Photo by: Adam Ruff
Neil’s Notebook: Ferris State Stops Spartans on Saturday
11/4/2018 9:52:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
BIG RAPIDS – The weekend did not end up as well as it started for Michigan State. For Ferris State, it was the opposite.
The Spartans' bid for their second-straight series sweep was shot down by a determined pack of Bulldogs, who played with great bite, energy and made big plays at key times.
With MSU rebounding from a sluggish first period and playing its best hockey of the night, trailing 2-1 but coming on stronger in the second period, Ferris State took advantage of two Spartan turnovers.
The Bulldogs (4-4, 2-0 WCHA) turned them into goals and it ignited a 4-1 victory over MSU (4-2) on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 2,490 at Ewigleben Arena.
The victory earned FSU a split of the non-conference series after the Spartans captured the first game, 5-3, on Friday in East Lansing.
"There's a certain way you have to play the game and I didn't think (we did that). There were too many battles that we lost and too many times we cheated on the wrong side of the puck,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "Unfortunately, we let (goalie) Drew (DeRidder) out to dry on some of those.
"We'll get better. We'll learn. And again, it's (about) some better applications of some things. I look at all four goals and on the first two (in the first period), we had chances to clear the puck, and the second two, we had chances in the neutral zone where we should have gotten the puck in, or done a better job at the point of attack.''
After going down 2-0 halfway through the opening period, Logan Lambdin's power-play goal off Jake Smith's rebound at 17:30 gave the Spartans a boost to close out the first 20 minutes.
Michigan State had a solid first half of the middle period and almost tied the game when Mitchell Lewandowski's shot from the left circle on a power play caromed off the crossbar and out of danger.
Later in the period, FSU stopped two MSU rushes just outside the Bulldog blue line, got possession and went the other way, setting up goals by Liam McDougall at 10:20 and Jake Transit at 15:48 for a 4-1 Ferris State lead. The third period was scoreless.
"At 2-1, I thought we were all right and were really good in the first 10 minutes of the second period,'' Cole said. "We were getting pucks behind them and playing the majority of the time in their end.
"Then we have two blown assignments and they get behind us and now it's 3-1 and 4-1. Until that point, we had put ourselves in good position. But we got away from it and that's what happens.''
For the first time this season, MSU's KHL Line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Lewandowski did not get a goal or an assist. The trio combined for eight shots on goal but couldn't solve FSU freshman goalie Roni Salmenkangas, who made 27 saves, including nine during four MSU power plays.
"We're not always going to get five or six points out of Khodorenko's line, and you have to be committed enough defensively to win games like this,'' Cole said. "We'll get better at it.
"Ferris is a good team and like I've said, Coach (Bobby) Daniels does a good job. They came hard and made us go through them, and they kept getting pucks on the other side. They were willing to do the hard things that we weren't quite as willing to do.''
MSU freshman goalie DeRidder, making his second career start, kept his team in the game with several good saves. He stopped 30 shots, including 13 while under siege in the first period.
In Friday's 5-3 MSU victory at Munn Arena, the Spartans scored three power-play goals and had lots of good looks to score even more than five goals. They had some quality chances Saturday, but on this night, the puck just wasn't going in.
"We had a back door open-netter that we missed and we hit two crossbars,'' Cole said. "That's the difference in going 3-for-5 and 1-for-5 on the power play.''
Lewandowski said he and his teammates weren't surprised by Ferris State's energy to start the game.
"You could tell by the way they played in the third period on Friday, and then with the home crowd, you knew they were going to be jumping,'' he said. "We knew we'd have to weather the storm.''
The Bulldogs got outplayed for two periods on Friday and were down 4-0 entering the final period. But they scored two quick goals, cutting their deficit to 4-2 and after MSU scored its fifth goal, FSU closed out the scoring with its third goal of the period. That momentum carried over on Saturday night.
"They were tight on us right from the start and we were kind of flat,'' Lewandowski said. "It was one of those nights where it wasn't clicking for us. You're not getting those bounces and on the opposite side, they're getting the bounces. We have to learn from it and move on.''
QUICK WORK ON THE PP: When Ferris State forward Craig Pefley was called for tripping at 17:21 of the first period, Michigan State's high-scoring KHL Line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski was on the ice at the end of a shift.
So, Coach Danton Cole sent out his team's No. 2 unit – forwards Logan Lambdin, Sam Saliba and Jake Smith and defensemen Zach Osburn and Jerad Rosburg. Wojciech Stachowiak is usually part of the unit but he was a scratch on Saturday and Smith took his spot on the power play.
Nine seconds after Saliba won the faceoff in the left circle, the puck was in the back of the net, thanks to a perfectly executed play.
Saliba got the puck to Smith in the slot and his quick shot goal was stopped by FSU goalie Roni Salmenkangas. But Lambdin was at the right spot on the edge of the crease and tapped in the loose puck for his second goal of the season. He also scored in last Saturday's 4-3 victory at Cornell.
"We just did everything we wanted on the power play, from the set up to Saliba going across to the other forward (Smith) and then Smitty got the shot off and the puck ended up trickling right on to my stick,'' said Lambdin, a 5-foot-8, 177-pound left wing from Newport, Mich.
Lambdin said the difference in the game was the tough 10-minute stretch in the second half of the second period.
"We lost ourselves for about 10 minutes and it ended up biting us,'' he said. "We were on them and we just lost it for a little and they ended up popping a couple.''
DERIDDER SOLID: Freshman goaltender Drew DeRidder made his road debut as a Spartan on Saturday and he responded with a strong game, but didn't get a lot of support. Ferris State applied lots of pressure in the first period, and the Bulldogs' ability to win puck races and battles resulted in the first two goals.
FSU's two goals in the second half of the middle period came off drives into the zone, resulting in a pass into the middle and a good shot and drive to the net and a loose puck tapped in.
"He was fine. He battled really hard, he was good with his rebounds and we really hung him out to dry,'' Coach Danton Cole said of his rookie goalie, a 5-foot-10, 167-pounder from Fenton. "He made a lot of big saves. He scrambled and make some good ones to keep us in the game.''
DeRidder, who lost his first career start against Northern Michigan, 4-3, on Oct. 13 at Munn Arena, made 30 saves, including seven on five FSU power plays.
THE ROAD AHEAD: The Spartans are back on the road next week with their first-ever visit to Tempe, Ariz., to face Arizona State at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Oceanside Arena. The Sun Devils are coming off a stunning 6-5 overtime victory at Penn State on Saturday.
Michigan State's next home series is against Notre Dame, Nov. 16-17.
IN THE BIG TEN: In a showdown between the two newest varsity programs in NCAA Division I men's hockey, Penn State and Arizona State split two games in University Park, Pa.
The No. 6 Nittany Lions (6-1-1) rallied on Friday from a 4-3 deficit in the third period and scored three early goals in just over three minutes and held on for a 6-5 victory.
On Saturday, Penn State trailed 3-1 entering the third period but scored two goals, the second with 2:11 left, to tie the game, 3-3. But ASU's Johnny Walker scored on a breakaway at 1:09 of overtime for Sun Devils' biggest victory of the short history of the program. It's the first time ASU (7-3) has defeated a top 10 team.
Penn State started varsity hockey in 2012-13 and joined the Big Ten in 2013-14. Arizona State is in its fourth season as an independent and not affiliated with any conference.
In the first Big Ten series of the season, No. 5 Notre Dame (4-3-1, 1-1) and No. 7/9 Ohio State (4-3-1, 1-1) split two games in Notre Dame, Ind. The Buckeyes won the opener, 1-0, on Friday and the Irish answered with a 2-1 victory on Saturday. Joe Wegwerth won it for Notre Dame with an unassisted goal with 6:12 left in the third period. The teams combined for 77 shots on goal – 39 for OSU and 38 for Notre Dame.
No. 8/10 Minnesota lost twice to No. 4 Minnesota State, 5-1, on Friday at home and 2-1 on Saturday in Mankato. The Gophers (1-3-1) on Saturday led 1-0 but the Mavericks (7-1) scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the second period and held on for the sweep. Minnesota managed only 15 shots on goal on Saturday.
The Gophers have played five games this season and four times they've been held to one goal, including their last three games. In their other game, they scored seven in a 7-4 win on the road vs. Minnesota-Duluth, now ranked No. 1 in the country.
No. 16 Wisconsin (4-4) got swept by North Dakota in Grand Forks – 5-0 on Friday and 3-2 in overtime on Saturday. The Badgers led 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 early in the third period but the Fighting Hawks (4-2-1) quickly tied it and then won it 21 seconds into OT.
Michigan (4-3), No. 12 in one poll and No. 13 in the other poll, bounced back from Friday's 5-2 defeat at Lake Superior State (5-1) to earn a sweep with a 5-3 win on Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie. The Wolverines broke a 2-2 tie with a three-goal surge in the second period.
Next weekend, in addition to the MSU at Arizona State series, Notre Dame is at Michigan, Wisconsin is home against Minnesota, Ohio State visits Colgate and Penn State plays a home-and-home series with Robert Morris – Friday at PSU and Saturday at Robert Morris.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
BIG RAPIDS – The weekend did not end up as well as it started for Michigan State. For Ferris State, it was the opposite.
The Spartans' bid for their second-straight series sweep was shot down by a determined pack of Bulldogs, who played with great bite, energy and made big plays at key times.
With MSU rebounding from a sluggish first period and playing its best hockey of the night, trailing 2-1 but coming on stronger in the second period, Ferris State took advantage of two Spartan turnovers.
The Bulldogs (4-4, 2-0 WCHA) turned them into goals and it ignited a 4-1 victory over MSU (4-2) on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 2,490 at Ewigleben Arena.
The victory earned FSU a split of the non-conference series after the Spartans captured the first game, 5-3, on Friday in East Lansing.
"There's a certain way you have to play the game and I didn't think (we did that). There were too many battles that we lost and too many times we cheated on the wrong side of the puck,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "Unfortunately, we let (goalie) Drew (DeRidder) out to dry on some of those.
"We'll get better. We'll learn. And again, it's (about) some better applications of some things. I look at all four goals and on the first two (in the first period), we had chances to clear the puck, and the second two, we had chances in the neutral zone where we should have gotten the puck in, or done a better job at the point of attack.''
After going down 2-0 halfway through the opening period, Logan Lambdin's power-play goal off Jake Smith's rebound at 17:30 gave the Spartans a boost to close out the first 20 minutes.
Michigan State had a solid first half of the middle period and almost tied the game when Mitchell Lewandowski's shot from the left circle on a power play caromed off the crossbar and out of danger.
Later in the period, FSU stopped two MSU rushes just outside the Bulldog blue line, got possession and went the other way, setting up goals by Liam McDougall at 10:20 and Jake Transit at 15:48 for a 4-1 Ferris State lead. The third period was scoreless.
"At 2-1, I thought we were all right and were really good in the first 10 minutes of the second period,'' Cole said. "We were getting pucks behind them and playing the majority of the time in their end.
"Then we have two blown assignments and they get behind us and now it's 3-1 and 4-1. Until that point, we had put ourselves in good position. But we got away from it and that's what happens.''
For the first time this season, MSU's KHL Line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Lewandowski did not get a goal or an assist. The trio combined for eight shots on goal but couldn't solve FSU freshman goalie Roni Salmenkangas, who made 27 saves, including nine during four MSU power plays.
"We're not always going to get five or six points out of Khodorenko's line, and you have to be committed enough defensively to win games like this,'' Cole said. "We'll get better at it.
"Ferris is a good team and like I've said, Coach (Bobby) Daniels does a good job. They came hard and made us go through them, and they kept getting pucks on the other side. They were willing to do the hard things that we weren't quite as willing to do.''
MSU freshman goalie DeRidder, making his second career start, kept his team in the game with several good saves. He stopped 30 shots, including 13 while under siege in the first period.
In Friday's 5-3 MSU victory at Munn Arena, the Spartans scored three power-play goals and had lots of good looks to score even more than five goals. They had some quality chances Saturday, but on this night, the puck just wasn't going in.
"We had a back door open-netter that we missed and we hit two crossbars,'' Cole said. "That's the difference in going 3-for-5 and 1-for-5 on the power play.''
Lewandowski said he and his teammates weren't surprised by Ferris State's energy to start the game.
"You could tell by the way they played in the third period on Friday, and then with the home crowd, you knew they were going to be jumping,'' he said. "We knew we'd have to weather the storm.''
The Bulldogs got outplayed for two periods on Friday and were down 4-0 entering the final period. But they scored two quick goals, cutting their deficit to 4-2 and after MSU scored its fifth goal, FSU closed out the scoring with its third goal of the period. That momentum carried over on Saturday night.
"They were tight on us right from the start and we were kind of flat,'' Lewandowski said. "It was one of those nights where it wasn't clicking for us. You're not getting those bounces and on the opposite side, they're getting the bounces. We have to learn from it and move on.''
QUICK WORK ON THE PP: When Ferris State forward Craig Pefley was called for tripping at 17:21 of the first period, Michigan State's high-scoring KHL Line of Patrick Khodorenko, Taro Hirose and Mitchell Lewandowski was on the ice at the end of a shift.
So, Coach Danton Cole sent out his team's No. 2 unit – forwards Logan Lambdin, Sam Saliba and Jake Smith and defensemen Zach Osburn and Jerad Rosburg. Wojciech Stachowiak is usually part of the unit but he was a scratch on Saturday and Smith took his spot on the power play.
Nine seconds after Saliba won the faceoff in the left circle, the puck was in the back of the net, thanks to a perfectly executed play.
Saliba got the puck to Smith in the slot and his quick shot goal was stopped by FSU goalie Roni Salmenkangas. But Lambdin was at the right spot on the edge of the crease and tapped in the loose puck for his second goal of the season. He also scored in last Saturday's 4-3 victory at Cornell.
"We just did everything we wanted on the power play, from the set up to Saliba going across to the other forward (Smith) and then Smitty got the shot off and the puck ended up trickling right on to my stick,'' said Lambdin, a 5-foot-8, 177-pound left wing from Newport, Mich.
Lambdin said the difference in the game was the tough 10-minute stretch in the second half of the second period.
"We lost ourselves for about 10 minutes and it ended up biting us,'' he said. "We were on them and we just lost it for a little and they ended up popping a couple.''
DERIDDER SOLID: Freshman goaltender Drew DeRidder made his road debut as a Spartan on Saturday and he responded with a strong game, but didn't get a lot of support. Ferris State applied lots of pressure in the first period, and the Bulldogs' ability to win puck races and battles resulted in the first two goals.
FSU's two goals in the second half of the middle period came off drives into the zone, resulting in a pass into the middle and a good shot and drive to the net and a loose puck tapped in.
"He was fine. He battled really hard, he was good with his rebounds and we really hung him out to dry,'' Coach Danton Cole said of his rookie goalie, a 5-foot-10, 167-pounder from Fenton. "He made a lot of big saves. He scrambled and make some good ones to keep us in the game.''
DeRidder, who lost his first career start against Northern Michigan, 4-3, on Oct. 13 at Munn Arena, made 30 saves, including seven on five FSU power plays.
THE ROAD AHEAD: The Spartans are back on the road next week with their first-ever visit to Tempe, Ariz., to face Arizona State at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Oceanside Arena. The Sun Devils are coming off a stunning 6-5 overtime victory at Penn State on Saturday.
Michigan State's next home series is against Notre Dame, Nov. 16-17.
IN THE BIG TEN: In a showdown between the two newest varsity programs in NCAA Division I men's hockey, Penn State and Arizona State split two games in University Park, Pa.
The No. 6 Nittany Lions (6-1-1) rallied on Friday from a 4-3 deficit in the third period and scored three early goals in just over three minutes and held on for a 6-5 victory.
On Saturday, Penn State trailed 3-1 entering the third period but scored two goals, the second with 2:11 left, to tie the game, 3-3. But ASU's Johnny Walker scored on a breakaway at 1:09 of overtime for Sun Devils' biggest victory of the short history of the program. It's the first time ASU (7-3) has defeated a top 10 team.
Penn State started varsity hockey in 2012-13 and joined the Big Ten in 2013-14. Arizona State is in its fourth season as an independent and not affiliated with any conference.
In the first Big Ten series of the season, No. 5 Notre Dame (4-3-1, 1-1) and No. 7/9 Ohio State (4-3-1, 1-1) split two games in Notre Dame, Ind. The Buckeyes won the opener, 1-0, on Friday and the Irish answered with a 2-1 victory on Saturday. Joe Wegwerth won it for Notre Dame with an unassisted goal with 6:12 left in the third period. The teams combined for 77 shots on goal – 39 for OSU and 38 for Notre Dame.
No. 8/10 Minnesota lost twice to No. 4 Minnesota State, 5-1, on Friday at home and 2-1 on Saturday in Mankato. The Gophers (1-3-1) on Saturday led 1-0 but the Mavericks (7-1) scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the second period and held on for the sweep. Minnesota managed only 15 shots on goal on Saturday.
The Gophers have played five games this season and four times they've been held to one goal, including their last three games. In their other game, they scored seven in a 7-4 win on the road vs. Minnesota-Duluth, now ranked No. 1 in the country.
No. 16 Wisconsin (4-4) got swept by North Dakota in Grand Forks – 5-0 on Friday and 3-2 in overtime on Saturday. The Badgers led 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 early in the third period but the Fighting Hawks (4-2-1) quickly tied it and then won it 21 seconds into OT.
Michigan (4-3), No. 12 in one poll and No. 13 in the other poll, bounced back from Friday's 5-2 defeat at Lake Superior State (5-1) to earn a sweep with a 5-3 win on Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie. The Wolverines broke a 2-2 tie with a three-goal surge in the second period.
Next weekend, in addition to the MSU at Arizona State series, Notre Dame is at Michigan, Wisconsin is home against Minnesota, Ohio State visits Colgate and Penn State plays a home-and-home series with Robert Morris – Friday at PSU and Saturday at Robert Morris.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
D
/ Men's Ice Hockey
D
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice Hockey
F
/ Men's Ice HockeyAdam Nightingale Postgame Comments | Michigan | December 6, 2025
Saturday, December 06
Adam Nightingale Postgame Comments | Michigan | December 5, 2025
Friday, December 05
Adam Nightingale Postgame Comments | Colgate | November 26, 2025
Wednesday, November 26
Adam Nightingale Postgame Comments | Wisconsin | November 22, 2025
Saturday, November 22