Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Bounce Back, Earn Tie at No. 11/12 Notre Dame

Photo by: Mike Miller/Fighting Irish Media

Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Bounce Back, Earn Tie at No. 11/12 Notre Dame

1/27/2019 9:16:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey

By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Danton Cole predicted that his team would bounce back from Friday's erratic performance in a 6-3 loss and play much better in Saturday's Big Ten series finale.

The Michigan State coach was right.

The Spartans played at a high level, especially defensively, and were three minutes away from a solid victory over No. 11/12 Notre Dame. But MSU's 1-0 lead vanished when the Irish caused a turnover, got a good bounce and tied the game at 17:00 of the third period.

Despite some good chances in the 5-on-5 overtime, the Spartans (9-13-4 overall, 5-8-3-2 Big Ten) had to settle for a 1-1 tie with the Irish (14-8-3, 7-6-2-2), and then lost the shootout 1-0 to come away with one point in the Big Ten standings.

Taro Hirose gave MSU a 1-0 lead with his 13^th goal of the season just 33 seconds into the second period.

Senior defenseman Bobby Nardella scored Notre Dame's only goal, spoiling the Spartans' bid for a series split, when his shot from a few feet inside the left circle beat Michigan State goalie Drew DeRidder low to the right corner.

"It was a good tie and we were close to getting out of here with a 1-0 win,'' Cole said. "There's really no downside to this except we lose the skills competition.''

In the shootout, DeRidder stopped Nardella with Notre Dame's first attempt. Hirose then shot wide with MSU's first shot.

But defenseman Tory Dello beat DeRidder with a wrister, and Irish goalie Cale Morris then stopped Mitchell Lewandowski to give Notre Dame two points in the Big Ten race.

"The guys really battled hard and did a lot of good things. And with all the issues we had yesterday with defensive reads, we did a good job tonight,'' Cole said. "We did a good job in the first half of the game taking care of that, at the expense of some offense.

"Halfway through, we started getting pucks to the net and were playing well. We had some 30 shots by the end of the game and hit some posts. Drew (DeRidder) was great in net, our defense did a great job, Butrus (Ghafari) jumped into the lineup (on defense) and was good. The guys were playing with the great urgency that we have to have.''

The Spartans, who put 52 shots on goal on Friday, had only 12 through the first two periods Saturday. But they had 14 in the third period and outshot the Irish 4-0, in the 5-on-5 overtime.

Penalty killing was another major improvement for Michigan State. On Friday, Notre Dame scored three power-play goals in four opportunities. On Saturday, the Spartans killed four Irish power plays, including three straight in the first nine minutes of the third period.

DeRidder, playing his first game since Jan. 11 at Penn State, had a solid game with 34 saves.

"We did a better job in the neutral zone tonight and that limited their guys getting on (our defense) really quick, and our defense got back quickly on their retrievals,'' Cole said. "We did a good job up and down the ice.''

Early in the third period, Hirose raced down the ice, created a good look almost gave the Spartans a 2-0 lead but his shot hit the post.

Nardella came close to tying it midway through the third period on a power play, but his one-timer from close in went wide of the open corner of the net.

After skating off penalties at 1:02, 3:54 and 7:01, the Spartans looked to be in good shape heading into the last few minutes. But the Irish kept pressuring and it paid off.

"For 10 minutes in the third there wasn't much going on in our end. Then we had one bad exchange with the goalie and defenseman and it ends up as a turnover and the guy makes a perfect shot,'' Cole said. "It's unfortunate, but I liked the way our guys reacted. We had a bunch of chances to finish the game.

"We hit another bar in the 5-on-5 overtime and we had the puck most of the time in the 3-on-3 (overtime). You get down to a shootout, and those are kind of weird things.''

The Spartans outshot the Irish 4-0 in the first overtime and 3-2 in the 3-on-3 OT, which doesn't count in the official stats.

Michigan State is now 2-1 in post 5-on-5 overtime play – the battle to see who gets two points in the Big Ten standings and who leaves the ice with one.

The Spartans topped Michigan 1-0 in a shootout on Dec. 1 in Ann Arbor in a 1-1 tie, and MSU scored in the 3-on-3 overtime against Ohio State on Jan. 4 in the bizarre 7-7 deadlock.

"We would have loved to get out of here with two or three points, but it is what it is,'' Cole said.

MSU defenseman Zach Osburn said his team was determined to eliminate the costly mistakes that doomed the Spartans on Friday.

"I think we got punched in the mouth the night before and we were mad and tonight we played with more intensity and urgency. We wanted to punch back,'' he said. "I thought our defense played pretty well both nights. We had a couple of breakdowns last night, but tonight our defense moved pucks better and made quicker decisions closer to the red line to get pucks deep. We closed really well but today we had the one error down low and it resulted in a goal.''

The Spartans were so close to a victory and ended up with only one point with the tie instead of three.

"That always stinks. There's no way to sugar coat it. It's hockey and stinks when it happens,'' Osburn said. "They got a pretty good bounce and scored.

"In overtime, we were really good. We have to lock it down in the last few minutes. We had our chances, and if a couple of bounces had gone our it could have been 4-1 but it wasn't.''

MSU got solid play and high energy from Tommy Apap's line with Brennan Sanford and Austin Kamer and Adam Goodsir centering Logan Lambdin and Cody Milan. They worked hard in the offensive zone, turned pucks over and created some dangerous scoring chances. Sanford was two shots on goal and good looks in the 5-on-5 OT. Kamer also a shot on goal in overtime.

MSU's KHL Line combined for 10 shots on goal – six by Hirose, three from Patrick Khodorenko and one by Lewandowski, who set up Hirose's goal with a perfect pass from the right boards into the slot.

Hirose almost scored again in the second period when he started to circle the net on the left, stopped came back and tried to bank the puck off Morris' left pad. Morris didn't seem to know where the puck was but he dropped to his knees and covered it.

Lewandowski said his team will benefit by the way it played overall, starting each period strong, playing better defense and being very effective on the penalty kill.

"When you start like that, it sets the tempo. The defense was good in getting pucks deep, we blocked more shots and our penalty killing was good,'' he said. "We killed three in a row in the third period and that's a big turnaround from last night.''

There were only a few aspects of the game the Spartans didn't like - the last goal, not finishing some good chances in overtime and not winning the shootout.

"We played well tonight so you take as much as you can from the weekend,'' Lewandowski said. "There were some stretches in the second period on Friday where we didn't play well. But tonight, I thought we dominated the game overall, not shot-wise, but in other areas.''


UP NEXT: The Spartans return home for the second-last home series off the regular season when they face Wisconsin at 7 p.m. on Friday and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Badgers swept MSU, 5-3, 3-0, on Dec. 7-8 in Madison. Since that series, Wisconsin is 1-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the Big Ten, but Saturday's 4-3 win at Minnesota lifted the Badgers into a tie with MSU for fifth place.

HIROSE STRIKES AGAIN: Taro Hirose had six shots on goal and scored MSU's only goal from the slot in the first minute of the second period, clanked a shot off a goal post in the third period and played a big role in killing penalties, including three early in the third period.

Hirose was cruising around in the slot when Lewandowski got possession along the right boards and backhanded the puck into the middle right on Hirose's stick. Hirose found himself with space and time and drove to the net and fired the puck between goalie Cale Morris' legs for a 1-0 MSU lead.

About five minutes later, linemate Patrick Khodorenko had a close-in shot coming off a rush go out off the right post and deflect out of danger.

Hirose, who also scored one goal on Friday, extended his point streak to six games. He has four goals and seven assists for 11 points during this stretch.

Once again, Hirose will enter a weekend as the top scorer in the nation with a career-high 13 goals and 29 assists for 42 points, which matches his career high set last season as MSU's top scorer (12-20-42).

Hirose has a five-point lead on Mercyhurst defenseman Joseph Duszak (14-23-37) and he's six ahead of forward Evan Barratt (15-20-35) of Penn State. Hirose's 1.62 points-per-game average is also No. 1 in the nation.

Meanwhile, Hirose is on track to become MSU's top point-getter since Shawn Horcoff had 14 goals and 51 assists for 65 points in 42 games in 1999-20. Hirose needs nine points to surpass John-Michael Liles' 50-point season (16-34) in 2002-03.

Other MSU scoring leaders that Hirose is close to passing:

Jim Slater (19-29-48), 2003-04, and (16-32-48), 2004-05; Drew Miller (18-25-43), 2005-06; Tim Kennedy (18-25-43), 2006-07, and (20-23-43), 2008-09; and Corey Tropp (20-22-42), 2009-10.

THE IRISH VIEW: Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said he was impressed with Michigan State's defensive effort and was pleased that his team was able to tie it late and not take a loss.

"It's good that we came back and tied that game. They played a great game defensively,'' Jackson said. "They didn't give us a lot. We had chances but not secondary chances. "They did a good job shutting down our power play.

"It was a challenging game. It's that time of year. But that's what I expected to see from them because that's what we saw on film. That's how they beat Minnesota twice last week. That's how they beat Penn State. That's not an easy thing to do at Penn State.

"They're an up-and-coming team. They have great first line, they work extremely hard and they got good goaltending tonight. But I was pleased with our resilience tonight. We were patient. We stuck to our game-plan in the third period and got the tying goal.''

IN THE BIG TEN: In the fourth annual "Super Saturday – College Hoops and Hockey" doubleheader at Madison Square Garden in New York, Penn State halted a four-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over Michigan to earn a series split. Michigan won the opener, 5-1, on Thursday in Ann Arbor.

The Nittany Lions scored three goals in the first period and went up 4-0 in the second period before the Wolverines finally scored. The season series between the teams ended up, 2-2.

Meanwhile, in the Border Battle between Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Badgers rallied from a 3-2 deficit to tie the game late in the second period, and then broke the tie early in the third and held on for a 4-3 victory to earn a split of their series. Minnesota won the series opener, 9-4, scoring four late goals to and turn a close game into a runaway. The teams split the season series, 2-2.

First-place Ohio State had the weekend off.

Next weekend, in addition to the MSU-Wisconsin series, Minnesota is home against Michigan and Notre Dame plays at Ohio State. It's Penn State's turn to take a weekend off.

After the three series, Notre Dame climbed from fourth place to second place with 25 points, four behind the first-place Buckeyes (29 points). Minnesota (24 points) is in third place and Michigan (21) in fourth.

With Penn State and Wisconsin earning three points for victories and Michigan State picking up one point, there's a three-way tie for fifth place with each team sitting with 20 points. The Spartans and Nittany Lions have played two more games than the Badgers.

Eight games remain in Big Ten play for Minnesota, Penn State and MSU. Notre Dame and Michigan have nine and Ohio State and Wisconsin have 10 games left.