Neil’s Notebook: Led by Khodorenko and Lethemon, Spartans Top No. 9 Penn State in Series Opener
1/25/2020 9:55:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – There were several key factors to Michigan State's 4-2 victory over No. 9/9 Penn State on Friday night in front of 6,017 fans at Munn Arena.
Here's four:
Senior center Patrick Khodorenko's three goals – one in the first period, one in the second and one in the third, for his second career hat trick.
Another brilliant game by senior goaltender John Lethemon, who made 40 saves, including a few highlight-reel stops.
Michigan State somehow surviving the second period in which the Nittany Lions spent most of the 20 minutes in the offensive zone, outshooting the Spartans, 17-2. But they only scored one goal and trailed 2-1 entering the final period.
The Spartans' solid third period, holding PSU's offense in check and scoring two goals – at 7:40 and 12:52 – to snuff out the visitors' hopes for a comeback.
"That's a big win for our guys. We've talked about a lot about opportunities and tonight was one of them,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "I thought we did an outstanding job.
"Our big guys were good and everybody else battled. Not a lot of complaints here.''
Friday's victory lifted the No. 19 Spartans (13-11-1 overall, 9-5-1-0 Big Ten, 28 points) into first place in the Big Ten, two points ahead of No. 6/6 Ohio State (15-7-3, 8-5-2-0, 26 points), which lost 6-3 at Minnesota, and three points up on Penn State (16-8-1, 8-6-1-0, 25 points).
Michigan State will try to stay in first alone and earn its third conference sweep of the season when it faces the Nittany Lions in the series finale at 6 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena.
"These are young guys and there's a big crowd here and we're in a situation where none of these guys have been in, at least here at Michigan State,'' Cole said. "You have to learn. You have to go through these things.''
The Spartans have been in position to sweep series the last two Saturdays after winning the first game against Minnesota and Wisconsin, respectively. But they came up short in the second game, losing basically by one goal in games that ended up two-goal games due to empty-net goals – 2-0 vs. the Gophers and 3-1 against the Badgers.
"We'd love to sweep this weekend and I'd love to be 25-0 right now. It is what it is,'' Cole said. "That's the next step. You have to be able to finish some stuff. At some point, we're going to have to win a few games in row to keep going.''
Keep going, as in competing for first place in the Big Ten and being in good position to earn at least an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Those goals are out there but right now the players and coaches are focused on one thing: The next game. Not first place.
"That's all well and good,'' Cole said about his team's second taste of the conference lead in the last eight days. "I've said it a lot and I don't mean it to be boring. I actually mean it. The game tomorrow is what it's all about.
"Our guys will go through the right process. The coaches will and the players will. They've never cheated us all year. I hope 24 hours from now we're still in first place. But we have that game to play.''
And Penn State, the highest-scoring team in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation, averaging 3.76 goals per game, will most likely bring a strong pushback on Saturday. The Nittany Lions are winless in their last three games at 0-2-1.
"Penn State is a good team. They're going to push and press you,'' Cole said. "They did in the second period and did a great job with their goalie pulled for the last five minutes.
"I think we can be better. I think we did some things in the second period and a couple things in the third where we got away from how we have to play against them. Hey, let's be better.''
Michigan State played one of its best periods of the season in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Nittany Lions 15-6 and coming away with a 1-0 lead.
Khodorenko's first goal – and 50th of his career – was scored from the left circle with 1:37 left in the period. He took a pass from Gino Esteves and his one-timer rocketed into the top right corner past PSU goalie Peyton Jones (28 saves).
Penn State dominated most of the second period and applied great pressure in the MSU zone, firing all sorts of shots at Lethemon. But the Spartan goaltender kept making big save after big save.
He stopped Nate Sucese on a breakaway 67 seconds into the middle period and made a clutch glove save on Kevin Wall on a 2-on-1 break midway through the period.
"The breakaway and 2-on-1 were huge. As much as I want to say that we played well defensively, we had some holes and when we did, Johnny was big,'' Cole said. "There were mistakes we made on those that we can't afford to do very often. But (Lethemon) has been outstanding for us and the guys really rally behind him.
"And you see us blocking a lot of shots and he appreciates that. And when we screw up and give up a breakaway (and he makes the save), I think everybody appreciates it – about 6,000 fans appreciate it, too.''
Penn State had 12-0 edge in shots in the second period until Khodorenko, set up by a pass from defenseman Dennis Cesana, sped in on a breakaway and beat Jones to the low left corner at 13:17.
"I don't think I've had a breakaway in the four years I've been here,'' Khodorenko said. "I haven't scored on one in a long time, so I felt a little nervous on that one. He (Jones) was kind of deep in net and I just put it in.''
The Nittany Lions were dominating territorially but trailing 2-0.
Finally, Penn State's pressure paid off as defenseman Cole Hults scored from between the circles at 16:41 to make it a one-goal game going into the third period.
"We did some things extremely well, especially in the first period. We got away from some of that in the second period,'' Cole said. "But I thought on the backside of the puck defensively we kept working and blocking shots.
"That's probably no way to play against Penn State but we hung in there and figured out a way to come back and have the lead going into the third period. The third period was a little better.''
It was a lot better as the Spartans weren't back on their heels as much, possessed the puck more and pushed to try to extend their lead. And it paid off with some breathing room with a 3-1 lead on defenseman Cole Krygier's goal at 7:40 of the final period. I
Krygier took a pass from Adam Goodsir and glided into the left circle and fired the puck past Jones for his third of the season.
Five minutes later, Khodorenko completed his hat trick with a power-power play goal with a nifty wrist shot to the left corner of the net from the right edge of the left circle.
Trailing 4-1, Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky pulled his goalie, Jones, for a six attacker with about six minutes left. And the Nittany Lions controlled the puck for most of rest of the game.
They had one apparent goal called off for goaltender interference, but they stuck with it and the pressure finally paid off. Penn State closed out the scoring on freshman Tyler Gratton's first Big Ten goal and second of his career with 22 seconds left, finishing off a passing play with Alex Limoges from the right edge of the crease.
"We started fast and were on top of our game, especially offensively,'' Khodorenko said. "We weren't turning pucks over. We kind of got away from that in the second period and it showed in the shots.
"We have to be a little more consistent. But overall, I thought we played a pretty good game. Johnny (Lethemon) had an awesome game again and we needed that.''
KHODORENKO IN SYNC: Patrick Khodorenko had outstanding shooting percentage of 75 percent on Friday in MSU's 4-2 victory over Penn State: 4 shots, 3 goals.
The 6-foot, 198-pound senior center from Walnut Creek, Calif.,
scored in three different ways. His first goal in the opening period was on a one-timer from the left circle, after a good pass from Gino Esteves. His shot found the top right corner.
"I didn't pick the corner. I was just trying to get it high and get off a good shot,'' Khodorenko said. "I was able to get it under the bar.
"I'm always trying to create offense off the rush. We haven't been able to do that as much lately. We kind of caught them there and Gino made a great pass.''
Goal No. 2, in the second period, that gave the Spartans a 2-0 lead was a wrist shot from close in on a breakaway, set up on a blue-line-to-blue line pass from defenseman Dennis Cesana.
"I haven't had a breakaway in all four years here,'' he said.
Well, it sure looked like he was familiar with breakaway opportunities with good execution.
Khodorenko's hat trick goal, which gave the Spartans a 4-1 lead in the third period, came on power play, and was set up by another stellar pass, this time by defenseman Jerad Rosburg from the right circle to the left circle.
Khodorenko caught the pass, moved into the circle, changed his angle a bit and fired the puck into the left corner, with linemates Mitchell Lewandowski and Sam Saliba hovering in front of the net.
During a six-game stretch starting on Dec. 7, Khodorenko scored five goals in six games. He then went three games without a goal – the second Minnesota game two weeks ago and two games at Wisconsin last weekend.
On Friday, everything fell into place.
"He was good. He was on the puck and strong,'' Coach Danton Cole said. "There are a couple things underrated about him. One is his speed, and I've been working with him for six years now and I don't think people realize how fast he is.
"He's pretty smooth, he does play with tempo and like a skill guy, but when there's a burst or a power dynamic, I don't think (NHL) scouts appreciate that. But they're starting to.
"There's that and his shot. The first shot (for a goal), we see that a lot. He's got a cannon. I'd love to see him shoot more. You saw that on all three of his goals tonight. Those are NHL shots.''
Khodorenko went into Friday's game tied for third in Big Ten overall scoring. He came out of it tied for first with Penn State's Nate Sucese and Evan Barratt with 28 points apiece.
Khodorenko has 14 goals and 14 assists. Sucese and Barratt, who were held pointless on Friday, have nine goals and 19 assists. Khodorenko's 14 goals are second to Cole Caufield's 16. He has at least one point in seven of MSU's last 10 games.
Last season, Khodorenko scored 18 goals and had 19 assists for 37 points in 36 games. The Spartans have nine regular-season games left and at least two playoff games and possibly more.
As Michigan State goes into Saturday's series finale against Penn State, Khodorenko is more concerned about getting a sweep than about adding to his goals and points totals.
"The past few weeks we've had a hot start on Friday. But we have to play a little smarter defensively and keep it simple (on Saturday),'' he said. "Usually, that's what the other team is doing. If we try to make crazy plays, it's going to hurt us.
"We just have to be patient and the goals will come. We got four tonight and we hope we can keep that up. We have to keep getting pucks behind them and keep shooting.''
From his perch in front of MSU's net, goalie John Lethemon once again was impressed watching Khodorenko's shots that ended up behind PSU goalie Peyton Jones.
"It's not a big surprise. He's phenomenal,'' Lethemon said. "It's huge that he got that 50th and a hat trick. He's got a heck of a shot and he's a heck of a player.''
ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER GEM: The Spartans got another standout performance from senior goalie John Lethemon, selected as the No. 2 star in Friday's MSU victory. Lethemon had a quiet first period with only six saves but things got busy in the second and third periods.
In the middle period, Penn State spent lots of time in the MSU zone, firing shots from all over the ice, and Lethemon spent lots of time blocking those shots. And so did his Spartan teammates.
Lethemon made 40 saves, including 16 in the second period and 18 in the third, and MSU players combined to block 26 shots, an amazing number. The combination kept the Spartans in the lead at 2-1 and set the stage for MSU to add two more goals in the third period and put the game out of reach.
"You just try to stay composed and calm,'' Lethemon said when asked about Penn State's onslaught in the second period. "Whenever they did get a shot, you just want to fight the traffic and make saves. Our guys did a good job clearing stuff out (of danger).
"That's what your job is as a goalie. Not a lot going through my head – just staying calm, playing my game and not worrying about anything else.''
Lethemon's goals-against average of 1.88 is No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 6 in the nation. His save percentage of .944 is the best in the conference and tied for No. 1 in the country with Dryden McKay of Minnesota State.
FIRST FOR MATTSON: Sophomore forward Mitchell Mattson collected his first collegiate point with an assist on defenseman Cole Krygier's goal that gave MSU a 3-1 lead at 7:40 of the third period. The goal turned out to be the game-winner.
After seeing playing time in only six of the Spartans' first 20 games, Mattson has worked his way into the lineup for the last five games. He's centering a checking line with sophomore Adam Goodsir on left wing and freshman Nico Muller on the right side.
Mattson, a 6-foot-4, 204-pound left-hand shot from Grand Rapids, Minn., played in 14 games as a freshman but did not have a point.
SPARTAN POTPOURRI: Junior left wing Gino Esteves has chipped in with an assist in four of his last five games and in the last three, including one Friday against Penn State. He set up Patrick Khodorenko's first goal in the first period. Two weeks ago, Esteves had five points – two goals and three assists. Now he has eight points – two goals and six assists…
Junior forward Adam Goodsir picked up his third assist of the season with a cross-ice pass to set up defenseman Cole Krygier's goal midway through the third period…
The Spartans were 1-for-2 on the power play, while Penn State failed to score on its only power play in the second period…
Michigan State is off next weekend while Penn State is home against Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions' off week is Feb. 28-29, the last week of the regular season.
IN THE BIG TEN: Minnesota helped out the Spartans by knocking Ohio State out of first place with a 6-3 victory on Friday in Minneapolis, and Wisconsin kept Notre Dame on the skids with a 6-4 win on Friday in Notre Dame, Ind.
The Gophers (9-10-4 overall, 4-5-4-3, 19 points) fell behind 1-0 and 2-1 and scored four straight goals to surge into a 5-2 lead. After the Buckeyes (15-7-3, 8-5-2-0, 26 points) made it 5-3, Minnesota added its second empty-net goal to seal the victory.
With the win, the Gophers climbed over Michigan and into fifth place, one point ahead of the Wolverines (10-11-3, 5-7-2-1, 18 points), who are off from Big Ten play this weekend. U-M plays an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 Team on Saturday in Ann Arbor.
Meanwhile. the seventh-place Badgers (10-12-1, 5-9-1, 17 points) won their second game in a row by overcoming deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 against the Irish. Wisconsin tied the game 3-3 and took a 4-3 lead with two goals late in the second period, and outscored Notre Dame 2-1 in the third period.
High-scoring freshman right wing Cole Caufield scored three goals, one in the first period and two in the second – one early and one late.
Notre Dame, which got swept by Michigan two weeks ago and tied and lost at Ohio State last week, is 2-10-3 in its last 15 games.
Going into Saturday's three series finales, MSU is in first place with 28 points, Ohio State is in second with 26 points, and Penn State is third with 25. Notre Dame (20 points) remains in fourth, followed by Minnesota (19), Michigan (18) and Wisconsin 17.
MSU, OSU, PSU, Notre Dame and Wisconsin have played 15 conference games. Minnesota has played 13 and Michigan 14.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
EAST LANSING – There were several key factors to Michigan State's 4-2 victory over No. 9/9 Penn State on Friday night in front of 6,017 fans at Munn Arena.
Here's four:
"That's a big win for our guys. We've talked about a lot about opportunities and tonight was one of them,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "I thought we did an outstanding job.
"Our big guys were good and everybody else battled. Not a lot of complaints here.''
Friday's victory lifted the No. 19 Spartans (13-11-1 overall, 9-5-1-0 Big Ten, 28 points) into first place in the Big Ten, two points ahead of No. 6/6 Ohio State (15-7-3, 8-5-2-0, 26 points), which lost 6-3 at Minnesota, and three points up on Penn State (16-8-1, 8-6-1-0, 25 points).
Michigan State will try to stay in first alone and earn its third conference sweep of the season when it faces the Nittany Lions in the series finale at 6 p.m. Saturday at Munn Arena.
"These are young guys and there's a big crowd here and we're in a situation where none of these guys have been in, at least here at Michigan State,'' Cole said. "You have to learn. You have to go through these things.''
The Spartans have been in position to sweep series the last two Saturdays after winning the first game against Minnesota and Wisconsin, respectively. But they came up short in the second game, losing basically by one goal in games that ended up two-goal games due to empty-net goals – 2-0 vs. the Gophers and 3-1 against the Badgers.
"We'd love to sweep this weekend and I'd love to be 25-0 right now. It is what it is,'' Cole said. "That's the next step. You have to be able to finish some stuff. At some point, we're going to have to win a few games in row to keep going.''
Keep going, as in competing for first place in the Big Ten and being in good position to earn at least an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Those goals are out there but right now the players and coaches are focused on one thing: The next game. Not first place.
"That's all well and good,'' Cole said about his team's second taste of the conference lead in the last eight days. "I've said it a lot and I don't mean it to be boring. I actually mean it. The game tomorrow is what it's all about.
"Our guys will go through the right process. The coaches will and the players will. They've never cheated us all year. I hope 24 hours from now we're still in first place. But we have that game to play.''
And Penn State, the highest-scoring team in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation, averaging 3.76 goals per game, will most likely bring a strong pushback on Saturday. The Nittany Lions are winless in their last three games at 0-2-1.
"Penn State is a good team. They're going to push and press you,'' Cole said. "They did in the second period and did a great job with their goalie pulled for the last five minutes.
"I think we can be better. I think we did some things in the second period and a couple things in the third where we got away from how we have to play against them. Hey, let's be better.''
Michigan State played one of its best periods of the season in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Nittany Lions 15-6 and coming away with a 1-0 lead.
Khodorenko's first goal – and 50th of his career – was scored from the left circle with 1:37 left in the period. He took a pass from Gino Esteves and his one-timer rocketed into the top right corner past PSU goalie Peyton Jones (28 saves).
Penn State dominated most of the second period and applied great pressure in the MSU zone, firing all sorts of shots at Lethemon. But the Spartan goaltender kept making big save after big save.
He stopped Nate Sucese on a breakaway 67 seconds into the middle period and made a clutch glove save on Kevin Wall on a 2-on-1 break midway through the period.
"The breakaway and 2-on-1 were huge. As much as I want to say that we played well defensively, we had some holes and when we did, Johnny was big,'' Cole said. "There were mistakes we made on those that we can't afford to do very often. But (Lethemon) has been outstanding for us and the guys really rally behind him.
"And you see us blocking a lot of shots and he appreciates that. And when we screw up and give up a breakaway (and he makes the save), I think everybody appreciates it – about 6,000 fans appreciate it, too.''
Penn State had 12-0 edge in shots in the second period until Khodorenko, set up by a pass from defenseman Dennis Cesana, sped in on a breakaway and beat Jones to the low left corner at 13:17.
"I don't think I've had a breakaway in the four years I've been here,'' Khodorenko said. "I haven't scored on one in a long time, so I felt a little nervous on that one. He (Jones) was kind of deep in net and I just put it in.''
The Nittany Lions were dominating territorially but trailing 2-0.
Finally, Penn State's pressure paid off as defenseman Cole Hults scored from between the circles at 16:41 to make it a one-goal game going into the third period.
"We did some things extremely well, especially in the first period. We got away from some of that in the second period,'' Cole said. "But I thought on the backside of the puck defensively we kept working and blocking shots.
"That's probably no way to play against Penn State but we hung in there and figured out a way to come back and have the lead going into the third period. The third period was a little better.''
It was a lot better as the Spartans weren't back on their heels as much, possessed the puck more and pushed to try to extend their lead. And it paid off with some breathing room with a 3-1 lead on defenseman Cole Krygier's goal at 7:40 of the final period. I
Krygier took a pass from Adam Goodsir and glided into the left circle and fired the puck past Jones for his third of the season.
Five minutes later, Khodorenko completed his hat trick with a power-power play goal with a nifty wrist shot to the left corner of the net from the right edge of the left circle.
Trailing 4-1, Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky pulled his goalie, Jones, for a six attacker with about six minutes left. And the Nittany Lions controlled the puck for most of rest of the game.
They had one apparent goal called off for goaltender interference, but they stuck with it and the pressure finally paid off. Penn State closed out the scoring on freshman Tyler Gratton's first Big Ten goal and second of his career with 22 seconds left, finishing off a passing play with Alex Limoges from the right edge of the crease.
"We started fast and were on top of our game, especially offensively,'' Khodorenko said. "We weren't turning pucks over. We kind of got away from that in the second period and it showed in the shots.
"We have to be a little more consistent. But overall, I thought we played a pretty good game. Johnny (Lethemon) had an awesome game again and we needed that.''
KHODORENKO IN SYNC: Patrick Khodorenko had outstanding shooting percentage of 75 percent on Friday in MSU's 4-2 victory over Penn State: 4 shots, 3 goals.
The 6-foot, 198-pound senior center from Walnut Creek, Calif.,
scored in three different ways. His first goal in the opening period was on a one-timer from the left circle, after a good pass from Gino Esteves. His shot found the top right corner.
"I didn't pick the corner. I was just trying to get it high and get off a good shot,'' Khodorenko said. "I was able to get it under the bar.
"I'm always trying to create offense off the rush. We haven't been able to do that as much lately. We kind of caught them there and Gino made a great pass.''
Goal No. 2, in the second period, that gave the Spartans a 2-0 lead was a wrist shot from close in on a breakaway, set up on a blue-line-to-blue line pass from defenseman Dennis Cesana.
"I haven't had a breakaway in all four years here,'' he said.
Well, it sure looked like he was familiar with breakaway opportunities with good execution.
Khodorenko's hat trick goal, which gave the Spartans a 4-1 lead in the third period, came on power play, and was set up by another stellar pass, this time by defenseman Jerad Rosburg from the right circle to the left circle.
Khodorenko caught the pass, moved into the circle, changed his angle a bit and fired the puck into the left corner, with linemates Mitchell Lewandowski and Sam Saliba hovering in front of the net.
During a six-game stretch starting on Dec. 7, Khodorenko scored five goals in six games. He then went three games without a goal – the second Minnesota game two weeks ago and two games at Wisconsin last weekend.
On Friday, everything fell into place.
"He was good. He was on the puck and strong,'' Coach Danton Cole said. "There are a couple things underrated about him. One is his speed, and I've been working with him for six years now and I don't think people realize how fast he is.
"He's pretty smooth, he does play with tempo and like a skill guy, but when there's a burst or a power dynamic, I don't think (NHL) scouts appreciate that. But they're starting to.
"There's that and his shot. The first shot (for a goal), we see that a lot. He's got a cannon. I'd love to see him shoot more. You saw that on all three of his goals tonight. Those are NHL shots.''
Khodorenko went into Friday's game tied for third in Big Ten overall scoring. He came out of it tied for first with Penn State's Nate Sucese and Evan Barratt with 28 points apiece.
Khodorenko has 14 goals and 14 assists. Sucese and Barratt, who were held pointless on Friday, have nine goals and 19 assists. Khodorenko's 14 goals are second to Cole Caufield's 16. He has at least one point in seven of MSU's last 10 games.
Last season, Khodorenko scored 18 goals and had 19 assists for 37 points in 36 games. The Spartans have nine regular-season games left and at least two playoff games and possibly more.
As Michigan State goes into Saturday's series finale against Penn State, Khodorenko is more concerned about getting a sweep than about adding to his goals and points totals.
"The past few weeks we've had a hot start on Friday. But we have to play a little smarter defensively and keep it simple (on Saturday),'' he said. "Usually, that's what the other team is doing. If we try to make crazy plays, it's going to hurt us.
"We just have to be patient and the goals will come. We got four tonight and we hope we can keep that up. We have to keep getting pucks behind them and keep shooting.''
From his perch in front of MSU's net, goalie John Lethemon once again was impressed watching Khodorenko's shots that ended up behind PSU goalie Peyton Jones.
"It's not a big surprise. He's phenomenal,'' Lethemon said. "It's huge that he got that 50th and a hat trick. He's got a heck of a shot and he's a heck of a player.''
ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER GEM: The Spartans got another standout performance from senior goalie John Lethemon, selected as the No. 2 star in Friday's MSU victory. Lethemon had a quiet first period with only six saves but things got busy in the second and third periods.
In the middle period, Penn State spent lots of time in the MSU zone, firing shots from all over the ice, and Lethemon spent lots of time blocking those shots. And so did his Spartan teammates.
Lethemon made 40 saves, including 16 in the second period and 18 in the third, and MSU players combined to block 26 shots, an amazing number. The combination kept the Spartans in the lead at 2-1 and set the stage for MSU to add two more goals in the third period and put the game out of reach.
"You just try to stay composed and calm,'' Lethemon said when asked about Penn State's onslaught in the second period. "Whenever they did get a shot, you just want to fight the traffic and make saves. Our guys did a good job clearing stuff out (of danger).
"That's what your job is as a goalie. Not a lot going through my head – just staying calm, playing my game and not worrying about anything else.''
Lethemon's goals-against average of 1.88 is No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 6 in the nation. His save percentage of .944 is the best in the conference and tied for No. 1 in the country with Dryden McKay of Minnesota State.
FIRST FOR MATTSON: Sophomore forward Mitchell Mattson collected his first collegiate point with an assist on defenseman Cole Krygier's goal that gave MSU a 3-1 lead at 7:40 of the third period. The goal turned out to be the game-winner.
After seeing playing time in only six of the Spartans' first 20 games, Mattson has worked his way into the lineup for the last five games. He's centering a checking line with sophomore Adam Goodsir on left wing and freshman Nico Muller on the right side.
Mattson, a 6-foot-4, 204-pound left-hand shot from Grand Rapids, Minn., played in 14 games as a freshman but did not have a point.
SPARTAN POTPOURRI: Junior left wing Gino Esteves has chipped in with an assist in four of his last five games and in the last three, including one Friday against Penn State. He set up Patrick Khodorenko's first goal in the first period. Two weeks ago, Esteves had five points – two goals and three assists. Now he has eight points – two goals and six assists…
Junior forward Adam Goodsir picked up his third assist of the season with a cross-ice pass to set up defenseman Cole Krygier's goal midway through the third period…
The Spartans were 1-for-2 on the power play, while Penn State failed to score on its only power play in the second period…
Michigan State is off next weekend while Penn State is home against Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions' off week is Feb. 28-29, the last week of the regular season.
IN THE BIG TEN: Minnesota helped out the Spartans by knocking Ohio State out of first place with a 6-3 victory on Friday in Minneapolis, and Wisconsin kept Notre Dame on the skids with a 6-4 win on Friday in Notre Dame, Ind.
The Gophers (9-10-4 overall, 4-5-4-3, 19 points) fell behind 1-0 and 2-1 and scored four straight goals to surge into a 5-2 lead. After the Buckeyes (15-7-3, 8-5-2-0, 26 points) made it 5-3, Minnesota added its second empty-net goal to seal the victory.
With the win, the Gophers climbed over Michigan and into fifth place, one point ahead of the Wolverines (10-11-3, 5-7-2-1, 18 points), who are off from Big Ten play this weekend. U-M plays an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 Team on Saturday in Ann Arbor.
Meanwhile. the seventh-place Badgers (10-12-1, 5-9-1, 17 points) won their second game in a row by overcoming deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 against the Irish. Wisconsin tied the game 3-3 and took a 4-3 lead with two goals late in the second period, and outscored Notre Dame 2-1 in the third period.
High-scoring freshman right wing Cole Caufield scored three goals, one in the first period and two in the second – one early and one late.
Notre Dame, which got swept by Michigan two weeks ago and tied and lost at Ohio State last week, is 2-10-3 in its last 15 games.
Going into Saturday's three series finales, MSU is in first place with 28 points, Ohio State is in second with 26 points, and Penn State is third with 25. Notre Dame (20 points) remains in fourth, followed by Minnesota (19), Michigan (18) and Wisconsin 17.
MSU, OSU, PSU, Notre Dame and Wisconsin have played 15 conference games. Minnesota has played 13 and Michigan 14.
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/ 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