Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Come Up Short in Bid For Sweep at No. 6 Penn State

By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Two goals on Friday night were enough to win the hockey game.

But four goals on Saturday were not.

Michigan State had more offensive punch to its game on Saturday but its quest for a series sweep against Penn State fell short.

The Nittany Lions, shutout 2-0 by the Spartans on Friday, found their scoring touch Saturday, holding off a third-period surge by MSU and claiming a 6-4 victory in front of a crowd of 5,936 at Pegula Arena.

No. 6/6 Penn State (7-2 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) scored two goals in the first period and erupted for three more in the second to build a 5-1 lead.

The Spartans fought back valiantly, scoring a power-play goal late in the middle period and adding two goals in the third period, cutting their deficit to 5-4 with 1:07 left.

But Dennis Smirnov scored into an empty with 29 seconds left to ensure victory for the Nittany Lions.

"Penn State is a good team and usually, sooner or later, the puck goes in the net for them,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "I thought our guys did some good things. I'm probably the way (PSU coach) Guy (Gadowsky) was last night. I don't have complaints on our guys.

"We played hard and kept getting better every period. I thought in the third period, we played a heckuva period. We gave us a chance there.''

Penn State broke the game open during an eight-minute stretch in the second period. After MSU's Mitchell Lewandowski scored a power-play goal at 6:22, cutting the Spartans' deficit to 2-1, the Nittany Lions scored three goals in eight minutes to take a 5-1 lead.

But a spectacular power-play goal by Patrick Khodorenko with 12 seconds left in the second period, MSU defenseman Dennis Cesana made it 5-3 at 12:09, and Khodorenko one-timed a rebound past PSU goalie Peyton Jones with 1:07 left in the game. "It was unfortunate. There were a couple of good plays by them and a couple of bouncing pucks,'' Cole said. "The one wrister from the point and (MSU goalie) John Lethemon just picked the wrong way. He looks around the screen on the right side and the puck goes in on the left. If he looks left it's not a hard save."

Lethemon, who made a career-high 48 saves on Friday, stopped 35 shots but only six in the third period on Saturday. PSU goaltender Peyton Jones made 25 saves.

Michigan State was 2-for-5 on the power play while Penn State converted on one of three chances.

"I didn't think we were playing horrible but the pucks went in and we battled back, got it to 5-2 and then with some good determination and good courage, coming out in the third period and playing well.

"We were good defensively. The pucks just went in. I bet that when I get done going through the game, they had more good scoring chances last night than tonight.

"That's the way hockey is. You can't control that stuff.''

Nikita Pavlychev and Evan Barratt scored for the Nittany Lions in the first period, defenseman Clayton Phillips, Alex Limoges and Sam Sternschein added goals in the second period.

"You have to be realistic with guys. With as hard as they played and battled, there were a lot of good areas of our game,'' Cole said. "Yeah, I don't like giving up that many goals. But by the same token, the battle was there, the courage was there.

"There's something there to pull out of this weekend, especially with the win on Friday, and even tonight, there are some things you want to take forward and build on.''

Khodorenko credited Penn State for its execution and taking advantage of good bounces to pull away in the second period.

"They had guys crashing the net and we've got to be able to box those guys out,'' he said. "They have big forwards so we have to be playing in front of them with us between our net and them.

"They had a couple of good bounces, especially on the (second period) power play. A couple of pucks going wide and kind of deflecting and going right into our net. And there were a few pucks where we weren't clearing them out of our zone and their defense would get it and shoot it back in.

"We had a good push at the end, but too little too late.''

The Spartans have played six road games and only two home games. They're 3-3 on the road with series splits at Northern Michigan, Colorado College and Penn State.

"We battled all the way through, all the way to the finish,'' Khodorenko said. "It shows that we never stop playing and we don't back down. Hopefully, we can keep that up.''

UP NEXT: Five weeks into the regular season, the first Michigan State-Michigan weekend is just a few days away.

The Spartans and Wolverines meet in their first series against each other - at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena.

Penn State continues Big Ten play at Minnesota Friday and Saturday.

After facing Michigan, Michigan State plays host to Notre Dame, Nov. 22-23.

HIGHLIGHT REEL GOAL: Senior center Patrick Khodorenko has scored 42 goals during his Spartan career but arguably none as spectacular as his second-period goal against Penn State on Saturday night.

During a power play, Khodorenko drove into the PSU zone with only a defenseman between him and goalie Peyton Jones. He maneuvered around the Nittany Lion D-man, found himself alone in front of Jones. He went right, brought the puck to his left and slid it into the net at the left post.

The goal cut Penn State's lead to 5-2 and gave MSU some momentum going into the third period. The Spartans scored two more goals – by defenseman Dennis Cesana and Khodorenko with an extra attacker – to trim their deficit to 5-4.

Khodorenko, who has scored four goals in his last four games, didn't downplay where the ranked on his list of memorable goals and not just in college.

"It's probably one of the most spectacular goals I've ever scored,'' he said with a laugh. "When chances like that happen, you have to take advantage of them.

"I knew it was kind of late in our power-play shift and I felt their guys were a little tired and I could get a good fake shot off. My initial thought was to shoot but once I extended it, I thought I could make a move (on the defenseman).

"Once I got around him, I felt I had the time and space and speed to make a move on the goalie. I did and he didn't get his pad over to the post and I was able to put in in.''

Khodorenko's second goal – with 1:07 left and goalie John Lethemon off to a sixth attacker – came off a rebound of a shot from the left circle by Logan Lambdin. Roaming in the right circle, the rebound came right to Khodorenko and he one-timed the puck past Jones.

MSU coach Danton Cole was impressed with Khodorenko's outstanding individual effort to score MSU's second goal.

"I enjoyed it. That was a good goal. That's a highlight goal,'' he said. "Patty is a heckuva player. The neat things about him is he's starting to understand the leadership part of it.

"He's a young guy. He just turned 21 as a senior. He's kind of growing into that and he can build on that. He can make plays like that but it's all the other stuff – like how you play in the corners and in the hard areas - that will get him through to the next level. I love to see it.''

After having just one assist in his first four games, Khodorenko has four goals and six assists for 11 points in the last five games.

"I think I'm shooting the puck more, especially on the power play,'' he said. "Our power play was working well tonight.''

And so was Khodorenko.

POWER PLAY PRODUCES: After not having any power plays on Friday, the Spartans found themselves with four manpower advantages in the second period Saturday. And Mitchell Lewandowski and Patrick Khodorenko capitalized – Lewandowski scoring from the slot at 6:22 and Khodorenko making his brilliant 1-on-1 play to score at 19:48.

MSU was 2-for-5 on the power play and is now converting at 31 percent (9-for-29), which ranks No. 5 in the nation.

"It was pretty good. It was dangerous and we moved the puck pretty well,'' Coach Danton Cole said. "We had 11 shots on five power plays and we scored two goals.

"Penn State is a really good penalty kill team. I don't know where they were nationally but there were a 90 percent team coming in. Our guys did a good job and stayed ahead of the pressure and moved the puck. Both units did that.''

IN THE BIG TEN: No. 5/5 Notre Dame completed a sweep of No. 9/8 Ohio State with a 2-1 victory on Saturday at Notre Dame. The Buckeyes (6-3-2, 2-2) led 1-0 entering the third period but the Irish (7-0-1, 3-0-1-0) tied it on Jake Pivonka's goal at 8:32 and took the lead when Cam Burke scored less than four minutes later – at 12:05. Notre Dame won the series opener, 3-2 in overtime.

Minnesota edged Michigan 3-1 on Saturday and came away with five points on the weekend in the Big Ten standings with the victory and a 1-1 tie on Friday in which the Gophers earned the extra point in the conference standings with a win in the 3-on-3 overtime.

Michigan is 0-4-1 in the last five games and have scored only six goals during this stretch.

In a non-conference series, No. 12 Wisconsin's bid for a sweep of No. 20 Omaha fell short on Saturday with a 5-2 loss on the road. The Badgers (5-5, 0-2) defeated the Mavericks, 5-2, on Friday.

Next weekend, in addition to the Michigan State-Michigan series, Penn State plays its first road games of the season, after nine consecutive home games, at Minnesota, and Wisconsin plays host to Notre Dame. Ohio State has the weekend off.

Michigan State University Athletics

Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Come Up Short in Bid For Sweep at No. 6 Penn State

Related News

Players Mentioned

Dennis Cesana

Patrick Khodorenko

Logan Lambdin

John Lethemon

Mitchell Lewandowski

Related Videos