NMU vs. MSU: Game 2 Recap
The Northern Michigan Wildcats and the Michigan State Spartans were back in action Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing. Lineups were similar to Friday night, with the exception of NMU coach Grant Potulny making some changes on his bottom six forwards, and MSU coach Danton Cole electing to go with freshman goalie Drew DeRidder.
Period 1:
The game starts with an early MSU penalty for cross-checking on Adam Goodsir following a scrum in front of the net with Robert Fosdick at 3:03. Northern had some chances on the power play, but their best chance was stopped on a nice save by DeRidder. The Wildcats are able to put one in the net on a 2-on-1 breakaway, when Joseph Nardi ripped one past DeRidder on a lead pass from Darien Craighead. Less than two minutes later, Fosdick goes to the box for hooking, and NMU is able to kill the penalty. Michigan State’s best chance came at 13:05, but Wojciech Stachowiak’s shot was stopped by an unbelievable sliding save by Atte Tolvanen. The Wildcats had one more solid scoring chance at 16:32 but Freshman Jarrett Lee was denied by DeRidder. Northern controlled the game for much of the opening frame, but their offense slowed down in the final ten minutes. NMU takes a 1–0 lead into intermission. Shots are 10–9 in favor of NMU.
Period 2:
Special teams were the story for both teams in the second period. Both teams gambled on special teams, with mixed results. MSU capitalized on a Tony Bretzman holding penalty by beating Tolvanen at 7:23. The Spartans first goal was scored by captain Sam Saliba, assisted by Logan Lambdin and Zach Osburn. NMU was playing very aggressive on that power play, and they ended up paying for it. At 9:17, NMU took another penalty, this one a slashing call against Caleb Schroer, and it was the Spartan’s turn to take a risk. MSU chose to use four forwards and one defenseman on that power play, and Ryan Black and Adam Rockwood were able to expose that defensive weakness for Northern’s first short-handed goal of the season. Michigan State committed two more hooking penalties in the span of just over three minutes (Christian Krygier 13:27; Brennan Sanford 16:32). NMU failed to register a shot on the first power play, but Denver pierce found the back of the net for a power play goal at 18:01, assisted by Rockwood and Loggins).Shots on goal were even through two at 19 a side, and MSU held a slight edge on faceoffs won, 23–17. NMU takes a 3–1 lead into the third, but Michigan State will start the period on a power play, courtesy of a late boarding call against Phil Beaulieu.
Period 3:
The third period couldn’t have started worse for the Wildcats, and couldn’t have started better for the Spartans. Taro Hirose scored at 1:46 to pull MSU withinn one. He scored as Beualieu’s penalty expired, so it was not registered as a power play goal. Nearly immediately following Hirose’s goal, Nardi gets a whistle for interference, putting MSU right back on the power play. They capitalize six seconds later, on a Khodorenko goal from Lewandowski at 2:26 to tie the game for the Spartans. Grant Potulny uses his timeout at this point to calm down his Wildcats, and it seemed to work. Khodorenko takes a penalty at 6:!2 for covering the puck with his hand. The Wildcats are able to pull away for good on a Craighead goal from Beaulieu at 6:29. MSU takes two more penalties later in the game, and Northern plays good defense with DeRidder on the bench to close this one out. Shots on goal favor MSU 29–27, but the final score from East Lansing is NMU 4- MSU 3. Each team earns a win on the weekend, and they will look to build on those victories as non-conference play continues next week.
NMU Positives:
The Wildcats played a much better overall game. Their skating, zone play and defense all looked much better than Friday night.
Adam Rockwood continues to be a scoring threat for the Wildcats. The alternate captain posted a short-handed goal and an assist tonight.
Atte Tolvanen’s numbers weren’t as strong tonight, but he made some huge saves that kept his team ahead.
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Special teams were much stronger tonight than Friday. The Wildcats were 2–6 on the power play and 3–5 on the penalty kill.
MSU Positives:
The Freshman goalie DeRidder played well at this early stage of his Spartan career, which should give Danton Cole confidence to look to him in the future.
The “KHL Line” of Khodorenko, Hirose and Lewandowski was much more involved than they were last night, taking advantage of NMU’s mistakes early in the 3rd to tie the game.
Odds and Ends:
The flohockey.tv stream seemed to iron out the audio issues that they had on Friday night. The video quality was still mediocre, but overall it was a better watching experience.
The game tonight was much more physical than Friday night.. Members of both teams were talking and throwing their bodies around the ice. It’s a shame they don’t play each other more often, because the matchup is so even.
Around the WCHA:
- Western Michigan 5 — Ferris State 0
- Minnesota-Duluth 5 — Michigan Tech 2
- Minnesota State 5 — Boston University 3
- Bemidji State 1 — Notre Dame 1 (Final/OT)
- Denver 3 — Alabama- Huntsville 0 (4:55 in the 2nd at the time of this writing)
- St. Cloud State — Alaska
