Michigan State University Athletics
Photo by: Rey Del Rio/MSU Athletic Communications
Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Split Season-Opening Series
10/14/2018 9:42:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – After the first period Saturday, Michigan State trailed 1-0. After the second 20 minutes, the Spartans were down 3-1.
But in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third period, MSU was suddenly back in the hockey game, scoring two goals within 40 seconds, and with Munn Arena crowd fired up, it looked like momentum was shifting.
But instead of taking over the game, the Spartans quickly gave up a power-play goal and never recovered as they lost to Northern Michigan, 4-3, and had to settle for a split of their non-conference series at Munn Arena.
After Taro Hirose scored at 1:46 of the third period, one second after a power play expired, and Patrick Khodorenko converted on a power play at 2:26, the Spartans, despite being outplayed for the first 40 minutes, found themselves in a 3-3 deadlock.
But MSU's momentum was halted when Khodorenko was penalized for touching the puck with his glove on the ice after a faceoff at 6:12. Seventeen seconds later, Darien Craighead's shot from the left circle found the top right corner to give Northern Michigan a 4-3 lead.
The Spartans had to skate off two more penalties the rest of the game, never got another power play and their attempt to tie the game fell short, much to the disappointment of 5,718 fans, minus NMU supporters, of course.
MSU won Friday's series opener, 4-2, but didn't have the same energy and level of execution on Saturday, and the Wildcats lifted their level of play and got excellent goaltending from senior Atte Tolvanen (26 saves) to earn a series split.
"We played a little too much 1-on-1 hockey for probably two periods and tried to do too much, and that slowed down our second guy (on a rush) and that affected our forecheck, our offensive zone time and our chances and shots,'' Spartans coach Danton Cole said. ""When you do things like that, sometimes it's hard to win a game.
"This was another hard-fought game and similar in some ways to Friday night and a little different in other ways. I didn't think we had the jump that we had on Friday. But give Northern credit. (You knew) they were going to come out and play a better game tonight.''
Unlike Friday's series opener, MSU (1-1-0 overall, 0-0-0 Big Ten) never led on Saturday, going down 1-0 in the first period, and after the Spartans tied it at 7:23 of the second, the Wildcats scored two unanswered goals later in the second – the first shorthanded and the second on a power play – to take a 3-1 lead.
But the Spartans took advantage of NMU penalties to tie it early in the final period.
Hirose's shot from the left point caromed off the right goal post and into the net at 1:46, one second after an MSU power play expired. Just 34 seconds later the Wildcats took another penalty – at 2:20 – and it took six seconds for the Spartans to convert.
Mitchell Lewandowski's centering pass from the left circle was deflected by Khodorenko past Tolvanen at 2:26 and it was tied 2-2.
"We found ourselves down 3-1 but I liked how the guys battled. We challenged them a little between the second and third periods to get back to the way we were playing (on Friday). We scored a couple early, and I thought we played a good third period,'' Cole said. "That's the way the game is but there are good lessons for us in terms of how we have to play.''
But the puck luck that the Spartans enjoyed on Friday seemed to go the Wildcats' way on Saturday.
"We had our chances and we didn't convert and they had chances and they did,'' MSU senior defenseman Zach Osburn said. "We battled hard but give Northern credit. They bounced back, had some fire behind them and they got some good bounces. Tonight was their night.''
The Spartans' first goal by Saliba came on a power play, Hirose's goal was set up off the power play and Khodorenko's goal that tied it came with a man advantage. MSU gave up a shorthanded goal to NMU's Adam Rockwood at 10:24 of the second period that broke a 1-1 tie.
The Wildcats' made it 3-1 on Denver Pierce's power-play goal with 1:59 left in the second period.
MSU was 2-for-5 on the power play with seven shots on goal, while NMU was 2-for-6 with nine shots on goal.
The Spartans held a 45-23 edge in shots on Friday but things were pretty equal on Saturday, with MSU outshooting NMU, 29-27.
"We had a lot of energy on Friday but we came out a little flat tonight,'' said Saliba, MSU's junior captain and center. "It's important that we have that energy early on to jump on teams and get pucks behind them.
"We had the energy in the third period and we tied it up, but our pace was a little behind and were playing catch-up the first two periods. We did a good job in the third period but we have to stay out of the penalty box. We can't be taking six penalties a game.''
Despite the loss and failure to compete the sweep, there were several positives to take out of the first series of the season.
MSU got goals from seven players, points from 10, its power play clicked and produced and seven freshmen made their college hockey debuts and each made an impact in some way.
"There were a lot of positives. The power play got a decent amount of goals, the penalty killing was good the first night,'' Saliba said. "We can build off this in our practices.
"We never had a doubt that we couldn't tie it up going into the third period. Then we went out and got two goals in the first five minutes.''
Northern Michigan started the season ranked No. 20 in the USCHO Poll and dropped out of the Top 20 to No. 21 after last weekend. The Wildcats were picked to finish second in the WCHA Coaches Preseason Poll, behind Minnesota State.
"That's a very good team. We had some good chances but their goalie made a lot of good saves,'' Cole said. "He was the difference in the game.
"We have to take lessons out of both games – the good and the bad. We'll learn lot we'll get better from this.''
DERIDDER DEBUT: Freshman goalie Drew DeRidder made his college debut Saturday and made 23 saves and gave up four goals – two at even strength, one on a NMU power play and one while his team was shorthanded.
Although he probably wants a do-over on the first and fourth goals – high shots from the right and left circles – DeRidder also made some point-blank saves and effectively covered up on bouncing pucks around the net. Coach Danton Cole liked his first start.
"I thought he was good. There's not a lot of 18-year-old goalies playing Division I hockey,'' Cole said. "There's parts of his game that he'll get batter at. I think you saw a little bit of his compete (level). There were backdoor plays where he just didn't give up on a puck. I know Drew and he's probably ticked off on (allowing) the fourth goal after we tied it up. He wanted to shut the door and give us a chance. But he played fine.''
UP NEXT: The Spartans have next week off and will have two weeks of practice to get ready for their next non-conference challenge – at No. 7 Cornell, Oct. 26-27, in Ithaca, N.Y.
That will be Cornell's first regular-season games of the season.
The Big Red were picked to finish first in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Coaches' Poll.
Michigan State's next home game is against Ferris State, Nov. 2. The Spartans and the Bulldogs play in Big Rapids on Nov. 3.
IN THE BIG TEN: Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State swept non-conference series and Notre Dame captured won the Ice Breaker Tournament in Erie, Pa.
The No. 1 Buckeyes (2-0-0, 0-0-0) shut out Arizona State, 3-0, on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., after winning the series opener on Friday, 3-2. OSU didn't score its first goal Saturday until 18:56 of the second period, and it remained 1-0 until there was 6:34 left in the game when Mason Jobst scored on a penalty shot. Ronnie Hein scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with 20 seconds left. Tommy Nappier, the Buckeyes' backup goalie, made 27 saves to earn the shutout
The unranked Badgers (2-0-0, 0-0-0) upset No. 12 Boston College 7-5 on Saturday in Madison, Wis. Wisconsin saw a 4-1 lead disappear in the second period as the Eagles scored three straight goals. The Badgers scored two goals with 70 seconds early in the third period to take a 6-4 lead, and after BC cut the deficit to one goal, Wisconsin wrapped up the win and sweep with an empty-net goal with five seconds left. The Badgers won 3-0 on Friday.
No. 2 Notre Dame (1-0-1, 0-0-0) defeated No. 4 Providence 3-0 to win the Ice Breaker championship. Junior goalie Cale Morris, who gave up six goals against Mercyhurst in Friday's semifinals, made 23 saves to earn the shutout Saturday. The Irish and Mercyhurst played to a 6-6 tie in their semifinal but Notre Dame earned the spot in the final with a 1-0 win in the shootout.
No. 16 Penn State (2-0-0, 0-0-0) swept No. 17 Clarkson, 4-3 and 5-1, in a non-conference series on Thursday and Friday in University Park, Pa.
Meanwhile, in a pair of exhibition games, Michigan (0-1-1, 0-0-0) lost to the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team, 6-3, on Friday, but Minnesota (1-0-1, 0-0-0) had better success against the U-18s with 7-1 victory on Saturday. Both games were played in Plymouth, the home of the NTDP.
Next weekend in Friday-Saturday games, Ohio State plays host to Massachusetts, Niagara is at Penn State and Notre Dame is at Nebraska-Omaha.
Michigan plays a home-and-home series with Western Michigan – Friday in Ann Arbor and Saturday in Kalamazoo. Wisconsin heads to New York to play at Clarkson on Friday and St. Lawrence on Saturday.
Minnesota plays another exhibition game by hosting Trinity Western University (Langley, British Columbia, near Vancouver) on Saturday.
The first Big Ten series isn't until Nov. 2-3 when Ohio State visits Notre Dame. If the two teams keep winning over the next two weekends, that series would likely be the No. 1 Buckeyes vs. the No. 2 Fighting Irish.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – After the first period Saturday, Michigan State trailed 1-0. After the second 20 minutes, the Spartans were down 3-1.
But in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third period, MSU was suddenly back in the hockey game, scoring two goals within 40 seconds, and with Munn Arena crowd fired up, it looked like momentum was shifting.
But instead of taking over the game, the Spartans quickly gave up a power-play goal and never recovered as they lost to Northern Michigan, 4-3, and had to settle for a split of their non-conference series at Munn Arena.
After Taro Hirose scored at 1:46 of the third period, one second after a power play expired, and Patrick Khodorenko converted on a power play at 2:26, the Spartans, despite being outplayed for the first 40 minutes, found themselves in a 3-3 deadlock.
But MSU's momentum was halted when Khodorenko was penalized for touching the puck with his glove on the ice after a faceoff at 6:12. Seventeen seconds later, Darien Craighead's shot from the left circle found the top right corner to give Northern Michigan a 4-3 lead.
The Spartans had to skate off two more penalties the rest of the game, never got another power play and their attempt to tie the game fell short, much to the disappointment of 5,718 fans, minus NMU supporters, of course.
MSU won Friday's series opener, 4-2, but didn't have the same energy and level of execution on Saturday, and the Wildcats lifted their level of play and got excellent goaltending from senior Atte Tolvanen (26 saves) to earn a series split.
"We played a little too much 1-on-1 hockey for probably two periods and tried to do too much, and that slowed down our second guy (on a rush) and that affected our forecheck, our offensive zone time and our chances and shots,'' Spartans coach Danton Cole said. ""When you do things like that, sometimes it's hard to win a game.
"This was another hard-fought game and similar in some ways to Friday night and a little different in other ways. I didn't think we had the jump that we had on Friday. But give Northern credit. (You knew) they were going to come out and play a better game tonight.''
Unlike Friday's series opener, MSU (1-1-0 overall, 0-0-0 Big Ten) never led on Saturday, going down 1-0 in the first period, and after the Spartans tied it at 7:23 of the second, the Wildcats scored two unanswered goals later in the second – the first shorthanded and the second on a power play – to take a 3-1 lead.
But the Spartans took advantage of NMU penalties to tie it early in the final period.
Hirose's shot from the left point caromed off the right goal post and into the net at 1:46, one second after an MSU power play expired. Just 34 seconds later the Wildcats took another penalty – at 2:20 – and it took six seconds for the Spartans to convert.
Mitchell Lewandowski's centering pass from the left circle was deflected by Khodorenko past Tolvanen at 2:26 and it was tied 2-2.
"We found ourselves down 3-1 but I liked how the guys battled. We challenged them a little between the second and third periods to get back to the way we were playing (on Friday). We scored a couple early, and I thought we played a good third period,'' Cole said. "That's the way the game is but there are good lessons for us in terms of how we have to play.''
But the puck luck that the Spartans enjoyed on Friday seemed to go the Wildcats' way on Saturday.
"We had our chances and we didn't convert and they had chances and they did,'' MSU senior defenseman Zach Osburn said. "We battled hard but give Northern credit. They bounced back, had some fire behind them and they got some good bounces. Tonight was their night.''
The Spartans' first goal by Saliba came on a power play, Hirose's goal was set up off the power play and Khodorenko's goal that tied it came with a man advantage. MSU gave up a shorthanded goal to NMU's Adam Rockwood at 10:24 of the second period that broke a 1-1 tie.
The Wildcats' made it 3-1 on Denver Pierce's power-play goal with 1:59 left in the second period.
MSU was 2-for-5 on the power play with seven shots on goal, while NMU was 2-for-6 with nine shots on goal.
The Spartans held a 45-23 edge in shots on Friday but things were pretty equal on Saturday, with MSU outshooting NMU, 29-27.
"We had a lot of energy on Friday but we came out a little flat tonight,'' said Saliba, MSU's junior captain and center. "It's important that we have that energy early on to jump on teams and get pucks behind them.
"We had the energy in the third period and we tied it up, but our pace was a little behind and were playing catch-up the first two periods. We did a good job in the third period but we have to stay out of the penalty box. We can't be taking six penalties a game.''
Despite the loss and failure to compete the sweep, there were several positives to take out of the first series of the season.
MSU got goals from seven players, points from 10, its power play clicked and produced and seven freshmen made their college hockey debuts and each made an impact in some way.
"There were a lot of positives. The power play got a decent amount of goals, the penalty killing was good the first night,'' Saliba said. "We can build off this in our practices.
"We never had a doubt that we couldn't tie it up going into the third period. Then we went out and got two goals in the first five minutes.''
Northern Michigan started the season ranked No. 20 in the USCHO Poll and dropped out of the Top 20 to No. 21 after last weekend. The Wildcats were picked to finish second in the WCHA Coaches Preseason Poll, behind Minnesota State.
"That's a very good team. We had some good chances but their goalie made a lot of good saves,'' Cole said. "He was the difference in the game.
"We have to take lessons out of both games – the good and the bad. We'll learn lot we'll get better from this.''
DERIDDER DEBUT: Freshman goalie Drew DeRidder made his college debut Saturday and made 23 saves and gave up four goals – two at even strength, one on a NMU power play and one while his team was shorthanded.
Although he probably wants a do-over on the first and fourth goals – high shots from the right and left circles – DeRidder also made some point-blank saves and effectively covered up on bouncing pucks around the net. Coach Danton Cole liked his first start.
"I thought he was good. There's not a lot of 18-year-old goalies playing Division I hockey,'' Cole said. "There's parts of his game that he'll get batter at. I think you saw a little bit of his compete (level). There were backdoor plays where he just didn't give up on a puck. I know Drew and he's probably ticked off on (allowing) the fourth goal after we tied it up. He wanted to shut the door and give us a chance. But he played fine.''
UP NEXT: The Spartans have next week off and will have two weeks of practice to get ready for their next non-conference challenge – at No. 7 Cornell, Oct. 26-27, in Ithaca, N.Y.
That will be Cornell's first regular-season games of the season.
The Big Red were picked to finish first in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Coaches' Poll.
Michigan State's next home game is against Ferris State, Nov. 2. The Spartans and the Bulldogs play in Big Rapids on Nov. 3.
IN THE BIG TEN: Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State swept non-conference series and Notre Dame captured won the Ice Breaker Tournament in Erie, Pa.
The No. 1 Buckeyes (2-0-0, 0-0-0) shut out Arizona State, 3-0, on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., after winning the series opener on Friday, 3-2. OSU didn't score its first goal Saturday until 18:56 of the second period, and it remained 1-0 until there was 6:34 left in the game when Mason Jobst scored on a penalty shot. Ronnie Hein scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with 20 seconds left. Tommy Nappier, the Buckeyes' backup goalie, made 27 saves to earn the shutout
The unranked Badgers (2-0-0, 0-0-0) upset No. 12 Boston College 7-5 on Saturday in Madison, Wis. Wisconsin saw a 4-1 lead disappear in the second period as the Eagles scored three straight goals. The Badgers scored two goals with 70 seconds early in the third period to take a 6-4 lead, and after BC cut the deficit to one goal, Wisconsin wrapped up the win and sweep with an empty-net goal with five seconds left. The Badgers won 3-0 on Friday.
No. 2 Notre Dame (1-0-1, 0-0-0) defeated No. 4 Providence 3-0 to win the Ice Breaker championship. Junior goalie Cale Morris, who gave up six goals against Mercyhurst in Friday's semifinals, made 23 saves to earn the shutout Saturday. The Irish and Mercyhurst played to a 6-6 tie in their semifinal but Notre Dame earned the spot in the final with a 1-0 win in the shootout.
No. 16 Penn State (2-0-0, 0-0-0) swept No. 17 Clarkson, 4-3 and 5-1, in a non-conference series on Thursday and Friday in University Park, Pa.
Meanwhile, in a pair of exhibition games, Michigan (0-1-1, 0-0-0) lost to the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 team, 6-3, on Friday, but Minnesota (1-0-1, 0-0-0) had better success against the U-18s with 7-1 victory on Saturday. Both games were played in Plymouth, the home of the NTDP.
Next weekend in Friday-Saturday games, Ohio State plays host to Massachusetts, Niagara is at Penn State and Notre Dame is at Nebraska-Omaha.
Michigan plays a home-and-home series with Western Michigan – Friday in Ann Arbor and Saturday in Kalamazoo. Wisconsin heads to New York to play at Clarkson on Friday and St. Lawrence on Saturday.
Minnesota plays another exhibition game by hosting Trinity Western University (Langley, British Columbia, near Vancouver) on Saturday.
The first Big Ten series isn't until Nov. 2-3 when Ohio State visits Notre Dame. If the two teams keep winning over the next two weekends, that series would likely be the No. 1 Buckeyes vs. the No. 2 Fighting Irish.
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