our game. We've got Mitch Mattson (6-foot-4, 202 pounds), Wojciech Stachowiak (6-0, 1997) and Adam Goodsir (6-0, 188) up front and the Krygiers – Cole (6-2, 191) and Christian (6-2, 193) – on defense.
"That will add a different element that other teams won't be used to in playing against us. That's something we're looking forward to.''
In Danton Cole's first season as coach, the Spartans finished with records of 12-22-2 overall and 6-16-2-1 in the Big Ten, but they were many more competitive games late in the season. MSU managed knock off eventual NCAA participants Ohio State and Notre Dame on the road and Penn State at home. The Buckeyes and Irish reached the Frozen Four with Notre Dame losing in the title game to Minnesota-Duluth, 2-1.
"I think we know what we're doing, where we're going and how quickly we can get there will depend on a lot of guys,'' Cole said. "We've had enough practice, we've had enough of hitting each other. We need to spend our energy on someone else.
"This is a good group. We'll continue to get better and we're going to do some good things. We talk about being a dangerous team at some point. I said it last year that we can beat anybody on any night, and now I want to be a team that can beat everybody on every night.
"That's the step we have to take and we'll see how we handle that during the year.''
With much better depth with the addition of seven freshmen, including highly touted goaltender Drew DeRidder and offensively gifted defenseman Dennis Cesana, and the high-scoring line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski returning, Cole and his players eager to see this team develop into a very competitive group, one capable of moving up in the Big Ten standings.
"There's cautious optimism. I've been preaching patience,'' the Spartans coach said. "But we're going to be a fun team to watch. We're going to play the game the right way and we'll be in games. We're going to win some games and, hopefully, a lot here at home.
"I think people get the feeling that things are turning here. And certainly, we do.''
The Spartans most likely will be facing a major challenge in their season opener, because Northern Michigan is coming off an outstanding season – the Wildcats (25-13-3 overall, 19-7-2 WCHA last year) were one win away from making the NCAA Tournament – and it has most of its key players returning.
NMU was picked to finish second in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches' preseason poll. In the first U.S. College Hockey Online rankings, the Wildcats were No. 20. But after last weekend's limited number of regular-season games, Northern dropped out of the poll, basically sliding down to No. 21, without playing a game.
"From what we've heard, they ranked pretty high (in the WCHA) and they've got another good team,'' Osburn said. "We've played a lot of top ranked teams and the Big Ten will be stacked again this year.
"We've been in this position before in playing a top team and so we know what to expect.''
Captain Sam Saliba, a junior center, said the Spartans know they're in for a tough challenge in facing off with Northern Michigan.
"They'll come in here and play a good 200-foot game. They're well-coached and have an experienced goaltender as well,'' he said. "They have good returning production up front.''
One of MSU's top challenges is developing secondary scoring to compliment the KHL line. Saliba has a major role in that as he centers a unit with junior Logan Lambdin on left wing and freshman Wojciech Stachowiak on right wing.
Other combinations in the mix include freshman Adam Goodsir at center with freshman Mitchell Mattson on left wing and senior Cody Milan on the right side, and sophomore Tommy Apap centering senior left wing Brennan Sanford and sophomore right wing Brody Stevens.
Other forwards competing for spots include Gianluca Esteves, Jake Smith, David Keefer and Austin Kamer.
Saliba says the chemistry on his line is getting better with every practice and the trio is eager to test themselves in games.
"I liked our pace on Sunday against Windsor. I thought we created some good chances,'' he said. "We generated some down-low offense. We had a couple of good opportunities that we could have finished. It's about building that chemistry every day in practice. Right now, with Wojciech and Logan, I like where we're at.''
On defense, freshmen Dennis Cesana and Cole and Christian Krygier are ready for their first taste of Division I college hockey and dealing with the nuances of playing at a higher level.
"I definitely know it's going to be an adjustment, but every day I'm getting more and more comfortable,'' Cole Krygier said. "I'm trying to build off every day. I like doing film work with the coaches and working on little details to fine-tune everything.
"But we've only played one team so when we play (NMU) and later when its Ohio State or Penn State or going to Michigan, that'll be a really big test for a young guy.''
After this weekend, the Spartans are off Oct. 19-20 and then take to the road to play No. 6 Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. The Big Red were picked No. 1 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) coaches' preseason poll.
"We'll find out some things very quickly,'' Cole said. "Northern is a top 20 team and with our second series, on the road, Cornell is No. 6, so it'll be a great non-conference start for us. We'll find out what we have.''
GOALTENDING DUEL: The Spartans start the season without a definitive No. 1 goaltender. At this point, it's more like two No. 1s in junior John Lethemon and freshman Drew DeRidder.
Coach Danton Cole has been impressed with both of his goalies during preseason practices and expects both to get playing time early in the season.
"Coach (Joe) Exter has a lot of say in who we go with in goal, but I'd anticipate that early on both goalies will get a lot of ice time and will split a lot of weekends,'' Cole said. "Drew has pushed it and that's great, and John has responded well. John came off a bit of an injury and he's had a good three or four weeks.
"He looks better than he did last year, which is what we wanted. He's older and he's got to be better. We'll split them and see how it goes.''
Asked what he likes about DeRidder, Cole said, "At first blush, he stops a lot of pucks.
"The second part, and probably the important, is his compete level. He just never gives up on a puck. That's good for him, great for the defense and great for our guys in practice – having to battle that hard to put the puck in the net. He's been good, he's very calm in the net.''
Lethemon, 22, last season won the goaltending battle with then-senior Ed Minney early on. Lethemon played in 34 games, started 32, compiled a 12-19-2 record, a 2.88 goals-against average and a .903 saves percentage.
DeRidder, 18, playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team, had a 2.67 GAA and a .899 saves percentage. He helped the U.S. to a silver medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship and went 3-0-0-1 with a 2.52 GAA and a .900 saves percentage as the U.S. captured the 2018 Five Nations Championship.
THE MSU-NMU RIVALRY: The Spartans hold a 35-30-4 edge in the series which started with 5-2 MSU victory on Oct. 24, 1980. But the Wildcats are 6-3-1 vs. Michigan State in the last 10 meetings. The last time the teams met was in the third-place game of the 2015 Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The Spartans scored 66 seconds into the game and held a 1-0 lead until late in the third period when the Wildcats tied it on power play with 4:15 to go. NMU then won it 2-1 at 3:38 of overtime.
Two current players from each team played in that game as freshmen – MSU defenseman Zach Osburn and forward Brennan Sanford and NMU forward Denver Pierce and defenseman Ryan Black.
The Wildcats lost top goal-scorer Robbie Payne (24) to graduation but return their top three scorers and four of their top five in senior forwards Adam Rockwood (8-40-48) and Troy Loggins (23-24-47), junior defenseman Philip Beaulieu and junior forward Darien Craighead (17-16-33). Rockwood played two seasons at Wisconsin before transferring to NMU last season.
Beaulieu, an NCAA West All-Second Team selection and Second-Team All-WCHA member, was the highest-scoring defenseman in college hockey in 2017-18.
With a transfer forward from Union – junior Ben Newhouse – NMU's roster includes eight seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores and eight freshmen. There's 16 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders.
The Wildcats are coached by Grant Potulny, 38, who's in his second season in Marquette after eight years as an assistant to Don Lucia at Minnesota, his alma mater. Potulny scored the winning goal in overtime to give Minnesota a 4-3 win over Maine in the 2003 NCAA title game, and then captained the Gophers as a senior to the 2004 NCAA championship.
He was selected as the 2017-18 WCHA Coach of the Year.
Potulny is only the third coach in Northern Michigan history. The others were Rick Comley (1976-2002) and Walt Kyle (2002-2017).
SPARTAN POTPOURRI: The Spartans are opening the regular season at home for only the second time since 2010. MSU has started the season away from home for the last three seasons –at Bowling Green last season, at Lake Superior State in 2016-17, at the Icebreaker Tournament in Portland, Maine, in 2015-16. MSU lost to the Falcons, 4-1, lost to the Lakers, 6-1, and tied Maine 3-3.
The last time MSU opened at home was on Oct. 17, 2014 – a 5-3 victory over Massachusetts. In their last eight season openers, the Spartans are 1-5-2. Overall, they're 41-31-5 to start the season. . . .
Michigan State's 28 man-roster includes 16 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. There's 19 players from Michigan, one each from New York, Rhode Island, California, Maryland, Minnesota and Illinois, two from Canada (Alberta, Manitoba) and one from Poland.
So, that's three countries, seven states and two provinces.
IN THE BIG TEN: No. 17 Penn State opens its season with a home series against No. 16 Clarkson on Thursday and Friday. It's not a usual Friday-Saturday series because of the Michigan State at Penn State football game on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, No. 1 Ohio State is at Arizona State on Friday and Saturday. The Buckeyes took over the No. 1 ranking in both major polls on Monday after previous-No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth tied and lost against Minnesota in a regular-season series. The Bulldogs dropped to No. 3 but still got first-place votes.
Wisconsin plays host to No. 12 Boston College, also on Friday and Saturday. In the IceBreaker Tournament in Erie, Pa., No. 2 Notre Dame plays Mercyhurst and Miami faces No. 4 Providence in the semifinals on Friday, with the championship and third-place games set for Saturday.
The U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team is facing two major challenges against Big Ten teams in exhibition games this weekend. The U.S. team plays at Michigan on Friday night and then plays host to No. 6 Minnesota (1-0-1, 0-0-0) on Saturday afternoon in Plymouth.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – After two months of summer workouts and skating on their own at Munn Arena, a month of limited practices with the coaches, the Green and White scrimmage, an exhibition game and a week of regular practices, Michigan State is ready to skate into the 2018-19 season.
Finally.
The Spartans are optimistic about what's ahead as they prepare for their season-opening, non-conference series against Northern Michigan – at 7 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena.
"It's going to be awesome. Our whole team has been waiting for this moment – waiting to get past everything – workouts, practices, the Green and White game and the Windsor game,'' Spartans' senior defenseman Zach Osburn said. "Everyone wants to hit someone and not feel bad about it.
"Our guys are looking forward to competing, and trying to make a big dent in the Big Ten and in the NCAA this year.''
Michigan State players and coaches believe there are plenty of reasons for optimism. They're confident that there will be major improvements in all areas of the Spartans' game – goaltending, defense, offense and special teams.
"We have a little bit of everything right now,'' Osburn said. "We have a lot of talented, young guys that can really fly. We have incoming freshmen who could play a lot of meaningful minutes.
"We've added size to our game. We've got Mitch Mattson (6-foot-4, 202 pounds), Wojciech Stachowiak (6-0, 1997) and Adam Goodsir (6-0, 188) up front and the Krygiers – Cole (6-2, 191) and Christian (6-2, 193) – on defense.
"That will add a different element that other teams won't be used to in playing against us. That's something we're looking forward to.''
In Danton Cole's first season as coach, the Spartans finished with records of 12-22-2 overall and 6-16-2-1 in the Big Ten, but they were many more competitive games late in the season. MSU managed knock off eventual NCAA participants Ohio State and Notre Dame on the road and Penn State at home. The Buckeyes and Irish reached the Frozen Four with Notre Dame losing in the title game to Minnesota-Duluth, 2-1.
"I think we know what we're doing, where we're going and how quickly we can get there will depend on a lot of guys,'' Cole said. "We've had enough practice, we've had enough of hitting each other. We need to spend our energy on someone else.
"This is a good group. We'll continue to get better and we're going to do some good things. We talk about being a dangerous team at some point. I said it last year that we can beat anybody on any night, and now I want to be a team that can beat everybody on every night.
"That's the step we have to take and we'll see how we handle that during the year.''
With much better depth with the addition of seven freshmen, including highly touted goaltender Drew DeRidder and offensively gifted defenseman Dennis Cesana, and the high-scoring line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski returning, Cole and his players eager to see this team develop into a very competitive group, one capable of moving up in the Big Ten standings.
"There's cautious optimism. I've been preaching patience,'' the Spartans coach said. "But we're going to be a fun team to watch. We're going to play the game the right way and we'll be in games. We're going to win some games and, hopefully, a lot here at home.
"I think people get the feeling that things are turning here. And certainly, we do.''
The Spartans most likely will be facing a major challenge in their season opener, because Northern Michigan is coming off an outstanding season – the Wildcats (25-13-3 overall, 19-7-2 WCHA last year) were one win away from making the NCAA Tournament – and it has most of its key players returning.
NMU was picked to finish second in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches' preseason poll. In the first U.S. College Hockey Online rankings, the Wildcats were No. 20. But after last weekend's limited number of regular-season games, Northern dropped out of the poll, basically sliding down to No. 21, without playing a game.
"From what we've heard, they ranked pretty high (in the WCHA) and they've got another good team,'' Osburn said. "We've played a lot of top ranked teams and the Big Ten will be stacked again this year.
"We've been in this position before in playing a top team and so we know what to expect.''
Captain Sam Saliba, a junior center, said the Spartans know they're in for a tough challenge in facing off with Northern Michigan.
"They'll come in here and play a good 200-foot game. They're well-coached and have an experienced goaltender as well,'' he said. "They have good returning production up front.''
One of MSU's top challenges is developing secondary scoring to compliment the KHL line. Saliba has a major role in that as he centers a unit with junior Logan Lambdin on left wing and freshman Wojciech Stachowiak on right wing.
Other combinations in the mix include freshman Adam Goodsir at center with freshman Mitchell Mattson on left wing and senior Cody Milan on the right side, and sophomore Tommy Apap centering senior left wing Brennan Sanford and sophomore right wing Brody Stevens.
Other forwards competing for spots include Gianluca Esteves, Jake Smith, David Keefer and Austin Kamer.
Saliba says the chemistry on his line is getting better with every practice and the trio is eager to test themselves in games.
"I liked our pace on Sunday against Windsor. I thought we created some good chances,'' he said. "We generated some down-low offense. We had a couple of good opportunities that we could have finished. It's about building that chemistry every day in practice. Right now, with Wojciech and Logan, I like where we're at.''
On defense, freshmen Dennis Cesana and Cole and Christian Krygier are ready for their first taste of Division I college hockey and dealing with the nuances of playing at a higher level.
"I definitely know it's going to be an adjustment, but every day I'm getting more and more comfortable,'' Cole Krygier said. "I'm trying to build off every day. I like doing film work with the coaches and working on little details to fine-tune everything.
"But we've only played one team so when we play (NMU) and later when its Ohio State or Penn State or going to Michigan, that'll be a really big test for a young guy.''
After this weekend, the Spartans are off Oct. 19-20 and then take to the road to play No. 6 Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. The Big Red were picked No. 1 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) coaches' preseason poll.
"We'll find out some things very quickly,'' Cole said. "Northern is a top 20 team and with our second series, on the road, Cornell is No. 6, so it'll be a great non-conference start for us. We'll find out what we have.''
GOALTENDING DUEL: The Spartans start the season without a definitive No. 1 goaltender. At this point, it's more like two No. 1s in junior John Lethemon and freshman Drew DeRidder.
Coach Danton Cole has been impressed with both of his goalies during preseason practices and expects both to get playing time early in the season.
"Coach (Joe) Exter has a lot of say in who we go with in goal, but I'd anticipate that early on both goalies will get a lot of ice time and will split a lot of weekends,'' Cole said. "Drew has pushed it and that's great, and John has responded well. John came off a bit of an injury and he's had a good three or four weeks.
"He looks better than he did last year, which is what we wanted. He's older and he's got to be better. We'll split them and see how it goes.''
Asked what he likes about DeRidder, Cole said, "At first blush, he stops a lot of pucks.
"The second part, and probably the important, is his compete level. He just never gives up on a puck. That's good for him, great for the defense and great for our guys in practice – having to battle that hard to put the puck in the net. He's been good, he's very calm in the net.''
Lethemon, 22, last season won the goaltending battle with then-senior Ed Minney early on. Lethemon played in 34 games, started 32, compiled a 12-19-2 record, a 2.88 goals-against average and a .903 saves percentage.
DeRidder, 18, playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team, had a 2.67 GAA and a .899 saves percentage. He helped the U.S. to a silver medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship and went 3-0-0-1 with a 2.52 GAA and a .900 saves percentage as the U.S. captured the 2018 Five Nations Championship.
THE MSU-NMU RIVALRY: The Spartans hold a 35-30-4 edge in the series which started with 5-2 MSU victory on Oct. 24, 1980. But the Wildcats are 6-3-1 vs. Michigan State in the last 10 meetings. The last time the teams met was in the third-place game of the 2015 Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The Spartans scored 66 seconds into the game and held a 1-0 lead until late in the third period when the Wildcats tied it on power play with 4:15 to go. NMU then won it 2-1 at 3:38 of overtime.
Two current players from each team played in that game as freshmen – MSU defenseman Zach Osburn and forward Brennan Sanford and NMU forward Denver Pierce and defenseman Ryan Black.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: They return 15 juniors and seniors from last year, including standout goalie Atte Tolvanen, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior from Vihti, Finland. Tolvanen played in 35 games last season, compiling a 2.22 goals-against average and a .908 saves percentage. He was selected to the All-WCHA First Team.Check out the season preview segment from this week's Spartans All-Access! pic.twitter.com/XxWK9Mn2qc
— MSU_Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) October 11, 2018
The Wildcats lost top goal-scorer Robbie Payne (24) to graduation but return their top three scorers and four of their top five in senior forwards Adam Rockwood (8-40-48) and Troy Loggins (23-24-47), junior defenseman Philip Beaulieu and junior forward Darien Craighead (17-16-33). Rockwood played two seasons at Wisconsin before transferring to NMU last season.
Beaulieu, an NCAA West All-Second Team selection and Second-Team All-WCHA member, was the highest-scoring defenseman in college hockey in 2017-18.
With a transfer forward from Union – junior Ben Newhouse – NMU's roster includes eight seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores and eight freshmen. There's 16 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders.
The Wildcats are coached by Grant Potulny, 38, who's in his second season in Marquette after eight years as an assistant to Don Lucia at Minnesota, his alma mater. Potulny scored the winning goal in overtime to give Minnesota a 4-3 win over Maine in the 2003 NCAA title game, and then captained the Gophers as a senior to the 2004 NCAA championship.
He was selected as the 2017-18 WCHA Coach of the Year.
Potulny is only the third coach in Northern Michigan history. The others were Rick Comley (1976-2002) and Walt Kyle (2002-2017).
SPARTAN POTPOURRI: The Spartans are opening the regular season at home for only the second time since 2010. MSU has started the season away from home for the last three seasons –at Bowling Green last season, at Lake Superior State in 2016-17, at the Icebreaker Tournament in Portland, Maine, in 2015-16. MSU lost to the Falcons, 4-1, lost to the Lakers, 6-1, and tied Maine 3-3.
The last time MSU opened at home was on Oct. 17, 2014 – a 5-3 victory over Massachusetts. In their last eight season openers, the Spartans are 1-5-2. Overall, they're 41-31-5 to start the season. . . .
Michigan State's 28 man-roster includes 16 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. There's 19 players from Michigan, one each from New York, Rhode Island, California, Maryland, Minnesota and Illinois, two from Canada (Alberta, Manitoba) and one from Poland.
So, that's three countries, seven states and two provinces.
IN THE BIG TEN: No. 17 Penn State opens its season with a home series against No. 16 Clarkson on Thursday and Friday. It's not a usual Friday-Saturday series because of the Michigan State at Penn State football game on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, No. 1 Ohio State is at Arizona State on Friday and Saturday. The Buckeyes took over the No. 1 ranking in both major polls on Monday after previous-No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth tied and lost against Minnesota in a regular-season series. The Bulldogs dropped to No. 3 but still got first-place votes.
Wisconsin plays host to No. 12 Boston College, also on Friday and Saturday. In the IceBreaker Tournament in Erie, Pa., No. 2 Notre Dame plays Mercyhurst and Miami faces No. 4 Providence in the semifinals on Friday, with the championship and third-place games set for Saturday.
The U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team is facing two major challenges against Big Ten teams in exhibition games this weekend. The U.S. team plays at Michigan on Friday night and then plays host to No. 6 Minnesota (1-0-1, 0-0-0) on Saturday afternoon in Plymouth.
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