Photo by: Michael Caples
Neil’s Notebook: Spartan Seniors Lead Rally Past No. 3 Notre Dame
11/24/2019 11:11:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – For the first 53 minutes, Michigan State could manage only one goal against Notre Dame. That's no surprise because the Irish are one of the best defensive teams in college hockey.
But the Spartans showed their resiliency as the minutes clicked off the clock and the scoreboard showed No. 3 Notre Dame holding a 2-1 lead late in the third period.
Held in check for most of the game and stymied by standout goalie Cale Morris, MSU broke through with two goals in 5 minutes and 2 seconds – by senior Logan Lambdin at 13:48 and by senior Sam Saliba with 1:10 left – to take a 3-2 lead.
The Spartans held on for one of most satisfying victories of the season on Saturday in front of a Munn Arena crowd of 5,902.
The Spartans, 4-1-1 in their last six games and 3-0-1 in their last four, are back above the .500 mark for the first time since the first game of the season. MSU is 6-5-1 overall and 4-1-1-0 in the Big Ten and in third place with 13 points.
"We're not the best team in the country but they're my favorite team in the country,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "They work their butts off, they're proud and play the game the right way, and they're fun to be around.''
Cole liked his team's energy and perseverance against one of the best teams in the nation in Notre Dame (8-2-2, 4-2-2-1).
"I was entertained tonight. I love being entertained,'' he said.
Michigan State was about six minutes away from a frustrating defeat as Notre Dame was playing its usual stifling defense. But one shot changed the complexion of the game.
Lambdin came down the right wing and drove to the net and fired a low shot to the far corner that hit the left post and caromed behind Morris at 13:48, waking up the crowd and igniting his teammates.
Suddenly, the Spartans were all over the Irish, controlling the puck in the offensive zone and threatening with several quality shots.
And with overtime looming for the second straight night, MSU capitalized with some pinpoint passing, good shooting and a perfect deflection.
Defenseman Jared Rosburg, another senior making a big impact Saturday, took a wrist shot from the blue line in the middle of the ice and the Saliba got his stick on it to tip it past Morris with 70 seconds left.
Unlike Friday night when Notre Dame scored an extra-attacker goal with 1:39 left to tie the game, 1-1, the Spartans closed out the final seconds, not allowing the Irish a quality shot on goal.
"One minute you're down in the dumps and then a couple minutes later, you're ecstatic,'' Rosburg said. "That's why we love sports.''
Sam Saliba and linemates Josh Nodler and Lambdin were on the ice for all three Spartans goals Saturday and the only goal on Friday. Saliba scored two goals Saturday, the first tying the game 1-1 at 13:37 of the third period.
On the game-winner, Saliba said he was just looking to find the right spot in front of Morris.
"I was eyeing the blue line and Nodler made a cross-ice pass to Denny (Cesana at the right point) and he got it over to Jerad (Rosburg), and he did a good job with it,'' Saliba said. "I wasn't sure if he was going to attempt a shot to the net and I just wanted to be there if he did.
"I got through the first defender and tried to get a stick on it and it went in. It was truly an incredible game. They came out in the third period and got one (18) seconds in. But credit our guys for sticking with it and being resilient. It just shows the fight we have, and we believe that we can be the best team in the league and one of the best in the country.
"We're only going to get better. Just an outstanding job for the boys.''
Michigan State spent most of Saturday's game trailing. Notre Dame went up 1-0 at 2:20 of the first period on Mike O'Leary's power-power play goal. Saliba tied it 1-1 at 13:17 of the second period off a faceoff. He battled to intercept an Irish pass and got open in front and backhanded the puck past Morris.
Tied 1-1, the Irish started the third period with a 5-on-3 power play for 16 seconds. They won the faceoff at center ice, got the puck into the MSU zone and defenseman Mike Leivermann took pass near the point and fired it past goalie John Lethemon (23 saves) just two seconds after the two-man advantage expired.
With not much happening in the first 13 minutes of the final period, it looked like Leivermann's goal might stand up as the winner. Michigan State worked hard to find a way to get quality scoring chances but the Irish did a good job at defending.
But Lambdin provided the spark the Spartans needed with his fourth goal of the season and boosted his points streak to six games.
"I saw that their D-man was coming hard on me and I thought it would be tough to get my body to the far post, and I saw that (Morris) had his stick out far and that I could pull (the puck) back and shoot it under his stick,'' Lambdin said. "I was fortunate enough to put it just inside the far post. It felt really good.''
The Spartans as a team felt really good, too, and even better when Saliba was in the right spot at the right time to tip in the go-ahead goal and stun the Irish.
"We felt kind of a sour taste after Friday night and leaving those three points on the table,'' Saliba said, referring to the 1-1 tie and subsequent loss in the Big Ten shootout. "To not only tie it tonight, take the lead and get the three points is huge. It's a four-point weekend for us. It's all about collecting points.''
Cole said it was difficult to penetrate Notre Dame's defense but his team didn't get frustrated and kept working to find an opening.
"We couldn't get through the wall there in the neutral zone for a long time but we got a timeout and caught our breath and got back at it,'' the Spartan coach said. "We got some forecheck going and all of a sudden, we got some shots off, we protected the puck and looked outstanding.
"It was a great shot (by Lambdin) coming off the wing. It's hard to get through them. They're a hard defensive team. That was a huge goal and all of a sudden it was like 'holy cow, it's 2-2' and the rest of the game we were really jumping, and you kind of hope you get one before overtime.''
The Spartans did and avoided another overtime and a potential another long evening.
"It was a way too long game for me on Friday night. I'm getting too old,'' Cole said with a laugh.
With a tie (and shootout loss) and Saturday's victory, MSU earned four out of six points against the Irish, who left town with two points in the Big Ten.
"I think the guys deserved it. They worked their tails off this weekend,'' Cole said.
Notre Dame was 2-for-3 on the power play with five shots on goal, while Michigan State went 0-for-2 and had two shots on goal. The Spartans outshot the Irish, 29-25, including 11-7 in the first period and 8-6 in the final 20 minutes.
"That's a top 10 team in the country and it's legitimate,'' Cole said. "They've probably been the most consistent team since the Big Ten started. They've won titles, either regular season playoffs, every season they've been in the league.
"It was a fun, entertaining game and the crowd was rockin'.''
UP NEXT: After three straight home games, the Spartans are back on the road next weekend at Ohio State. The teams meet at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday at Value City Arena.
Then, it's two home series before the Christmas break. Michigan State plays host to Wisconsin, Dec. 6-7 and Arizona State in a non-conference series, Dec. 14-15.
SURGING LINE: MSU's new forward line of freshman Josh Nodler at center and senior Sam Saliba on right wing and senior Logan Lambdin has been outstanding for the last six games. They've combined for seven goals and six assists for 13 points.
"For the two seniors, the work they did during the spring and summer was unbelievable. They've got another gear to them that they didn't have last year,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "They have some speed and a little moxie. (Saliba and Lambdin) are not overly big wingers but they kind of get it going, and Josh is just figuring it out a little more every weekend, like how to be physical.
"He's finding his way through the Big Ten which isn't easy. He's an 18-year-old center logging some important minutes. He gets caught on the wrong side of the puck sometimes but Josh is real smart, he's very coachable, learns and tends not to make the same mistakes over and over.
"He's got good hands and really good vision and hockey sense and works well with those other two guys.''
Nodler, at 18, is six years younger than Saliba and Lambdin, both 24-years-old.
"Nodler is like our son,'' Saliba said. "We're sticking with doing the right things, like getting pucks behind them and getting pucks to the net and being good in the danger zones. We can all skate and make plays so it's really starting to jell together.''
Lambdin, a 5-foot-8, 173-pound left wing from Newport, Mich., is now MSU's second-leading scorer (behind Patrick Khodorenko) with four goals and four assists for eight points. Saliba, 5-11, 183, from Lincolnshire, Ill., has three goals and six points and is 5th in team scoring.
Nodler, 5-11, 191, from Oak Park, Mich., has two goals and five points, which is tied for 6th.
"It's three guys that are sticking to what we need to be doing to be effective as we can be,'' Lambdin said. "When we're doing that, we're three solid players, especially when we're working together like we have been.''
SENIORS LEAD THE WAY: Michigan State had six seniors in the lineup Saturday and they all contributed in various ways to a memorable come-from-behind victory, and a solid three-week run in which the Spartans are 4-1-1, including a victory over then-No. 6 Penn State, two wins over arch-rival Michigan and a tie and win against No. 3 Notre Dame.
The group includes forwards Sam Saliba, Logan Lambdin and Patrick Khodorenko, defensemen Jerad Rosburg and Butrus Ghafari, and, of course, goalie John Lethemon, who's been solid all season and particularly outstanding in the last six games.
"We have an older team and have to use that to our advantage. We have a lot of seniors who can contribute,'' Rosburg said. "That's what you need to win these days. It's a tough league.''
Said Lambdin: "We're a lot older team and we have to lead the charge with the younger guys and show them the right way. When we're doing the little things the right way, everyone will follow and we'll be a really a good team.''
For sure, coach Danton Cole loved the impact provided by the Nodler-Saliba-Lambdin line and Lethemon's play in goal and Rosburg and Ghafari's contribution on defense, but he also praised Khodorenko role this weekend.
"Khodorenko didn't have a point but he was a monster out there. He ties up a lot of ice playing against the other team's top lines,'' Cole said. "And last night it was against three seniors and tonight it was two of their seniors and their leading scorers.
"He did a whale of a job. He was a horse out there. Patty's line is going to score, especially if they play the way they did tonight.''
BETTER ENDING: After the Spartans took the lead with 1:10 left, Coach Danton Cole put out three forwards to help stave off Notre Dame's final push – center Tommy Apap and MSU's top scoring threats – Patrick Khodorenko and Mitchell Lewandowski, along with defensemen Tommy Miller and Jerad Rosburg.
"Tommy is easy. He's a horse and as a defensive center, he's going to take the draws, but the other guys have good hands, good puck skills who hit the puck out of the air and get pucks out (of the defensive zone),'' Cole said. "They're smart to get to the next spot.
"What I didn't like about last night (when Notre Dame pulled its goalie for a sixth attacker and scored the tying goal) is that we stopped pressing and stood there and let them around and get pucks to the net.
"Tonight, we pushed and pressed and I don't know if they got a shot on net. We played how you should play the 6-on-5. I hate sitting back in any situation, and the guys did a nice job of closing it out.''
IN THE BIG TEN: None of the three conference series and one non-league series ended the same way Saturday as it started on Friday. There were two splits and two that resulted with a win/tie or loss/tie.
Let's start with the splits. No. 11/11 Ohio State (7-4-1 overall, 3-3-0-0 Big Ten) rebounded from Friday's 5-4 loss and pulled out a 4-3 victory over Penn State (10-3-0, 6-2-0-0) on Saturday in University Park, Pa. In a non-conference series, Michigan's bid for a sweep of New Hampshire fell short after the Wildcats edged the Wolverines (4-8-2, 0-5-1-0) in overtime, 3-2, on Saturday. U-M won the series opener, 4-1.
In addition to MSU's tie and win over Notre Dame, Wisconsin avoided getting swept by Minnesota by playing the Gophers to a 3-3 tie on Saturday, and then won the shootout 1-0 to earn two points in the Big Ten. The Gophers won Friday's series opener, 4-1.
Next weekend, there's only two conference series – Michigan at Wisconsin and MSU at Ohio State, both on Saturday and Sunday.
Penn State, Notre Dame and Minnesota are playing non-conference games. The Nittany Lions are at Merrimack on Friday and at UMass-Lowell on Saturday. Notre Dame plays a home-and-home series with Bowling Green – Friday at BGSU and Saturday at Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, old WCHA rivals Minnesota and North Dakota collide at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis on Thanksgiving night and Friday night.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – For the first 53 minutes, Michigan State could manage only one goal against Notre Dame. That's no surprise because the Irish are one of the best defensive teams in college hockey.
But the Spartans showed their resiliency as the minutes clicked off the clock and the scoreboard showed No. 3 Notre Dame holding a 2-1 lead late in the third period.
Held in check for most of the game and stymied by standout goalie Cale Morris, MSU broke through with two goals in 5 minutes and 2 seconds – by senior Logan Lambdin at 13:48 and by senior Sam Saliba with 1:10 left – to take a 3-2 lead.
The Spartans held on for one of most satisfying victories of the season on Saturday in front of a Munn Arena crowd of 5,902.
The Spartans, 4-1-1 in their last six games and 3-0-1 in their last four, are back above the .500 mark for the first time since the first game of the season. MSU is 6-5-1 overall and 4-1-1-0 in the Big Ten and in third place with 13 points.
"We're not the best team in the country but they're my favorite team in the country,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "They work their butts off, they're proud and play the game the right way, and they're fun to be around.''
Cole liked his team's energy and perseverance against one of the best teams in the nation in Notre Dame (8-2-2, 4-2-2-1).
"I was entertained tonight. I love being entertained,'' he said.
Michigan State was about six minutes away from a frustrating defeat as Notre Dame was playing its usual stifling defense. But one shot changed the complexion of the game.
Lambdin came down the right wing and drove to the net and fired a low shot to the far corner that hit the left post and caromed behind Morris at 13:48, waking up the crowd and igniting his teammates.
Suddenly, the Spartans were all over the Irish, controlling the puck in the offensive zone and threatening with several quality shots.
And with overtime looming for the second straight night, MSU capitalized with some pinpoint passing, good shooting and a perfect deflection.
Defenseman Jared Rosburg, another senior making a big impact Saturday, took a wrist shot from the blue line in the middle of the ice and the Saliba got his stick on it to tip it past Morris with 70 seconds left.
Unlike Friday night when Notre Dame scored an extra-attacker goal with 1:39 left to tie the game, 1-1, the Spartans closed out the final seconds, not allowing the Irish a quality shot on goal.
"One minute you're down in the dumps and then a couple minutes later, you're ecstatic,'' Rosburg said. "That's why we love sports.''
Sam Saliba and linemates Josh Nodler and Lambdin were on the ice for all three Spartans goals Saturday and the only goal on Friday. Saliba scored two goals Saturday, the first tying the game 1-1 at 13:37 of the third period.
On the game-winner, Saliba said he was just looking to find the right spot in front of Morris.
"I was eyeing the blue line and Nodler made a cross-ice pass to Denny (Cesana at the right point) and he got it over to Jerad (Rosburg), and he did a good job with it,'' Saliba said. "I wasn't sure if he was going to attempt a shot to the net and I just wanted to be there if he did.
"I got through the first defender and tried to get a stick on it and it went in. It was truly an incredible game. They came out in the third period and got one (18) seconds in. But credit our guys for sticking with it and being resilient. It just shows the fight we have, and we believe that we can be the best team in the league and one of the best in the country.
"We're only going to get better. Just an outstanding job for the boys.''
Michigan State spent most of Saturday's game trailing. Notre Dame went up 1-0 at 2:20 of the first period on Mike O'Leary's power-power play goal. Saliba tied it 1-1 at 13:17 of the second period off a faceoff. He battled to intercept an Irish pass and got open in front and backhanded the puck past Morris.
Tied 1-1, the Irish started the third period with a 5-on-3 power play for 16 seconds. They won the faceoff at center ice, got the puck into the MSU zone and defenseman Mike Leivermann took pass near the point and fired it past goalie John Lethemon (23 saves) just two seconds after the two-man advantage expired.
With not much happening in the first 13 minutes of the final period, it looked like Leivermann's goal might stand up as the winner. Michigan State worked hard to find a way to get quality scoring chances but the Irish did a good job at defending.
But Lambdin provided the spark the Spartans needed with his fourth goal of the season and boosted his points streak to six games.
"I saw that their D-man was coming hard on me and I thought it would be tough to get my body to the far post, and I saw that (Morris) had his stick out far and that I could pull (the puck) back and shoot it under his stick,'' Lambdin said. "I was fortunate enough to put it just inside the far post. It felt really good.''
The Spartans as a team felt really good, too, and even better when Saliba was in the right spot at the right time to tip in the go-ahead goal and stun the Irish.
"We felt kind of a sour taste after Friday night and leaving those three points on the table,'' Saliba said, referring to the 1-1 tie and subsequent loss in the Big Ten shootout. "To not only tie it tonight, take the lead and get the three points is huge. It's a four-point weekend for us. It's all about collecting points.''
Cole said it was difficult to penetrate Notre Dame's defense but his team didn't get frustrated and kept working to find an opening.
"We couldn't get through the wall there in the neutral zone for a long time but we got a timeout and caught our breath and got back at it,'' the Spartan coach said. "We got some forecheck going and all of a sudden, we got some shots off, we protected the puck and looked outstanding.
"It was a great shot (by Lambdin) coming off the wing. It's hard to get through them. They're a hard defensive team. That was a huge goal and all of a sudden it was like 'holy cow, it's 2-2' and the rest of the game we were really jumping, and you kind of hope you get one before overtime.''
The Spartans did and avoided another overtime and a potential another long evening.
"It was a way too long game for me on Friday night. I'm getting too old,'' Cole said with a laugh.
With a tie (and shootout loss) and Saturday's victory, MSU earned four out of six points against the Irish, who left town with two points in the Big Ten.
"I think the guys deserved it. They worked their tails off this weekend,'' Cole said.
Notre Dame was 2-for-3 on the power play with five shots on goal, while Michigan State went 0-for-2 and had two shots on goal. The Spartans outshot the Irish, 29-25, including 11-7 in the first period and 8-6 in the final 20 minutes.
"That's a top 10 team in the country and it's legitimate,'' Cole said. "They've probably been the most consistent team since the Big Ten started. They've won titles, either regular season playoffs, every season they've been in the league.
"It was a fun, entertaining game and the crowd was rockin'.''
UP NEXT: After three straight home games, the Spartans are back on the road next weekend at Ohio State. The teams meet at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday at Value City Arena.
Then, it's two home series before the Christmas break. Michigan State plays host to Wisconsin, Dec. 6-7 and Arizona State in a non-conference series, Dec. 14-15.
SURGING LINE: MSU's new forward line of freshman Josh Nodler at center and senior Sam Saliba on right wing and senior Logan Lambdin has been outstanding for the last six games. They've combined for seven goals and six assists for 13 points.
"For the two seniors, the work they did during the spring and summer was unbelievable. They've got another gear to them that they didn't have last year,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "They have some speed and a little moxie. (Saliba and Lambdin) are not overly big wingers but they kind of get it going, and Josh is just figuring it out a little more every weekend, like how to be physical.
"He's finding his way through the Big Ten which isn't easy. He's an 18-year-old center logging some important minutes. He gets caught on the wrong side of the puck sometimes but Josh is real smart, he's very coachable, learns and tends not to make the same mistakes over and over.
"He's got good hands and really good vision and hockey sense and works well with those other two guys.''
Nodler, at 18, is six years younger than Saliba and Lambdin, both 24-years-old.
"Nodler is like our son,'' Saliba said. "We're sticking with doing the right things, like getting pucks behind them and getting pucks to the net and being good in the danger zones. We can all skate and make plays so it's really starting to jell together.''
Lambdin, a 5-foot-8, 173-pound left wing from Newport, Mich., is now MSU's second-leading scorer (behind Patrick Khodorenko) with four goals and four assists for eight points. Saliba, 5-11, 183, from Lincolnshire, Ill., has three goals and six points and is 5th in team scoring.
Nodler, 5-11, 191, from Oak Park, Mich., has two goals and five points, which is tied for 6th.
"It's three guys that are sticking to what we need to be doing to be effective as we can be,'' Lambdin said. "When we're doing that, we're three solid players, especially when we're working together like we have been.''
SENIORS LEAD THE WAY: Michigan State had six seniors in the lineup Saturday and they all contributed in various ways to a memorable come-from-behind victory, and a solid three-week run in which the Spartans are 4-1-1, including a victory over then-No. 6 Penn State, two wins over arch-rival Michigan and a tie and win against No. 3 Notre Dame.
The group includes forwards Sam Saliba, Logan Lambdin and Patrick Khodorenko, defensemen Jerad Rosburg and Butrus Ghafari, and, of course, goalie John Lethemon, who's been solid all season and particularly outstanding in the last six games.
"We have an older team and have to use that to our advantage. We have a lot of seniors who can contribute,'' Rosburg said. "That's what you need to win these days. It's a tough league.''
Said Lambdin: "We're a lot older team and we have to lead the charge with the younger guys and show them the right way. When we're doing the little things the right way, everyone will follow and we'll be a really a good team.''
For sure, coach Danton Cole loved the impact provided by the Nodler-Saliba-Lambdin line and Lethemon's play in goal and Rosburg and Ghafari's contribution on defense, but he also praised Khodorenko role this weekend.
"Khodorenko didn't have a point but he was a monster out there. He ties up a lot of ice playing against the other team's top lines,'' Cole said. "And last night it was against three seniors and tonight it was two of their seniors and their leading scorers.
"He did a whale of a job. He was a horse out there. Patty's line is going to score, especially if they play the way they did tonight.''
BETTER ENDING: After the Spartans took the lead with 1:10 left, Coach Danton Cole put out three forwards to help stave off Notre Dame's final push – center Tommy Apap and MSU's top scoring threats – Patrick Khodorenko and Mitchell Lewandowski, along with defensemen Tommy Miller and Jerad Rosburg.
"Tommy is easy. He's a horse and as a defensive center, he's going to take the draws, but the other guys have good hands, good puck skills who hit the puck out of the air and get pucks out (of the defensive zone),'' Cole said. "They're smart to get to the next spot.
"What I didn't like about last night (when Notre Dame pulled its goalie for a sixth attacker and scored the tying goal) is that we stopped pressing and stood there and let them around and get pucks to the net.
"Tonight, we pushed and pressed and I don't know if they got a shot on net. We played how you should play the 6-on-5. I hate sitting back in any situation, and the guys did a nice job of closing it out.''
IN THE BIG TEN: None of the three conference series and one non-league series ended the same way Saturday as it started on Friday. There were two splits and two that resulted with a win/tie or loss/tie.
Let's start with the splits. No. 11/11 Ohio State (7-4-1 overall, 3-3-0-0 Big Ten) rebounded from Friday's 5-4 loss and pulled out a 4-3 victory over Penn State (10-3-0, 6-2-0-0) on Saturday in University Park, Pa. In a non-conference series, Michigan's bid for a sweep of New Hampshire fell short after the Wildcats edged the Wolverines (4-8-2, 0-5-1-0) in overtime, 3-2, on Saturday. U-M won the series opener, 4-1.
In addition to MSU's tie and win over Notre Dame, Wisconsin avoided getting swept by Minnesota by playing the Gophers to a 3-3 tie on Saturday, and then won the shootout 1-0 to earn two points in the Big Ten. The Gophers won Friday's series opener, 4-1.
Next weekend, there's only two conference series – Michigan at Wisconsin and MSU at Ohio State, both on Saturday and Sunday.
Penn State, Notre Dame and Minnesota are playing non-conference games. The Nittany Lions are at Merrimack on Friday and at UMass-Lowell on Saturday. Notre Dame plays a home-and-home series with Bowling Green – Friday at BGSU and Saturday at Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, old WCHA rivals Minnesota and North Dakota collide at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis on Thanksgiving night and Friday night.
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