Neil’s Notebook: First Period Blitz Leads Spartans Past Minnesota
1/11/2020 9:54:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – It took a few minutes into the first period for Michigan State to get its game together.
And when the Spartans did, they took it to Minnesota and scored as many goals – three – as the Gophers had shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Michigan State also dominated the second period, and pretty much put the game away with a goal at 10:57 to take a 4-0 lead.
In the third period on Friday, the Spartans survived a rash of penalties and claimed a 4-1 victory in the first game of a Big Ten series, in front of a sellout crowd of 6,346 at Munn Arena.
"I thought our guys played well. We were physical and hard to get through,'' said MSU coach Danton Cole, enjoying the victory on his 53rd birthday. "We talk a lot about playing that way and being on the right side of the puck.
"The first period as pretty methodical. There weren't a lot of shots in the first four or five minutes but they were down in our end a lot. And mentally and mature-wise, I thought our guys handled that.
"Sometimes, you want to force things and get something going at home, but we stayed with it, didn't give up many shots and slowly built (our game) down at their end.''
The Spartans (11-9-1 overall, 7-3-1-0 Big Ten) remained tied with Ohio State for second place in the Big Ten, each with 22 points, and only two behind Penn State (15-6-0, 8-4-0, 24 points). The No. 6/6 Nittany Lions have played one more league game than MSU and OSU and are playing a non-league game this weekend.
Friday's Spartans-Gophers game was mix of the usual and the unusual:
"It was a kind of a weird finish to a real good hockey game. But I was happy with the way we played,'' Cole said. "Lethemon played pretty well and we got to practice our 5-on-3 (penalty kill). I guess that's good.''
Asked if he ever had a team that faced three 5-on-3 power plays in the same period, Cole said he had while coaching in the U.S. National Team Development Program.
"I remember the last time I saw this many 5-on-3s. We were in Russia playing Russia – if that tells you anything,'' Cole said with a touch of sarcasm.
Meanwhile, Minnesota coach Bob Motzko didn't mince any words in summing up his team's play.
"Michigan State kicked our butt and it was from the start,'' he said. "They had much more snarl in their game and it was physical. We needed to survive and were kind of OK. We took the bad penalty, they score. (Twenty-four) seconds later, we're down 2-0 and chasing the game the rest of the way.''
The Spartans will go for their third series sweep of the season – all in the Big Ten – when they play the Gophers in the second game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena. A victory will lift MSU into first place – alone or with Ohio State, which plays at Wisconsin Saturday.
"We want to approach things consistently and approach tomorrow just like we did today, and what we said in (the locker room) is a job half done is a job not done,'' Cole said. "We gave ourselves a great chance (to sweep), that's all it is. If we think we can come out tomorrow and just throw our sticks out there (and win), we're not that type of team. We have to work just as hard, and they'll pick up momentum off the third period.
"There's a lot of splits in the Big Ten for a reason. They'll dig down and play hard and you have to match that. It's on us.''
For sure, the Gophers weren't at their best on Friday and everyone on the Michigan State bench is expecting a strong push-back by Minnesota on Saturday.
"They can score off the rush. They have guys that can make plays,'' Cole said. "I thought we did a good job with that tonight, where we didn't give them much off the rush.''
The Spartans took a 2-0 lead on goals by Lewandowski and junior left wing Gianluca Esteves 24 seconds apart in the first period – at 7:23 and 7:47.
Lewandowski's was a power-play goal and came off a tic-tac-toe passing play – Saliba, from behind the net, to Khodorenko along the goal line on the left to a wide-open Lewandowski in front, and he one-timed the puck past a stunned Minnesota goalie Jack LaFontaine.
MSU scored on the next shift as Esteves got his second goal of the season with a pin-point shot from the right circle into the top right corner. He was set up by Tommy Apap, who won a puck battle in the right corner.
Late in the period, and just three seconds after MSU skated off a penalty, Lewandowski and Khodorenko got behind the Gopher defense on a 2-on-1 break with Lewandowski carrying the puck down the right side. He found Khodorenko breaking free in the middle, hit him with a perfect pass and the Spartan senior center fired the puck past LaFontaine for a 3-0 lead at 18:28.
The three-goal surge in the first period was MSU's second in as many games. The Spartans also took a 3-0 lead in the first period against Ferris State in the third-place game at the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 31 in Detroit.
Minnesota changed goaltenders to start the second period with freshman Jared Moe replacing LaFontaine (6 saves), who played two seasons at Michigan and then one year of Canadian junior hockey before transferring to Minnesota.
The Spartans went up 4-0 at 10:57 of the middle period with Saliba joining a nifty rush by defenseman Jerad Rosburg. Rosburg flicked the puck toward the right circle and it deflected off a Gopher and Saliba caught up to it and chipped the puck past Moe and into the right corner.
Moe finished with 14 saves, allowed only one goal, and came away impressed with the Spartans.
"They were good. They've got a lot of skill up front and (have) some future NHL guys,'' he said. "So, the more we do to shut them down, the better.''
Khodorenko's goal was his 11th of the season and 49th of his career. With a goal and two assists, Khodorenko has had nine games in which he's had three or more points during his MSU career.
"I liked our quick start and the way we played our game for the first 40 minutes,'' Khodorenko said. "In the third period, we let them take control of the game a little. We started giving them a lot of opportunities on the power play, but we stuck with it. And in the end, we had a great defensive game.
"Our strength has been in the third period and I guess now our strength is the first period. I guess it kind of flip-flops like that. We're glad to get the win. I thought we played a great game overall.
"They're a good team and I'm sure they'll come back strong tomorrow, and we will, too.''
Minnesota was 1-for-8 on the power play, with nine shots on goal – eight in the third period. MSU went 1-for-3 with seven shots on goal. The Spartans held a decided 32-18 edge in the faceoff circle, led by Khodorenko going a perfect 8-0, and Mitchell Mattson, playing center on the fourth line, winning 5 and losing 2.
Khodorenko led MSU with six shots on goal while linemates Lewandowski and Saliba had two apiece. Freshman forward Josh Nodler was second in shots on goal with three.
FOUR IN A ROW: The Spartans made history on Friday night at Munn Arena. For the first time in the MSU-Minnesota series, the Spartans have won four games in a row against the Gophers, the longest winning streak in their rivalry.
Three times, Michigan State has won three in a row, including the last three games played with Minnesota last season. The Spartans won 4-2 on Nov. 24, 2018, in Minneapolis and then swept the Gophers, 5-3, 5-3, Jan. 19-20, 2019.
MSU's other three-game win streaks vs. the Gophers:
Feb. 1-2, 1957, and March 2, 1957 (2-1, 4-0, 4-2) and Feb. 11-12, 1972, and Nov. 17, 1972 (7-2, 6-3, 5-3).
DIFFERENT GAME FOR LETHEMON: Goalie John Lethemon faced only seven shots on goal in the first two periods and only a couple were considered quality chances. But things heated up in the third period, helped out in large part by a string of MSU penalties.
Minnesota, battling to avoid getting shut out, had six power plays, including an amazing three 5-on-3 manpower advantages, and made Lethemon work up a sweat. The MSU senior made 18 saves in the period, including eight on the power play, and finally gave up a goal at 13:38 with the Gophers still on a 5-on-4 power play.
Lethemon was seeking his fifth shutout of the season, which would have tied him for the national lead. Instead, Lethemon made 25 saves and gave up one goal or fewer for the eighth time this season.
Lethemon said he was just happy with the series-opening victory and the way his team played in front of him.
"I just want to stop pucks. (The shutout) doesn't mean that much to me,'' he said. "If anything, it means more to the team because it shows how sound defensively we are. But they made a nice play and capitalized on their opportunity.
"I think (Minnesota) got their money's worth at the end. It was huge for us to get up 3-0 and then 4-0, and take their stride out of it.
"The 5-on-3s, they were all like in 10 minutes. It tests your stamina. But we stayed composed and killed them off. It's good that we're a pretty good conditioned team.''
Lethemon's best saves came at 9:37 of the third period when he stopped a breakaway by Joey Marooney and then made a save on the rebound off a shot by Jonny Sorenson. The puck bounced out front and Lethemon made another stop on Nathan Burke.
"We had good sticks on pucks, and when I let out some rebounds – I would have liked to control my rebounds better in the first two periods – my defense stepped up and made a lot of big clears,'' said Lethemon, who boosted his overall record to 11-6-1.
Lethemon lowered his goals-against average to 2.01, third in the Big Ten behind Ohio State's Tommy Nappier (1.86) and Michigan's Strauss Mann (1.95). Lethemon continues to have the top saves percentage at .939, with Mann (.934) and Nappier third (933).
IN THE BIG TEN: Michigan shut out No. 14/14 Notre Dame, 3-0, at Notre Dame. U-M goalie Strauss Mann made 32 saves. Goalie Cale Morris of the Irish (10-8-3, 5-4-2-1) made only 15 saves. The Wolverines carried a 1-0 lead into the third period, scored an early goal and added an empty-netter in the last three minutes.
No. 8/7 Ohio State went on the road and defeated Wisconsin, 4-2, to remain tied with Michigan State for second place in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes (14-5-2, 7-3-1-0) broke a 2-2 tie with a goal late in the second period and added a power-play goal at 12:19 of the third period. The loss dropped the Badgers (7-11-1, 2-8-1-1) into last place in the Big Ten with eight points, two behind Michigan's 10.
On Saturday, Michigan and Notre Dame and Ohio State and Wisconsin close out their series. In addition, No. 6/6 Penn State (15-6-0, 8-4-0-0) plays a non-conference game against Robert Morris at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – It took a few minutes into the first period for Michigan State to get its game together.
And when the Spartans did, they took it to Minnesota and scored as many goals – three – as the Gophers had shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Michigan State also dominated the second period, and pretty much put the game away with a goal at 10:57 to take a 4-0 lead.
In the third period on Friday, the Spartans survived a rash of penalties and claimed a 4-1 victory in the first game of a Big Ten series, in front of a sellout crowd of 6,346 at Munn Arena.
"I thought our guys played well. We were physical and hard to get through,'' said MSU coach Danton Cole, enjoying the victory on his 53rd birthday. "We talk a lot about playing that way and being on the right side of the puck.
"The first period as pretty methodical. There weren't a lot of shots in the first four or five minutes but they were down in our end a lot. And mentally and mature-wise, I thought our guys handled that.
"Sometimes, you want to force things and get something going at home, but we stayed with it, didn't give up many shots and slowly built (our game) down at their end.''
The Spartans (11-9-1 overall, 7-3-1-0 Big Ten) remained tied with Ohio State for second place in the Big Ten, each with 22 points, and only two behind Penn State (15-6-0, 8-4-0, 24 points). The No. 6/6 Nittany Lions have played one more league game than MSU and OSU and are playing a non-league game this weekend.
Friday's Spartans-Gophers game was mix of the usual and the unusual:
- MSU's top forward line of Patrick Khodorenko-Mitchell Lewandowski-Sam Saliba had its normal dynamic game with lots of flair. Each scored a goal and Khodorenko had two assists and Lewandowski and Saliba chipped in with one assist.
- Spartan senior goalie John Lethemon was sharp, as usual, especially in the third period when he stopped 18 of 19 shots.
- On the bizarre side, Minnesota (7-10-4, 2-5-4-3) managed only seven shots in the first two periods – three in the first and four in the second. That's unusual for a program noted for its ability to create quality scoring chances and finish.
- And then there was the weird third period in which MSU took seven penalties, which gave the Gophers six power plays, including three 5-on-3 manpower advantages within a span of less than seven minutes.
- The 5-on-3s lasted 44 seconds, 1 minute and 5 seconds and 1 minute and 46 seconds. But the Spartan penalty killers and Lethemon were outstanding, skating off all three.
- Minnesota's only goal – at 13:38 of the third period by defenseman Jackson Lacombe – came on a normal 5-on-4 power play, 10 seconds before an MSU penalty was set to expire.
"It was a kind of a weird finish to a real good hockey game. But I was happy with the way we played,'' Cole said. "Lethemon played pretty well and we got to practice our 5-on-3 (penalty kill). I guess that's good.''
Asked if he ever had a team that faced three 5-on-3 power plays in the same period, Cole said he had while coaching in the U.S. National Team Development Program.
"I remember the last time I saw this many 5-on-3s. We were in Russia playing Russia – if that tells you anything,'' Cole said with a touch of sarcasm.
Meanwhile, Minnesota coach Bob Motzko didn't mince any words in summing up his team's play.
"Michigan State kicked our butt and it was from the start,'' he said. "They had much more snarl in their game and it was physical. We needed to survive and were kind of OK. We took the bad penalty, they score. (Twenty-four) seconds later, we're down 2-0 and chasing the game the rest of the way.''
The Spartans will go for their third series sweep of the season – all in the Big Ten – when they play the Gophers in the second game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena. A victory will lift MSU into first place – alone or with Ohio State, which plays at Wisconsin Saturday.
"We want to approach things consistently and approach tomorrow just like we did today, and what we said in (the locker room) is a job half done is a job not done,'' Cole said. "We gave ourselves a great chance (to sweep), that's all it is. If we think we can come out tomorrow and just throw our sticks out there (and win), we're not that type of team. We have to work just as hard, and they'll pick up momentum off the third period.
"There's a lot of splits in the Big Ten for a reason. They'll dig down and play hard and you have to match that. It's on us.''
For sure, the Gophers weren't at their best on Friday and everyone on the Michigan State bench is expecting a strong push-back by Minnesota on Saturday.
"They can score off the rush. They have guys that can make plays,'' Cole said. "I thought we did a good job with that tonight, where we didn't give them much off the rush.''
The Spartans took a 2-0 lead on goals by Lewandowski and junior left wing Gianluca Esteves 24 seconds apart in the first period – at 7:23 and 7:47.
Lewandowski's was a power-play goal and came off a tic-tac-toe passing play – Saliba, from behind the net, to Khodorenko along the goal line on the left to a wide-open Lewandowski in front, and he one-timed the puck past a stunned Minnesota goalie Jack LaFontaine.
MSU scored on the next shift as Esteves got his second goal of the season with a pin-point shot from the right circle into the top right corner. He was set up by Tommy Apap, who won a puck battle in the right corner.
Late in the period, and just three seconds after MSU skated off a penalty, Lewandowski and Khodorenko got behind the Gopher defense on a 2-on-1 break with Lewandowski carrying the puck down the right side. He found Khodorenko breaking free in the middle, hit him with a perfect pass and the Spartan senior center fired the puck past LaFontaine for a 3-0 lead at 18:28.
The three-goal surge in the first period was MSU's second in as many games. The Spartans also took a 3-0 lead in the first period against Ferris State in the third-place game at the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 31 in Detroit.
Minnesota changed goaltenders to start the second period with freshman Jared Moe replacing LaFontaine (6 saves), who played two seasons at Michigan and then one year of Canadian junior hockey before transferring to Minnesota.
The Spartans went up 4-0 at 10:57 of the middle period with Saliba joining a nifty rush by defenseman Jerad Rosburg. Rosburg flicked the puck toward the right circle and it deflected off a Gopher and Saliba caught up to it and chipped the puck past Moe and into the right corner.
Moe finished with 14 saves, allowed only one goal, and came away impressed with the Spartans.
"They were good. They've got a lot of skill up front and (have) some future NHL guys,'' he said. "So, the more we do to shut them down, the better.''
Khodorenko's goal was his 11th of the season and 49th of his career. With a goal and two assists, Khodorenko has had nine games in which he's had three or more points during his MSU career.
"I liked our quick start and the way we played our game for the first 40 minutes,'' Khodorenko said. "In the third period, we let them take control of the game a little. We started giving them a lot of opportunities on the power play, but we stuck with it. And in the end, we had a great defensive game.
"Our strength has been in the third period and I guess now our strength is the first period. I guess it kind of flip-flops like that. We're glad to get the win. I thought we played a great game overall.
"They're a good team and I'm sure they'll come back strong tomorrow, and we will, too.''
Minnesota was 1-for-8 on the power play, with nine shots on goal – eight in the third period. MSU went 1-for-3 with seven shots on goal. The Spartans held a decided 32-18 edge in the faceoff circle, led by Khodorenko going a perfect 8-0, and Mitchell Mattson, playing center on the fourth line, winning 5 and losing 2.
Khodorenko led MSU with six shots on goal while linemates Lewandowski and Saliba had two apiece. Freshman forward Josh Nodler was second in shots on goal with three.
FOUR IN A ROW: The Spartans made history on Friday night at Munn Arena. For the first time in the MSU-Minnesota series, the Spartans have won four games in a row against the Gophers, the longest winning streak in their rivalry.
Three times, Michigan State has won three in a row, including the last three games played with Minnesota last season. The Spartans won 4-2 on Nov. 24, 2018, in Minneapolis and then swept the Gophers, 5-3, 5-3, Jan. 19-20, 2019.
MSU's other three-game win streaks vs. the Gophers:
Feb. 1-2, 1957, and March 2, 1957 (2-1, 4-0, 4-2) and Feb. 11-12, 1972, and Nov. 17, 1972 (7-2, 6-3, 5-3).
DIFFERENT GAME FOR LETHEMON: Goalie John Lethemon faced only seven shots on goal in the first two periods and only a couple were considered quality chances. But things heated up in the third period, helped out in large part by a string of MSU penalties.
Minnesota, battling to avoid getting shut out, had six power plays, including an amazing three 5-on-3 manpower advantages, and made Lethemon work up a sweat. The MSU senior made 18 saves in the period, including eight on the power play, and finally gave up a goal at 13:38 with the Gophers still on a 5-on-4 power play.
Lethemon was seeking his fifth shutout of the season, which would have tied him for the national lead. Instead, Lethemon made 25 saves and gave up one goal or fewer for the eighth time this season.
Lethemon said he was just happy with the series-opening victory and the way his team played in front of him.
"I just want to stop pucks. (The shutout) doesn't mean that much to me,'' he said. "If anything, it means more to the team because it shows how sound defensively we are. But they made a nice play and capitalized on their opportunity.
"I think (Minnesota) got their money's worth at the end. It was huge for us to get up 3-0 and then 4-0, and take their stride out of it.
"The 5-on-3s, they were all like in 10 minutes. It tests your stamina. But we stayed composed and killed them off. It's good that we're a pretty good conditioned team.''
Lethemon's best saves came at 9:37 of the third period when he stopped a breakaway by Joey Marooney and then made a save on the rebound off a shot by Jonny Sorenson. The puck bounced out front and Lethemon made another stop on Nathan Burke.
"We had good sticks on pucks, and when I let out some rebounds – I would have liked to control my rebounds better in the first two periods – my defense stepped up and made a lot of big clears,'' said Lethemon, who boosted his overall record to 11-6-1.
Lethemon lowered his goals-against average to 2.01, third in the Big Ten behind Ohio State's Tommy Nappier (1.86) and Michigan's Strauss Mann (1.95). Lethemon continues to have the top saves percentage at .939, with Mann (.934) and Nappier third (933).
IN THE BIG TEN: Michigan shut out No. 14/14 Notre Dame, 3-0, at Notre Dame. U-M goalie Strauss Mann made 32 saves. Goalie Cale Morris of the Irish (10-8-3, 5-4-2-1) made only 15 saves. The Wolverines carried a 1-0 lead into the third period, scored an early goal and added an empty-netter in the last three minutes.
No. 8/7 Ohio State went on the road and defeated Wisconsin, 4-2, to remain tied with Michigan State for second place in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes (14-5-2, 7-3-1-0) broke a 2-2 tie with a goal late in the second period and added a power-play goal at 12:19 of the third period. The loss dropped the Badgers (7-11-1, 2-8-1-1) into last place in the Big Ten with eight points, two behind Michigan's 10.
On Saturday, Michigan and Notre Dame and Ohio State and Wisconsin close out their series. In addition, No. 6/6 Penn State (15-6-0, 8-4-0-0) plays a non-conference game against Robert Morris at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
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