No football this weekend, no Pre-Snap Read, no MSU basketball, no high school playoffs.
So I majored in Michigan State hockey a little bit over the last couple of days.
I won't be able to give this much attention to Michigan State hockey for the next few weekend series, but it was good to get a feel for this team in the opening series of the year.
Hit this link for the story with photos:
michiganstate.rivals.com
The story without photos is below:
MSU's 2-0 victory over Arizona State - What It Means
By Jim Comparoni
• SpartanMag Publisher
East Lansing, Mich. - Danton Cole wanted a winning level improvement between Game One and Game Two, and that’s exactly what he got - plus a hot goalie.
Drew DeRidder turned away 30 shots as Michigan State beat Arizona State 2-0, Friday night at Munn Ice Arena. It was the first career shutout for DeRidder, a junior from Fenton.
Michigan State improved to 1-0-1. Arizona State, which earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament two years ago and would have been in last year if the tournament hadn’t been canceled, fell to 0-3-1.
Junior center Mitchell Mattson netted the first goal of his career to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead with 12:15 left in the first period. Senior Adam Goodsir and freshman Kyle Haskins assisted.
Senior Mitch Lewandowski, who ranks No. 2 in the nation in career goals among active players, gave Michigan State an important insurance goal with 7:32 left in the game. Sophomore Nicolas Müller and freshman Kristof Papp assisted.
“We talked about getting a little better at some things night-over-night, and I thought a lot of things were,” said MSU’s fourth-year head coach. “We talked about cleaning up the neutral zone and I thought we did a lot better job there.
“Energy throughout the end of the game was better. You kind of have to get those game legs. We hadn’t had that type of thing in about eight months. That was a lot better.
“We drove the net, did better in the offensive zone.
“Everything is positive. We’ll take a little break tomorrow but we’ve got a sign heading out to the rink that says, ‘Outwork yesterday.’ That can’t change.
“Hey, we feel good about this, but we’re moving on. We’ve got some things to work on. We’ve got a tough road between now and Christmas. But I’m excited. I like what I saw. I like their reaction tonight based on how we played last night.”
WHAT IT MEANS
For DeRidder: The Michigan State goaltender is being pushed for the starting job by freshman Pierce Charleson.
DeRidder, a product of the U.S. National Team Development Program, split starting duty as a freshman two years ago, but started only four games last year. He needed to have a good series, and he responded by allowing only one goal in two games.
“He was outstanding,” Cole said. “I’m real happy for him. He’s a battler. He was ticked off about giving up one late last night and he was determined not to do that tonight.”
For Mattson: The 6-foot-4 junior, from Grand Rapids, Minn., appears to be maturing into his big frame.
Although he was a fifth round draft pick by the Calgary Flames four years ago, he has been slow to gain traction at the college level.
He played in only 14 games as a freshman. Last year, he played in each of the last 16 games, eventually earning a regular role on the fourth line.
On Friday, as the fourth-line center, he finished a gritty play and pass from Goodsir in front of the net to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“There’s a guy that scored a lot of goals before he got here,” Cole said. “It’s his junior year, he gets his first one. That can mean a lot to a guy and give you a little bit of confidence.”
“It’s nice to get the monkey off the back for sure,” Mattson said. “I hope to keep building. If I can score here and there, that’s great but I just want to help our team and hopefully our line will continue to build trust from coach.”
For Lewandowski: The senior winger from Clarkston had 19 goals as a freshman, 16 as a sophomore but just eight last year while coming back from off-season surgery (and learning to play without super-feeder Taro Hirose).
“I really liked Lewie all weekend, and I was glad he got one, just to get back,” Cole said. “He’s a goal scorer.”
For Papp: The freshman from Hungary (by way of Los Angeles and then suburban Detroit) made an aggressive play at the blue line to create a 3-on-2 with 7:32 left in the game.
He looked for his own shot, fired it, leading to a fat rebound for Lewandowski, who netted the insurance goal.
Cole says Papp has a skill level that few, if any, other players on the team possess. We didn’t see it on Thursday night, but Papp showed a little more of that ceiling in his second career college game.
“I just didn’t think he was hard enough on pucks last night,” Cole said. “I think too many got under his stick. If it was a 50-50 puck, he wasn’t getting it.
“So we had a little video with him this afternoon about four or five different situations where we said, ‘Hey, this is adult hockey, here. You have to be hard on those pucks.’
“He’s good. He knows where to go. He’s in the right spots. For a European, everybody thinks those guys might be pass-first, but that kid likes to shoot the puck, which is good.”
Papp centers the No. 2 line, with Lewandowski and Nicolas Müller as his wings.
“But he battled on the boards,” Cole said of Papp. “Last night, I don’t think he would have come out with that puck (which led to the 3-on-2). You have to arrive quickly and with a little ill humor. He came out of that pile with the puck, accelerated, got to the top of the circles, didn’t even look to pass, and he let it rip. I liked that.”
For The Freshmen: On Thursday, freshman A.J. Hodges wheeled pretty good as the right winger on the No. 1 line
On Friday, Papp and Haskins provided a spark.
Last year, MSU’s three freshmen (Nodler, Müller, Jagger Joshua) were lean with their productivity. It’s looking like this year’s rookies will have a bigger impact - and the sophomores have improved. It adds up to a pretty good youth movement on this team.
“We have three freshmen in some pretty important places but they’ve got some pop,” Cole said. “Kristof and Hodges, they’re going to get some stuff done before the end of the year.
“And we’re just scratching the surface with (freshman defenseman) Nash Nienhuis. When he gets a feel and starts jumping through the neutral zone we’ll get some more of that.
“They’ll have their high spots, their low spots but those guys are going to get ice and they’re going to be a big part of it.”
For The Fourth Line: Cole wants more depth, more balance. The fourth line can go a long way toward providing it.
“I thought that line struggled a bit last night but I they found their sea legs a little bit tonight,” Cole said.
Mattson centered the line for the last half of last year. He’s a better version of himself this year.
Friday, freshman Haskins (5-10, 190, Huntington, Vt.) saw limited minutes as the 19th skater on Thursday. On Friday, he played regularly as the right winger on the fourth line. He made a difference.
“Hask was really driving today,” Cole said. “He played with speed, played on the other side of the D. He’s going to be able to do that well for us.”
On Mattson’s goal, Haskins drove hard into the zone, dumped it behind the goal. Goodsir won the battle behind the goal and fed Mattson out front.
“Huge goal,” Cole said. “All three of those guys stepped it up for us and that was important.”
Michigan State will play at Ohio State next Saturday and Sunday, with game time and TV to be announced.
So I majored in Michigan State hockey a little bit over the last couple of days.
I won't be able to give this much attention to Michigan State hockey for the next few weekend series, but it was good to get a feel for this team in the opening series of the year.
Hit this link for the story with photos:
Spartans Illustrated - MSU's 2-0 victory over Arizona State - What It Means
Spartans now look to 'outwork yesterday.'
michiganstate.rivals.com
The story without photos is below:
MSU's 2-0 victory over Arizona State - What It Means
By Jim Comparoni
• SpartanMag Publisher
East Lansing, Mich. - Danton Cole wanted a winning level improvement between Game One and Game Two, and that’s exactly what he got - plus a hot goalie.
Drew DeRidder turned away 30 shots as Michigan State beat Arizona State 2-0, Friday night at Munn Ice Arena. It was the first career shutout for DeRidder, a junior from Fenton.
Michigan State improved to 1-0-1. Arizona State, which earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament two years ago and would have been in last year if the tournament hadn’t been canceled, fell to 0-3-1.
Junior center Mitchell Mattson netted the first goal of his career to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead with 12:15 left in the first period. Senior Adam Goodsir and freshman Kyle Haskins assisted.
Senior Mitch Lewandowski, who ranks No. 2 in the nation in career goals among active players, gave Michigan State an important insurance goal with 7:32 left in the game. Sophomore Nicolas Müller and freshman Kristof Papp assisted.
“We talked about getting a little better at some things night-over-night, and I thought a lot of things were,” said MSU’s fourth-year head coach. “We talked about cleaning up the neutral zone and I thought we did a lot better job there.
“Energy throughout the end of the game was better. You kind of have to get those game legs. We hadn’t had that type of thing in about eight months. That was a lot better.
“We drove the net, did better in the offensive zone.
“Everything is positive. We’ll take a little break tomorrow but we’ve got a sign heading out to the rink that says, ‘Outwork yesterday.’ That can’t change.
“Hey, we feel good about this, but we’re moving on. We’ve got some things to work on. We’ve got a tough road between now and Christmas. But I’m excited. I like what I saw. I like their reaction tonight based on how we played last night.”
WHAT IT MEANS
For DeRidder: The Michigan State goaltender is being pushed for the starting job by freshman Pierce Charleson.
DeRidder, a product of the U.S. National Team Development Program, split starting duty as a freshman two years ago, but started only four games last year. He needed to have a good series, and he responded by allowing only one goal in two games.
“He was outstanding,” Cole said. “I’m real happy for him. He’s a battler. He was ticked off about giving up one late last night and he was determined not to do that tonight.”
For Mattson: The 6-foot-4 junior, from Grand Rapids, Minn., appears to be maturing into his big frame.
Although he was a fifth round draft pick by the Calgary Flames four years ago, he has been slow to gain traction at the college level.
He played in only 14 games as a freshman. Last year, he played in each of the last 16 games, eventually earning a regular role on the fourth line.
On Friday, as the fourth-line center, he finished a gritty play and pass from Goodsir in front of the net to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“There’s a guy that scored a lot of goals before he got here,” Cole said. “It’s his junior year, he gets his first one. That can mean a lot to a guy and give you a little bit of confidence.”
“It’s nice to get the monkey off the back for sure,” Mattson said. “I hope to keep building. If I can score here and there, that’s great but I just want to help our team and hopefully our line will continue to build trust from coach.”
For Lewandowski: The senior winger from Clarkston had 19 goals as a freshman, 16 as a sophomore but just eight last year while coming back from off-season surgery (and learning to play without super-feeder Taro Hirose).
“I really liked Lewie all weekend, and I was glad he got one, just to get back,” Cole said. “He’s a goal scorer.”
For Papp: The freshman from Hungary (by way of Los Angeles and then suburban Detroit) made an aggressive play at the blue line to create a 3-on-2 with 7:32 left in the game.
He looked for his own shot, fired it, leading to a fat rebound for Lewandowski, who netted the insurance goal.
Cole says Papp has a skill level that few, if any, other players on the team possess. We didn’t see it on Thursday night, but Papp showed a little more of that ceiling in his second career college game.
“I just didn’t think he was hard enough on pucks last night,” Cole said. “I think too many got under his stick. If it was a 50-50 puck, he wasn’t getting it.
“So we had a little video with him this afternoon about four or five different situations where we said, ‘Hey, this is adult hockey, here. You have to be hard on those pucks.’
“He’s good. He knows where to go. He’s in the right spots. For a European, everybody thinks those guys might be pass-first, but that kid likes to shoot the puck, which is good.”
Papp centers the No. 2 line, with Lewandowski and Nicolas Müller as his wings.
“But he battled on the boards,” Cole said of Papp. “Last night, I don’t think he would have come out with that puck (which led to the 3-on-2). You have to arrive quickly and with a little ill humor. He came out of that pile with the puck, accelerated, got to the top of the circles, didn’t even look to pass, and he let it rip. I liked that.”
For The Freshmen: On Thursday, freshman A.J. Hodges wheeled pretty good as the right winger on the No. 1 line
On Friday, Papp and Haskins provided a spark.
Last year, MSU’s three freshmen (Nodler, Müller, Jagger Joshua) were lean with their productivity. It’s looking like this year’s rookies will have a bigger impact - and the sophomores have improved. It adds up to a pretty good youth movement on this team.
“We have three freshmen in some pretty important places but they’ve got some pop,” Cole said. “Kristof and Hodges, they’re going to get some stuff done before the end of the year.
“And we’re just scratching the surface with (freshman defenseman) Nash Nienhuis. When he gets a feel and starts jumping through the neutral zone we’ll get some more of that.
“They’ll have their high spots, their low spots but those guys are going to get ice and they’re going to be a big part of it.”
For The Fourth Line: Cole wants more depth, more balance. The fourth line can go a long way toward providing it.
“I thought that line struggled a bit last night but I they found their sea legs a little bit tonight,” Cole said.
Mattson centered the line for the last half of last year. He’s a better version of himself this year.
Friday, freshman Haskins (5-10, 190, Huntington, Vt.) saw limited minutes as the 19th skater on Thursday. On Friday, he played regularly as the right winger on the fourth line. He made a difference.
“Hask was really driving today,” Cole said. “He played with speed, played on the other side of the D. He’s going to be able to do that well for us.”
On Mattson’s goal, Haskins drove hard into the zone, dumped it behind the goal. Goodsir won the battle behind the goal and fed Mattson out front.
“Huge goal,” Cole said. “All three of those guys stepped it up for us and that was important.”
Michigan State will play at Ohio State next Saturday and Sunday, with game time and TV to be announced.
