Neil's Notebook: Spartans Excited as B1G Play Begins

by Neil Koepke, MSUSpartans.com staff writer

ALSO: MSU-Ohio State Weekend Preview

EAST LANSING – The non-conference part of Michigan State's schedule is on pause. The Big Ten season is at hand.

The games will be faster, more physical and much more intense. And tough to win.

In the three seasons the Big Ten has played first-round playoff series on campus sites, the Spartans have never hosted a game at Munn Arena. They'd like to change that this season.

It would take a top four finish for Michigan State to host a best-of-three, first-round series and not have to get on a plane or bus and play on the road.

The Spartans' quest for a big climb up the Big Ten standings begins this weekend with the conference season-opening series at Ohio State.

"It's a very big weekend. Opening up Big Ten play is always important and, hopefully, we can get off to a good start,'' MSU junior left wing Jagger Joshua said. "Playing in the Big Ten comes with playing with physicality. When two Big Ten go at it, it's going to be more physical than usual.''

The Spartans (3-2-1) and Buckeyes (3-1) meet at 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at Value City Arena in Columbus.

Last season, Ohio State finished in sixth place in the Big Ten and Michigan State was seventh. In this year's Big Ten coaches' preseason poll, MSU was picked for sixth, while OSU was seventh.

"Every series is important and especially in the conference,'' MSU senior defenseman and captain Dennis Cesana said. "Every weekend from now on is definitely important.

"It's my fourth year now and I'm kind of used to the intensity, but for some of the new guys it'll be cool for them to step into the Big Ten for the first time.''

Big Ten teams play a 24-game schedule with each team playing the other six schools four times – two at home and two away.

The first-place finisher – the regular-season champion – earns a first-round bye in the conference tournament. The other six teams play best-of-three series at sites of the teams that finish 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th, with teams finishing 7^th, 6^th and 5^th on the road.

"You look at the big picture, you know that the Big Ten is tough. You don't look at the schedule and say 'we should get two (wins) this weekend or two that weekend,''' MSU coach Danton Cole said.

"Big Ten games are like playoff games, every single night. You have to be ready for that. I think it's going to be like it's been the last few years where it's going to be a .500-plus or minus league. If you can get a couple sweeps, like we did a few years ago, it's great – hey, we were in the hunt for first place late into January with just a few sweeps.

"If you get a little bit under (.500) and give away too many games early, you're going to be chasing the pack and it's tough to make up ground.''

The Spartans started the season with six non-conference games – a series split with Air Force at Munn Arena, a sweep of Miami, also at home, and a tie and loss at UMass Lowell last weekend.

Cole said his team learned a lot in the last three weeks, and he and his staff learned a lot about his team as it skates into Big Ten play.

"We learned some things about being on the road with a couple of hard games, and we're going to see a lot of those in the Big Ten,'' he said. "You always have ideas going in, and you always say 'if this happens and that happens, maybe this can happen.' You always want to see where they're at and how they'll react. You start playing games and the enemy has a vote. You're not just out there running 5-on-0 drills.''

Cole and his coaches watched how the Spartans played on offense and defense and looked for things regarding the character of the team and how the players interacted. And in most cases, the coaches liked what they saw.

"I'd say, overall, there's a lot of positives,'' Cole said. "I think there are some offensive abilities that we haven't had in the past. Defensively, we've been pretty good. We had some lapses last Saturday. But only one team has been able to beat us in regulation so far.

"There's a lot of good things there and a lot to build on. There are things we haven't done yet. But hey, we're getting there.''

After their visit to Ohio State, the Spartans play a home-and-home series with No. 2/3 Michigan – in Ann Arbor on Nov. 5 and at Munn Arena on Nov. 6. After another non-league series with Ferris State – at MSU, Nov. 11, and at FSU, Nov. 13 – the Spartans play three straight Big Ten series against Wisconsin at home and Penn State and Notre Dame on the road leading to the Christmas break.

"I think we're playing more as a team than last year when we struggled and let games slip away,'' Joshua said. "This year we're playing as a unit.''

The MSU coaches are stressing consistency for entire games.

"Where we've been able to put pressure on offensively and defensively and stay with that for 60 minutes, we've been pretty good,'' Cole said. "But we've tended to have some lapses. Whether it's the first 10 minutes of the third period last Friday or the first 10 of the second period on Saturday, we just haven't thrown that all together.''

THE RIVALRY: Michigan State leads the series, 93-51-13 but Ohio State holds a 17-5-1 edge over the last five seasons. Last year, the teams split both series. The Spartans won 3-2 in overtime and lost 4-2 in Columbus over Thanksgiving weekend and MSU lost 5-1 and won 2-0 at Munn Arena in late January.

SCOUTING THE BUCKEYES: Ohio State lost standout goaltender Tommy Nappier to graduation and top defensive-style defenseman Layton Ahac to an early NHL signing, but they return their top six scorers from last season.

They include five forwards – sophomore Travis Treloar (8-12-20 last season), junior Mark Cheremeta (5-14-19), senior Quinn Preston (6-7-13), Tate Singleton (6-5-11) and Gustaf Westlund (6-3-9) – and fifth-year senior defenseman Grant Gabriele (3-10-13).

OSU has played four non-conference games and has won three straight. After a 2-1 season-opening loss at Bentley, the Buckeyes earned a series split with a 7-1 victory over Bentley, and then swept Connecticut at home two weeks ago, 4-3 in overtime, and 3-0.

Ohio State trailed 3-0 early in the second period of the series opener against Connecticut, but rallied to tie it with six minutes left in the third period and won it on defenseman Will Riedell's goal with three seconds left in overtime. Riedell, a graduate student, is a transfer from Lake Superior State.

Both goalies – junior Ryan Snowden and freshman Jakub Dobes – have started two games. But Snowden was replaced by Dobes when OSU was down, 3-0, and Dobes got the victory.

Dobes, 20, a 6-4, 198-pound freshman from Ostrava, Czech Republic, has allowed just one goal in 158 minutes and 40 seconds of work in three games and is 3-0. He has a stellar 0.38 goals-against average and a .986 saves percentage. Snowden (0-1) has a 3.85 GAA and a .878 saves percentage.

In four games this season, Singleton leads the Buckeyes in scoring with three goals and two assists for five points. Freshman defenseman Mason Lohrei is second with one goal and three assists for four points. They're followed by Treloar (2-1-3) and Preston (1-2-3).

"They have their top scorers back and they work extremely hard,'' MSU coach Danton Cole said. "They're really good defensively and put a lot of pressure on you that way. Penalty killing has been outstanding for them and their goaltending has been really good.''

Last season, Treloar, who's from Kalmar, Sweden, scored two goals and had three assists for five points in the four games against Michigan State. Gabrielle had two goals and assist while Cheremeta assisted on three goals vs. MSU.

Spartans forward Jagger Joshua always looks forward to playing Ohio State because of his brother, Dakota, a forward with the Buckeyes for four seasons from 2015-19.

"Bragging rights are on the line with my brother playing there,'' said Joshua who scored one goal against OSU last season. "I know he'll be cheering for me but definitely for the Scarlet and Gray a little extra.

"He had a good little run there. I think they won a Big Ten (regular season) championship and he had some success. I'm looking to do the same here.''

Asked if he ever considered going to Ohio State, he was very firm in his reply.

"Oh no. I'm a go-green-till-I-die type of guy,'' said Joshua, a 6-foot-2, 200-pounder from Dearborn.

Dakota Joshua had 41 goals and 59 assists for 100 points in 128 games at OSU. He's now in the St. Louis Blues organization, playing for the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League. He's teammates with former forward Spartan Mackenzie MacEachern.

"We've always had good battles with them and they've always had good goaltending,'' Cesana said of the Buckeyes. "We have to get pucks behind their defense and make them turn and go get them. work them in the corners and get things going in the offense zone.

"I think we turned down shots last weekend. We need to put more pucks on net and create opportunities for ourselves.''

Coach Steve Rohlik, a 1990 graduate of Wisconsin, is in his ninth season at Ohio State and has a record of 143-112-34, all with the Buckeyes.

OSU has made the NCAA Tournament three times during Rohlik's stay. The Buckeyes have made the NCAA Frozen Four two times – 1998 and 2018. They lost to Boston College, 5-2, in the 1998 semifinals in Boston and to Minnesota Duluth, 2-1, in the 2018 semifinals in St. Paul.

DERIDDER STAR NO. 2: Spartans senior goaltender Drew DeRidder only played one game last weekend against UMass Lowell, but it was good enough be selected as the No. 2 Star in the Big Ten.

DeRidder made a season-high 37 saves in a 2-2 tie with the River Hawks on Friday night in Lowell, Massachusetts. DeRidder, a 5-10, 180-pound netminder from Fenton, Michigan, has played in three games, has a 1-1-1 record, a 1.92 goals-against average and a .947 saves percentage.

The No. 1 Star from last weekend's play was Penn State junior forward Kevin Wall, who had five goals in the Nittany Lions' 4-0 and 6-2 sweep of Niagara. Wall had two goals in the first game and a hat trick in the series finale.

The No. 3 Star honor went to Notre Dame goalie Matthew Galajda who made 22 saves in a 6-0 win over RIT last Saturday. Galajda, a graduate transfer from Cornell, is 3-0 with a 1.33 GAA and a .943 saves percentage.

SPARTAN POTPOURRI: Sophomore Jeremy Davidson had a point in his first five games but his streak came to an end with the 4-0 shutout loss at UMass Lowell last Saturday. Davidson scored his fourth goal of the season in the 2-2 tie on Friday.

Davidson, who transferred from Massachusetts, has four goals and two assists for six points. He's MSU's second-leading scorer, one point behind top scorer Mitchell Lewandowski, who has three goals and four assists for seven points.

Davidson, 21, a 5-10, 170-pound right wing from Kalamazoo, started the season with an assist in both games against Air Force. He had two goals in the first game vs. Miami and one in the second. His goal in the series opener at UMass Lowell gave the Spartans a 2-1 lead at 9:37 of the third period. Davidson has two power-play goals…

Lewandowski got banged up in the first UMass Lowell game and sat out the series finale on Saturday. His status for the Ohio State series is uncertain.

"It's nothing long term and, hopefully, he'll be back this weekend,'' Coach Danton Cole said earlier this week…

Michigan State's penalty killers have skated off 18 of 20 power-play chances by opponents. MSU had killed 14 consecutive penalties over its previous four games before giving up a power-play goal in the first period of Saturday's game at UMass Lowell. The Spartans' 90.5 percent penalty killing ranks No. 4 in the Big Ten and 13^th nationally…

The power play is converting at 23.8 percent – 5 for 21. MSU ranks 3rd in the Big Ten and 17^th in the nation.

IN THE BIG TEN: Wisconsin (2-4) plays at No. 2/3 Michigan (5-1) in a Thursday-Friday series, while No. 7/7 Minnesota (3-3) plays host to No. 14 Notre Dame (4-1) on Friday and Saturday.

In a non-conference single game, Penn State (5-1) plays No. 6/6 North Dakota (4-2) in Nashville, Tennessee, at Bridgestone Arena, the home of the NHL's Nashville Predators.

In the preseason Big Ten Coaches Poll, Minnesota was picked for first place, and Michigan was second. Wisconsin was No. 3, followed by Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State.

Michigan State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Dennis Cesana

Jeremy Davidson

Drew DeRidder

Jagger Joshua

Mitchell Lewandowski

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