Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Neil’s Notebook: Spartans Ready For First B1G Series
11/27/2020 9:45:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
By Neil Koepke
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
Wisconsin has already played six Big Ten games. Minnesota and Penn State have played four. Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State are on the books for two.
Finally, Michigan State gets to join the conference party.
After opening the season with a non-conference series – a 1-1 tie and 2-0 win over Arizona State at Munn Arena last Thursday and Friday - the Spartans are set to join the Big Ten fun this weekend.
MSU tangles with No. 10/10 Ohio State (0-2-0 overall, 0-2-0-0-0-0 Big Ten) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The games will be streamed by BTN-Plus, a subscription service.
"Arizona State is a good team and they did a good job in helping us getting adjusted to Big Ten play,'' senior forward Mitchell Lewandowski said. "There's not an easy game in the Big Ten so every weekend is much more important.
"The (conference) is going to be tight as always. It was fun to watch the other teams play (on BTN) like we did this week. Everyone is very excited to get going this weekend.''
MSU players and coaches on Monday and Tuesday watched a couple of rebuilding teams – Ohio State and Penn State – take their lumps on the road against teams with several key, high-end players back – Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The Buckeyes were swept by the Gophers, 4-1, 2-0. The Nittany Lions were overwhelmed by the Badgers, 6-3, 7-3.
"Ohio State has a lot of new guys and so do we. I think they had seven new players in their lineup. I'm excited to see what we can do against a new, revamped Ohio State team,'' MSU junior defenseman Dennis Cesana said.
The Buckeyes lost a slew of top players, including high-scoring forwards Tanner Laczynski and Carson Meyer and defenseman Matt Miller, but return their best player in senior goalie Tommy Nappier, who's never lost to Michigan State.
Nappier is 5-0 against the Spartans, including three shutouts – two last season. In fact, MSU has scored only three goals against the 6-foot-3, 220-pound goaltender from St. Louis.
Tommy Apap shot the puck past Nappier in a 5-1 loss to OSU in 2018-19 and Patrick Khodorenko and Jagger Joshua scored in a 4-2 Spartans' loss the last time the teams met – Feb. 22, 2020 at Munn Arena.
"He's big, he's quick and I think his hockey IQ is pretty good,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "He knows when to pop out of the net and knows when to cheat to the back door. He does all the things good goalies do. He's been very good for a few years now.''
Nappier played in only six games as a freshman and compiled a 4-0 record and 1.33 goals-against average as the backup to Sean Romeo. He did not start against MSU as a freshman, seeing action for the last 21 minutes in mop-up duty in a 6-3 loss to MSU in Columbus.
As a sophomore, Nappier went 12-4-3 with a 1.86 GAA and a .934 saves percentage and was 2-0 vs. MSU. Last season, he compiled a 17-10-4 record, a 2.04 GAA, a .932 saves percentage and was 3-0 against the Spartans.
Entering this season, his career record is 33-14-7, with a 1.92 GAA and .934 saves percentage and eight shutouts.
Nappier has received plenty of help from his teammates – forwards and defensemen – with a solid team defensive structure. OSU ranked 14th in the nation defensively in 2018-19, allowing 2.31 goals-per-game. Last season, the Buckeyes were 13th with a 2.28 GAA.
How do the Spartans get the puck past Nappier?
"It's getting in front of him and it's getting tips and deflections, rebounds and gritty goals that are going to separate us from wins and losses this weekend,'' Lewandowski said. "It's getting to him - getting in front - making the job tough on a good goalie is the best thing you can do.''
The Spartans went 0-4 against Ohio State last season but each game technically was a one-goal loss, as the Buckeyes added an empty-net goal in three games. MSU lost 3-1 and 2-0 in Columbus during Thanksgiving weekend and 1-0 and 4-2 in February in East Lansing.
In the last loss, MSU led 2-1 late in the third period, but Ohio State struck for two goals in 1 minute and 28 seconds (15:11 and 16:39) to take a 3-2 lead, and added an empty-netter with one second left.
"We've had some outstanding games against them last year, and they've been a very good team the last couple years. In my opinion, they've been among the top 4-5 teams in the country,'' Cole said.
"We've been in games with them but we have to get over the hump. When you're playing a team that's had some success against you, that's what it takes – you have to punch through it.''
SCOUTING THE BUCKEYES: After the loss of three key forwards and three solid defensemen, Ohio State will definitely have a new look this season. And, like a few teams in the Big Ten, scoring could be an issue in the early part of the season.
The Buckeyes lost 36 goals and 82 points from departed senior forwards Tanner Laczynski (11 goals, 23 assists, 34 points), Carson Meyer (71-14-31) and Ronnie Hein (8-9-17), and 14 goals and 43 points from graduated senior defensemen Matt Miller (5-12-17), Gordi Myer (5-9-14) and Wyatt Ege (4-8-12).
Top returning forwards include juniors Quinn Preston (15-11-26) and Gustaf Westlund (12-14-26) and sophomore Tate Singleton (6-11-17).
The defense will be led by senior Grant Gabriele (4-9-13) and sophomore Layton Ahac (0-3-3), a solid stay-at-home defender.
In their series at Minnesota, Ohio State had seven newcomers, including three transfer sophomores, and five regular sophomores in the lineup. Four seniors and four juniors sprinkled through the lineup.
Under coach Steve Rohlik, the Buckeyes have won at least 20 games for four straight seasons and made the NCAA Tournament three years in a row. They had a good chance to earn a NCAA berth last season before the season was canceled in mid-March.
OSU is 87-44-21 in the last four seasons, not counting this season's start. Rohlik, starting his eighth season at OSU, is 133-97-8. In 2018-19, Ohio State played in the NCAA Frozen Four, losing to eventual champion Minnesota Duluth, 2-1, in the semifinals.
The Buckeyes roster includes six players from Michigan – Preston, Trenton; Gabriele, Brighton; sophomore defenseman CJ Regula, Bloomfield Hills; sophomore forward Dalton Messina, Macomb; freshman forward Patrick Guzzo, Marysville, and freshman defenseman Ryan Dickinson, Brighton.
THE RIVALRY: Michigan State leads the series 91-48-14. The Spartans' last four victories over the Buckeyes have been at Value City Arena in Columbus.
DeRIDDER'S A 2ND STAR: MSU junior goaltender Drew DeRidder's strong start last week against Arizona State was recognized by the Big Ten, which awarded DeRidder's this week's Big Ten Second Star.
DeRidder made 22 saves in the Spartans' season-opening 1-1 tie last Thursday and then stopped 30 shots, including 16 in the third period, in a 2-0 victory – and his first career shutout - in the series finale on Friday.
"The thing we love about Drew is he just competes. If something goes wrong, he doesn't get too affected,'' Coach Danton Cole said. "He keeps battling. He was really consistent (against Arizona State).
"I don't want put too much on him but I think there's more there. He didn't play a lot of games last year so he's kind of getting back at it after a lot of time off.''
DeRidder and the Spartans were working on a shutout, holding a 1-0 lead in Thursday's game, but the Sun Devils scored with 4:14 left to set up the 1-1 tie. He played even better on Friday with several huge saves to help MSU earn its first victory of the season.
"He was square to pucks. He got out and wasn't too deep in his net, he handled rebounds fairly well and didn't give up a lot of chances around the net,'' Cole said. "I liked how solid he was, how calm he was.''
The Big Ten's First Star was Wisconsin sophomore forward Cole Caufield, who scored four goals in the Badgers' 6-3, 7-3 sweep of Penn State. Caufield, who scored three goals in Tuesday's victory, has four goals and four assists for eight points in six games.
Michigan freshman forward Thomas Bordeleau was named Big Ten Third Star after a four-point series in a sweep of Wisconsin, 4-1 and 3-2 in overtime, last Thursday and Friday. He had three assists in the series opener and scored the winning goal with 27 seconds left in overtime in the second game.
NEW OVERTIME FORMAT: Under new NCAA rules, adopted during the summer, overtime during the regular season will have a new look this season.
No longer will teams play 5-on-5 to start an overtime to try to determine a winner. If a game is tied after three periods, the teams will immediately play a 3-on-3 overtime. If no goals are scored, the game will officially end in a tie.
But each of the six Division I conferences still have the option to use a shootout to decide a winner in the league's standings.
In the Big Ten, the OT winner will no longer get three points and the loser will no longer come away empty. A regulation win is still worth three points but in overtime, the winner earns two points and the loser comes away with one point. That's the same as points awarded in the shootout.
Incidentally, the shootout will revert back to a 3-player shootout that was used previously in the Big Ten. Last season, the conference used a sudden-death format, meaning if the team to shoot first didn't score and the other team scored, the shootout was over. Now, there will be at least three shooters.
In last week's Michigan-Wisconsin series, the Wolverines won 3-2 in the 3-on-3 overtime, and while they earned a win and the Badgers took a loss in their overall records, U-M got only two points in the Big Ten standings while Wisconsin got one.
"I like it. It kind of goes hand in had with the NHL,'' MSU defenseman Dennis Cesana said of the 3-on-3 format to start the overtime. "I think it's good for the conference and makes things more intense. It'll be more exciting going back in forth (in OT) in conference games.''
"It goes both ways for the fans and players,'' Spartan forward Mitchell Lewandowski said. "It's fun to play and fun to watch. I like the importance of it, having to win those games.
"Losing in overtime stinks, losing in the shootout stinks, but winning those games makes it even more fun.''
IN THE BIG TEN: Minnesota is off to a 4-0 start after sweeps over Penn State last Thursday and Friday and Ohio State on Monday and Tuesday. The No. 8/7 Gophers defeated the No. 15/14 Nittany Lions, 4-1 and 3-2, and then got past Ohio State, 4-1 and 2-0.
No. 14/15 Wisconsin, rebounded from a pair of home loss against No. 4/3 Michigan and rolled over Penn State, 6-3, 7-3, also in Madison.
This weekend, in addition to the Michigan State at Ohio State series, Michigan plays host to Notre Dame at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and Wisconsin is home against Arizona State (0-3-1) in a non-conference series at 8 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Big Ten teams will have six numbers listed in their conference records – wins, losses, ties, OT wins, OT losses and shootout wins.
The early Big Ten standings have Wisconsin (4-2-0 overall, 4-2-0-0-1-0 Big Ten), which has played six conference games, in first place with 13 points.
Minnesota (4-0-0, 4-0-0-0-0-0) is second with 12, Michigan (4-0, 2-0-0-1-0-0) follows in third place with 5 points.
Notre Dame (0-2-0, 0-2-0-0-0-0), OSU (0-2-0, 0-2-0-0-0-0) and Penn State (0-4-0, 0-4-0-0-0-0) are pointless, along with MSU (1-0-1), which hasn't played a conference game.
MSUSpartans.com staff writer
Wisconsin has already played six Big Ten games. Minnesota and Penn State have played four. Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State are on the books for two.
Finally, Michigan State gets to join the conference party.
After opening the season with a non-conference series – a 1-1 tie and 2-0 win over Arizona State at Munn Arena last Thursday and Friday - the Spartans are set to join the Big Ten fun this weekend.
MSU tangles with No. 10/10 Ohio State (0-2-0 overall, 0-2-0-0-0-0 Big Ten) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The games will be streamed by BTN-Plus, a subscription service.
"Arizona State is a good team and they did a good job in helping us getting adjusted to Big Ten play,'' senior forward Mitchell Lewandowski said. "There's not an easy game in the Big Ten so every weekend is much more important.
"The (conference) is going to be tight as always. It was fun to watch the other teams play (on BTN) like we did this week. Everyone is very excited to get going this weekend.''
MSU players and coaches on Monday and Tuesday watched a couple of rebuilding teams – Ohio State and Penn State – take their lumps on the road against teams with several key, high-end players back – Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The Buckeyes were swept by the Gophers, 4-1, 2-0. The Nittany Lions were overwhelmed by the Badgers, 6-3, 7-3.
"Ohio State has a lot of new guys and so do we. I think they had seven new players in their lineup. I'm excited to see what we can do against a new, revamped Ohio State team,'' MSU junior defenseman Dennis Cesana said.
The Buckeyes lost a slew of top players, including high-scoring forwards Tanner Laczynski and Carson Meyer and defenseman Matt Miller, but return their best player in senior goalie Tommy Nappier, who's never lost to Michigan State.
Nappier is 5-0 against the Spartans, including three shutouts – two last season. In fact, MSU has scored only three goals against the 6-foot-3, 220-pound goaltender from St. Louis.
Tommy Apap shot the puck past Nappier in a 5-1 loss to OSU in 2018-19 and Patrick Khodorenko and Jagger Joshua scored in a 4-2 Spartans' loss the last time the teams met – Feb. 22, 2020 at Munn Arena.
"He's big, he's quick and I think his hockey IQ is pretty good,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "He knows when to pop out of the net and knows when to cheat to the back door. He does all the things good goalies do. He's been very good for a few years now.''
Nappier played in only six games as a freshman and compiled a 4-0 record and 1.33 goals-against average as the backup to Sean Romeo. He did not start against MSU as a freshman, seeing action for the last 21 minutes in mop-up duty in a 6-3 loss to MSU in Columbus.
As a sophomore, Nappier went 12-4-3 with a 1.86 GAA and a .934 saves percentage and was 2-0 vs. MSU. Last season, he compiled a 17-10-4 record, a 2.04 GAA, a .932 saves percentage and was 3-0 against the Spartans.
Entering this season, his career record is 33-14-7, with a 1.92 GAA and .934 saves percentage and eight shutouts.
Nappier has received plenty of help from his teammates – forwards and defensemen – with a solid team defensive structure. OSU ranked 14th in the nation defensively in 2018-19, allowing 2.31 goals-per-game. Last season, the Buckeyes were 13th with a 2.28 GAA.
How do the Spartans get the puck past Nappier?
"It's getting in front of him and it's getting tips and deflections, rebounds and gritty goals that are going to separate us from wins and losses this weekend,'' Lewandowski said. "It's getting to him - getting in front - making the job tough on a good goalie is the best thing you can do.''
The Spartans went 0-4 against Ohio State last season but each game technically was a one-goal loss, as the Buckeyes added an empty-net goal in three games. MSU lost 3-1 and 2-0 in Columbus during Thanksgiving weekend and 1-0 and 4-2 in February in East Lansing.
In the last loss, MSU led 2-1 late in the third period, but Ohio State struck for two goals in 1 minute and 28 seconds (15:11 and 16:39) to take a 3-2 lead, and added an empty-netter with one second left.
"We've had some outstanding games against them last year, and they've been a very good team the last couple years. In my opinion, they've been among the top 4-5 teams in the country,'' Cole said.
"We've been in games with them but we have to get over the hump. When you're playing a team that's had some success against you, that's what it takes – you have to punch through it.''
SCOUTING THE BUCKEYES: After the loss of three key forwards and three solid defensemen, Ohio State will definitely have a new look this season. And, like a few teams in the Big Ten, scoring could be an issue in the early part of the season.
The Buckeyes lost 36 goals and 82 points from departed senior forwards Tanner Laczynski (11 goals, 23 assists, 34 points), Carson Meyer (71-14-31) and Ronnie Hein (8-9-17), and 14 goals and 43 points from graduated senior defensemen Matt Miller (5-12-17), Gordi Myer (5-9-14) and Wyatt Ege (4-8-12).
Top returning forwards include juniors Quinn Preston (15-11-26) and Gustaf Westlund (12-14-26) and sophomore Tate Singleton (6-11-17).
The defense will be led by senior Grant Gabriele (4-9-13) and sophomore Layton Ahac (0-3-3), a solid stay-at-home defender.
In their series at Minnesota, Ohio State had seven newcomers, including three transfer sophomores, and five regular sophomores in the lineup. Four seniors and four juniors sprinkled through the lineup.
Under coach Steve Rohlik, the Buckeyes have won at least 20 games for four straight seasons and made the NCAA Tournament three years in a row. They had a good chance to earn a NCAA berth last season before the season was canceled in mid-March.
OSU is 87-44-21 in the last four seasons, not counting this season's start. Rohlik, starting his eighth season at OSU, is 133-97-8. In 2018-19, Ohio State played in the NCAA Frozen Four, losing to eventual champion Minnesota Duluth, 2-1, in the semifinals.
The Buckeyes roster includes six players from Michigan – Preston, Trenton; Gabriele, Brighton; sophomore defenseman CJ Regula, Bloomfield Hills; sophomore forward Dalton Messina, Macomb; freshman forward Patrick Guzzo, Marysville, and freshman defenseman Ryan Dickinson, Brighton.
THE RIVALRY: Michigan State leads the series 91-48-14. The Spartans' last four victories over the Buckeyes have been at Value City Arena in Columbus.
DeRIDDER'S A 2ND STAR: MSU junior goaltender Drew DeRidder's strong start last week against Arizona State was recognized by the Big Ten, which awarded DeRidder's this week's Big Ten Second Star.
DeRidder made 22 saves in the Spartans' season-opening 1-1 tie last Thursday and then stopped 30 shots, including 16 in the third period, in a 2-0 victory – and his first career shutout - in the series finale on Friday.
"The thing we love about Drew is he just competes. If something goes wrong, he doesn't get too affected,'' Coach Danton Cole said. "He keeps battling. He was really consistent (against Arizona State).
"I don't want put too much on him but I think there's more there. He didn't play a lot of games last year so he's kind of getting back at it after a lot of time off.''
DeRidder and the Spartans were working on a shutout, holding a 1-0 lead in Thursday's game, but the Sun Devils scored with 4:14 left to set up the 1-1 tie. He played even better on Friday with several huge saves to help MSU earn its first victory of the season.
"He was square to pucks. He got out and wasn't too deep in his net, he handled rebounds fairly well and didn't give up a lot of chances around the net,'' Cole said. "I liked how solid he was, how calm he was.''
The Big Ten's First Star was Wisconsin sophomore forward Cole Caufield, who scored four goals in the Badgers' 6-3, 7-3 sweep of Penn State. Caufield, who scored three goals in Tuesday's victory, has four goals and four assists for eight points in six games.
Michigan freshman forward Thomas Bordeleau was named Big Ten Third Star after a four-point series in a sweep of Wisconsin, 4-1 and 3-2 in overtime, last Thursday and Friday. He had three assists in the series opener and scored the winning goal with 27 seconds left in overtime in the second game.
NEW OVERTIME FORMAT: Under new NCAA rules, adopted during the summer, overtime during the regular season will have a new look this season.
No longer will teams play 5-on-5 to start an overtime to try to determine a winner. If a game is tied after three periods, the teams will immediately play a 3-on-3 overtime. If no goals are scored, the game will officially end in a tie.
But each of the six Division I conferences still have the option to use a shootout to decide a winner in the league's standings.
In the Big Ten, the OT winner will no longer get three points and the loser will no longer come away empty. A regulation win is still worth three points but in overtime, the winner earns two points and the loser comes away with one point. That's the same as points awarded in the shootout.
Incidentally, the shootout will revert back to a 3-player shootout that was used previously in the Big Ten. Last season, the conference used a sudden-death format, meaning if the team to shoot first didn't score and the other team scored, the shootout was over. Now, there will be at least three shooters.
In last week's Michigan-Wisconsin series, the Wolverines won 3-2 in the 3-on-3 overtime, and while they earned a win and the Badgers took a loss in their overall records, U-M got only two points in the Big Ten standings while Wisconsin got one.
"I like it. It kind of goes hand in had with the NHL,'' MSU defenseman Dennis Cesana said of the 3-on-3 format to start the overtime. "I think it's good for the conference and makes things more intense. It'll be more exciting going back in forth (in OT) in conference games.''
"It goes both ways for the fans and players,'' Spartan forward Mitchell Lewandowski said. "It's fun to play and fun to watch. I like the importance of it, having to win those games.
"Losing in overtime stinks, losing in the shootout stinks, but winning those games makes it even more fun.''
IN THE BIG TEN: Minnesota is off to a 4-0 start after sweeps over Penn State last Thursday and Friday and Ohio State on Monday and Tuesday. The No. 8/7 Gophers defeated the No. 15/14 Nittany Lions, 4-1 and 3-2, and then got past Ohio State, 4-1 and 2-0.
No. 14/15 Wisconsin, rebounded from a pair of home loss against No. 4/3 Michigan and rolled over Penn State, 6-3, 7-3, also in Madison.
This weekend, in addition to the Michigan State at Ohio State series, Michigan plays host to Notre Dame at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and Wisconsin is home against Arizona State (0-3-1) in a non-conference series at 8 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Big Ten teams will have six numbers listed in their conference records – wins, losses, ties, OT wins, OT losses and shootout wins.
The early Big Ten standings have Wisconsin (4-2-0 overall, 4-2-0-0-1-0 Big Ten), which has played six conference games, in first place with 13 points.
Minnesota (4-0-0, 4-0-0-0-0-0) is second with 12, Michigan (4-0, 2-0-0-1-0-0) follows in third place with 5 points.
Notre Dame (0-2-0, 0-2-0-0-0-0), OSU (0-2-0, 0-2-0-0-0-0) and Penn State (0-4-0, 0-4-0-0-0-0) are pointless, along with MSU (1-0-1), which hasn't played a conference game.
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