Spartan Pre-Game: Michigan State University vs. University of Wisconsin
Following a two-game series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Head Coach Danton Cole and the Michigan State Spartans are set to take on the Wisconsin Badgers for the second time this season. Coach Cole and Dennis Cesana addressed the media Tuesday, reflecting on the previous series and the fight to the finish.
Cole started with an opening statement. “Couple of pretty good hockey games, our guys did a decent amount of things right, but one of the things we didn’t do right was score goals, and that’s obviously a big part of things right now. The process and some of the things the guys did were good, we had chances and breakaways. You’ve got to keep battling through that and keep working on things… you still have to look at things, work on the stuff you need to continue to work on, and keep the spirits up and keep battling. We’ve got another big weekend coming up against Wisconsin and no time to sit around feeling sorry about yourselves. Just get back it, guys did a nice job yesterday (Monday at practice)… guys looked sharp and ready to go.”
When looking at Wisconsin’s roster, a lot of the eyes turn to Cole Caufield, but they surround him with even more offensive talent in players like Dylan Holloway and Linus Weissbach. “You obviously have to pay attention to him, he’s a heck of a hockey player and a very good goal scorer. In the old days, you’d put a guy on someone or shadow someone, and that’s not really a thing that’s done much anymore, but paying attention to how you play defensively and with the puck, limit the chances and being aware of him when he is on the ice, those are certain things you can to do. They do have Holloway and Weissbach and several other guys who are very good offensive players and the way you play defensively cant change. Your coverage has to be tight, you have to close, can’t give them time and space, and have to be diligent with that.”
Last Friday, Piece Charleson made his first career NCAA start and fared well against a tough Fighting Irish team. With the season close to coming to a close and the rapid-fire Big Ten Tournament on the horizon, Cole said that he could get another round in net. He also said that Mitchell Mattson, who has not played in about a month, could get the nod to get back in the Spartans’ forward core in this weekend’s series.
Dennis Cesana will likely match up against the Badgers’ top offensive players, and as a team, they have a plan. “I think just playing hard against them, playing our game, being on them, getting in front of them, taking away their speed. It’s no different than any other weekend, obviously, the Big Ten is a pretty skilled conference, there is high talent on every team. It’s not preparing for anything crazy, but they are good players and we’re aware of them, just got to keep them in front of us and limit their chances.”
Cesana spent his first two seasons at Michigan State playing with Jerad Rosburg, who is now in the Dallas Stars organization. With Rosburg gone, he has spent the back half of the season playing with freshman defenseman Nash Nienhuis on both the top defense pair and the first power-play unit. “Playing with Rosburg the first two years, he’s a great player, understood the game well and he was a man in his own. He taught me a lot of things early on, so now it’s funny how it has flipped my way, me and Nash playing together and we’ve been doing well, we like playing with each other. We’re both similar in the way we play, read off of each other, whenever he has questions, I’m always open to answering, the little plays on the ice like “do a fake look here and find me back here”, little things like that go a long way. Our relationship has been great and I think we’ve been doing a great job playing together.” He said that Nienhuis’s confidence has grown since the season started and he has been impressed with the way he plays, breaking out and in the neutral zone.
The Michigan State University Spartans and the Wisconsin Badgers face off tonight at 4 P.M. EST on BTN+, and tomorrow at 2:30 P.M. EST on BTN and BTN+.
