Neil’s Notebook: First Road Challenge Comes vs. Defensive-Minded Cornell
10/25/2018 9:26:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
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By Neil Koepke MSUSpartans.com staff writer
ITHACA, N.Y. – When it comes to playing a relentless, shutdown defensive game, few college hockey teams do it better than Cornell.
The Big Red are known for their ability to frustrate opposing offenses and win low-scoring games. Over the last five seasons, Cornell has been among the top 10 defensive teams four times.
Last season, Cornell had the lowest goals-against average in the nation at 1.57 goals allowed per game and the goaltender with the best GAA in the country in then-freshman Matthew Galajda at 1.51. The Big Red had an overall record of 25-6-2, they were No. 1 in winning percentage at .788 and won the Eastern College Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 17-3-2 record.
Cornell lost its top three scorers from 2017-18 but Galajda, the ECAC Rookie of the year and a NCAA East First-Team All-American, is back and so is its entire set of defensemen.
Thus, the major challenge for Michigan State this weekend is how to score on the stingy Big Red defense and put itself in position to come away with a victory or two in the Spartans' first road games of the season.
MSU (1-1) faces Cornell (0-0), playing its first games of the year, at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 4,276-seat Lynah Rink.
The Spartans, who had last weekend off after opening the season with a series split with Northern Michigan, are eager for the test against the team picked to finish first in the ECAC for the second straight year.
Michigan State's top line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski expects to play a key role in solving Cornell's defense. And they'll welcome help from other forwards striving to boost the Spartans' offensive output this season.
"Our line is going to do what we do,'' Hirose said. "Sometimes you go into a weekend and you know it's not going to be a seven-goal series. We're going have to play tough and play well defensively and focus more on that than expecting to score every time you go out there.
"With a good goalie, we have to get traffic in front of him and get as many shots as you can get. We usually get some high-quality opportunities so we have to bear down and finish our chances.''
Cornell's likely starting defense is experienced and has good size. It's made up of three seniors – Brendan Smith (6-foot-1, 193), Alec McCrea (6-3, 202) and Matthew Nuttle (5-11, 193), one junior – Yanni Kaldis (5-11, 183), and three sophomores – Alex Green (6-2, 190), Cody Haiskanen (6-4, 195) and Matt Cairns (6-3, 207).
"We know they hit hard and have big players and we're looking forward to that,'' Hirose said. "That's what the Big Ten is like so it gets us ready for that. This is why you come to a school like (Michigan State). You get to play the best teams, not just in the Big Ten.''
Lewandowski said the Spartans have to emphasize getting the puck deep in the Cornell zone and getting as many shots as possible on goal.
"We have to get pucks behind them. Most good defensive teams don't like going backwards and getting hit in the corners and have that pressure on them,'' he said. "Our forecheck needs to be good, we have to get a lot of shots on net and test their goalie.
"They probably hold teams to 15-20 shots a game so that leads to only a few good chances. So, we need to get more to establish pressure in their zone.
"They're going to be fired up for their opener and the crowd will be really into it. If we can score the first goal, as an away team in the home team's opener, that can bring down their mojo a little. We need a good start and get rolling from there.''
MSU coach Danton Cole said that despite Cornell's reputation of being a strong defensive team, the Big Red don't sit back and lull the opposing team with a non-aggressive offense.
"It's interesting if you watch them play. They're defense is up in the play,'' he said. "They do defend well and don't give up a lot, but usually when you think of a team like that, their defensemen are back. But Cornell's defensemen are in almost every rush.
"That tells you they have a lot of confidence in their defense, that they're going to jump up into the play and that they're well-coached.
"For us, we have to find our opportunities, play fast in transition and make sure we're picking up guys on the way back.''
Cornell has played two exhibition games against Canadian colleges and won each handily. The Big Red defeated Laurentian, 6-1, two weeks ago and Guelph, 7-0, last Saturday.
"We're excited to head out on the road. This will be a good test to play a highly ranked team and see if we can get something done,'' Cole said. "When you play against a top-10 team, you can't take 10 minutes off and sort the game out. You have to be ready right from the drop of the puck.
"I think we learned that last year. There were a couple of games where there was Corvette and a Chevette taking off the from the starting line. We (the Chevette) finished all right but you find yourself behind.''
THE RIVALRY: The Spartans hold a 4-2-1 edge in the series against Cornell. The last time the teams played at Cornell on Oct. 28-29, 2005, with the Big Red winning the series opener, 4-2, and MSU earning a split with a 4-3 victory in the second game.
Cornell's last visit to Munn Arena was on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14 in 2004, with the teams playing to a 1-1 tie in the series opener and MSU winning the second game, 2-0.
Cornell has won two NCAA titles – 1967 and 1970. The school's last NCAA Frozen Four appearance was in 2003 in Buffalo. Cornell made the NCAA Final Four six times in seven years from 1967-1973. The Spartans have only met Cornell seven times, including twice at Munn in November 2004.
SCOUTING THE BIG RED: With a strong, experienced defense and an All-America goaltender returning, Cornell opens its season ranked No. 8 in the two major polls and as the favorite to capture the Eastern College Athletic Conference regular-season title.
The challenge for the Big Red is developing a consistent offense after losing their top three goal-scorers (37 goals, 35 assists, 72 points) from last year – two to graduation and one to signing a pro contract.
Cornell's top returning scorer is senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan, who's the smallest player on the team at 5-foot-7, 175 pounds. Vanderlaan, 23, from Hanwell, New Brunswick, had seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 2017-18. He had 15 goals and 28 points as a junior.
The Big Red will be looking for offensive support from forwards Morgan Barron (5-13-18 in 2017-18), Jeff Malott (6-11-17), Cam Donaldson (3-10-13), Beau Starrett (3-7-10), Noah Bauld (5-4-9) and freshmen Max Andreev, Michael Regush and Zach Bramwell.
Andreev, 20, 6-0, 175, from Moscow, Russia, was teammates last season with MSU freshman forward Wojciech Stachowiak with the Central Illinois Flying Aces of the USHL. Andreev was the team's second-leading scorer with 12 goals and 31 assists for 43 points in 56 games.
Andreev and Stachowiak were coached by former Michigan State forward Mike Watt, a Spartan from 1994-97.
Goaltender Matthew Galajda, 21, a 6-foot, 187-pound sophomore from Aurora, Ontario, had a spectacular freshman season with the Big Red. He posted a nation-leading 1.51 goals-against average and nine shutouts. He started 29 games and had a 21-5-2 record and a .939 saves percentage, third best in the nation.
Galajda was the ECAC Rookie of the Year, First-Team All-ECAC, Ivy League Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year and became the first freshman goalie to be among the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.
Galajda, who has not been drafted, played two seasons of junior hockey with the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League before enrolling at Cornell.
The Big Red roster includes 18 Canadians, eight Americans, one from Russia and one from China. Cornell has players from seven of Canada's 10 provinces. There's nine from Ontario, two each from Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, and one each from British Columbia, Quebec and New Brunswick. Only Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland/Labrador are not represented.
The eight Americans come from seven states – Massachusetts leads with two and there's one each from New York, North Dakota, Illinois, Colorado, North Carolina and California.
Mike Schafer is in 24th season as Cornell coach and has a 437-248-91 record and has had only four losing seasons. He's led his teams to 11 appearances to the NCAA Tournament, including each of the last two seasons, and to the Frozen Four in 2002-03.
FIRST FRESHMAN POINT: Defenseman Dennis Cesana became the first Spartan freshman to get his first collegiate point when he earned an assist on Taro Hirose's goal early in the third period in the second game of the series against Northern Michigan on Oct. 13. The goal cut the Wildcats' lead to 3-2. Cesana was also on the ice 40 seconds later when the Spartans scored a power-goal to tie it, 3-3. But NMU went on to a 4-3 victory, holding MSU to a series split.
Freshman goalie Drew DeRidder made his first collegiate start in the second game of the series, making 23 saves and giving up four goals in the 4-3 setback.
SPARTAN POTPOURRI:Taro Hirose has points in his last five games, dating back to last year. To finish the 2017-18 season, Hirose had a goal and two assists in the regular-season finale at Notre Dame and had an assist in two playoff game at Ohio State. He had a goal and an assist in MSU's season-opening win over Northern Michigan and a goal in the second game of the series. Hirose has three goals and five assists for eight points in his last five games. In his career, the junior left wing is averaging close to a point a game with 69 (20-49) in 72 games as a Spartan. . . .
MSU had 45 and 29 shots on goal, respectively, in the two games against Northern Michigan and its average of 37 shots a game is No. 3 in the nation. The 45 shots on goal in the series opener are the most by the Spartans since Dec. 6, 2014, when they fired 45 on Minnesota and goalie Adam Wilcox in a 4-4 tie. . . .
Former Spartan Mason Appleton, in his second season with the Winnipeg Jets organization, leads the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League in scoring with four goals and four assists for eight points in six games. He's tied for 18th in overall AHL scoring. Meanwhile, ex-Spartan Corey Tropp is the AHL San Diego Gulls' second-leading scorer with one goal and five assists for six points in five games. Tropp is in his ninth pro season and third with the Gulls.
IN THE BIG TEN: Conference teams are off to a good start with a 16-5-2 record in non-conference games over the first three weeks of the season. And it's reflected in the two major college hockey polls with three Big Ten teams ranked in the top five and six in the top 13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey rankings and six in the top 14 in the USCHO poll.
Notre Dame (3-0-1) replaced Ohio State (3-1) as the No. 1 team in both polls after the Irish swept Omaha, 4-1, 8-2, and the Buckeyes split with Massachusetts, losing 6-3 and winning 3-1.
OSU slipped to No. 4, Minnesota (1-0-1) is No. 5, Penn State (4-0) is 9th (USA Today) and 10th (USCHO), Michigan (1-2) is 12th and Wisconsin (3-1) is 13th (USA Today) and 14th (USCHO).
This weekend, Notre Dame plays host to No. 2/3 Minnesota Duluth (4-1-1) in a rematch of the last season's NCAA championship game, won by the Bulldogs, 2-1, on Friday and Saturday.
In other Friday-Saturday series, St. Lawrence (1-3) is at Michigan, Michigan Tech (0-2) visits Wisconsin and Ohio State and No. 15 Bowling Green (4-1) play a home-and-home series – Friday in Columbus and Saturday in Bowling Green.
Penn State plays host to Princeton (0-0) on Friday, and former WCHA rivals Minnesota and No. 17 North Dakota (1-2-1) meet in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game on Saturday at the 7,453-seat Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Notre Dame, averaging 5.25 goals a game through four games, has the top two scorers in the Big Ten, led by senior defenseman Bobby Nardella, who has three goals and seven assists for 10 points. Teammate Cal Burke, a junior forward, is second with five goals and four assists for nine points.
Nardella shares the national scoring league with another defenseman – Minnesota Duluth sophomore Scott Perunovich (1-9-10), but the Bulldogs have played six games, two more games than the Irish.
Wisconsin sophomore forward Sean Dooghie also has five goals and is tied for third in league scoring with seven points (5-2). Notre Dame senior forwards Joe Wegwerth (4-3) and Dylan Malmquist (3-4) also have seven points.
