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Spartan Recap: Michigan State Swept by University of Wisconsin

Spartan Recap: Michigan State Swept by University of Wisconsin
SEF College Hockey

Following a tough series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Michigan State Spartans and Wisconsin Badgers faced off in a two-game set in East Lansing. The Badgers took the first game, 4-0, while the second game was a 2-1 win for Wisconsin.

Game 1:

There were two lineup changes ahead of the series opener against the Badgers as Mitchell Mattson and Aiden Gallacher drew into the Spartan lineup, while Jake Smith and Powell Connor were scratched. The matchup in goal was Drew DeRidder for Michigan State, while Robbie Beydoun started for Wisconsin.

Under two minutes in, Tarek Baker put a rebound past DeRidder to give the Badgers an early 1-0 lead. The Spartans were given the first power-play of the game when Kyle Haskins was in one-on-one heading towards Beydoun, but he was taken down from behind by Jack Gorniak, who was handed a tripping penalty. Not only were the Spartans denied on the power-play, but Wisconsin had multiple strong chances down a man. Just after the penalty expired, Dylan Holloway and Gorniak were in on a two-on-one, and Gorniak put the puck off of Tommy Miller’s skate and past DeRidder to make it 2-0 Badgers just over eight minutes in. Following the two goals, the period was quiet in terms of production, with the Badgers taking the 2-0 lead into the second with an 11-9 shot advantage.

The second period started a little slow, but just about five minutes in, DeRidder stoned Holloway on a breakaway attempt to keep it a two-goal game. With 12:28 left in the period, Kyle Haskins was called for a tripping penalty to give Wisconsin their first power-play, and Cole Caufield and the Badgers extended their lead over Michigan State to 3-0, 22 seconds into the man advantage. With just under nine minutes left, Mitchell Lewandowski was called for slashing and sent the Badgers to the power-play. Ty Pelton-Byce went five-hole on DeRidder eight seconds into their power-play, and that was the end of the night for him as Pierce Charleson came in after Michigan State’s deficit extended to four. Linus Weissbach headed to the box for tripping and 31 seconds in, Lewandowski headed to the box for tripping, resulting in 1:29 of four-on-four hockey. With 1:46 to go in the period, Adam Goodsir and Ryder Donovan both were given unsportsmanlike minors, and we were headed back to four-on-four. At the buzzer, Jesper Peltonen was handed an interference minor, giving the Spartans a power-play to begin the third period. After two, the Badges had a 4-0 lead, and a 27-20 shot advantage.

The third period started four-on-three, but all penalties were completed without a goal tallied. Josh Ess was called for tripping just over five minutes in, and the Spartans headed the power-play, which was once again unsuccessful. Other than that, the period was quiet, with the Badgers finishing off their 4-0 victory while outshooting the Spartans, 43-28.

Following the game, Head Coach Danton Cole, Dennis Cesana, and Mitchell Lewandowski addressed the media.

Cole began with an opening statement. “Interesting game, obviously on the short end of it, not where we wanted to be against a pretty good hockey team. There were a decent amount of things that our guys were working on, our guys are doing alright, keep pushing and getting to the other side. We will get a goal to go in, feel better about ourselves, guys worked extremely hard, did some things a lot better. How I felt going into the locker room tonight was different than when I did in Wisconsin. The guys have done some good work since then. They might have not shown up on the scoreboard, but it will. What we did well, we will do well tomorrow, and what we did okay today, we will do better tomorrow.”

The Spartans were able to get some more pucks on the net despite the over 200-minute separation since they last scored, but Cole said that they need to focus on the process. “The best thing to do is focus on the process and what guys need to take care of. We worked on that a lot, we put a lot of pucks on net during the week and banged home a lot of rebounds and during the game, it just didn’t go in. I’d say just stick with the process and they don’t need to be reminded of that, everybody goes through patches, but what we can control is how hard we work and apply some things. It doesn’t do me any good and it doesn’t do them any good to harp on that.”

He was happy with the play of Charleson as after he came in, the Badgers were held off the scoresheet, and the play of Mitchell Mattson, who returned to the lineup following an extended absence.

Cesana said the biggest challenge of playing Wisconsin is preventing their speed.”We just have to contain their speed through the neutral zone, they have a good transition game. We’ve just got to stop that middle and backside speed, and we did it, for the most part, tonight, but a couple times, they got behind us on rushes, and we have to live with those.”

Mitchell Lewandowski spoke about his two penalties tonight and how as a senior leader, getting frustrated could lead to unnecessary penalties. “I definitely didn’t like my first penalty, I shouldn’t have done that, take responsibility for sure. Obviously, when they go down and score on both of them, it just puts a damper on me even more. I can’t change it, I can only look forward from it, that’s on me, that’s something I can’t do as a leader. Just myself, needing to be better with that and not put the team in that position.”

Game 2:

Ahead of the second game of the series, it was announced that Pierce Charleson would be starting for Michigan State, while Cameron Rowe started for Wisconsin.

Michigan State was buzzing to start the first period as they were entering the game on a 205-minute scoreless drought. Just under six minutes in, Mitchell Lewandowski’s shot went wide and Tommy Miller was unable to keep the puck in the zone, so Lewandowski took a hooking penalty as the Badgers were on an odd-man rush. The Spartans killed the penalty, and just a few minutes later, Christian Krygier was sent to the box for a tripping minor, sending Wisconsin to the power-play which Michigan State was also able to kill off. With just under five minutes left in the period, the Spartans headed to the power play when Tarek Baker was called for slashing, and despite multiple opportunities for the first unit, they were unable to convert for a goal. After one, Michigan State and Wisconsin were tied at zero, while the Badgers had a 13-12 shot advantage. Michigan State and Wisconsin were tied at one after two, and each team had 29 shots.

Just like in the first period, the Spartans came out fast and looking for a goal to start the second period. Just over six minutes in, Baker went to the box for elbowing, and the Badgers were unable to convert on the power play. At the 13:09 mark of the second period, Charlie Combs ended the Michigan State scoreless streak at 238:35 as he put the puck behind Rowe. Lewandowski was credited with the primary assist, giving him 100 career points at Michigan State, and the final member of the “KHL line” to hit triple digits. With 52 seconds remaining in the period, Tommy Apap was called for a tripping minor, and Wisconsin converted on the late power play as Cole Caufield tied the game at one with 17.5 seconds left in the middle frame.

Pierce Charleson and Christian Krygier began the third period with a strong effort against Brock Caufield on a breakaway 20 seconds in, and a few minutes later, Cole Caufield, rang the puck off the post, just inches away from giving the Badgers the lead. Charlie Combs had a great opportunity from the same spot Caufield scored from in the second period, but Rowe made the save. With 12:11 remaining in the period, the Spartans gave away the puck in the defensive zone and it went straight to Cole Caufield for his second of the game to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead. With just over seven minutes left, Brody Stevens was whistled in the offensive zone for cross-checking and Wisconsin headed to the power-play. Charleson left the net with about 90 seconds left. With less than a minute left, Cole took a timeout following a Spartan offsides call. With 12.1 seconds left, the Badgers iced the puck and the Spartans were given one more opportunity in the offensive zone. They were unable to convert, and Wisconsin clinched the victory and the Big Ten regular-season title with a 2-1 win, and a 49-41 shot advantage. Dennis Cesana kissed the Spartan head at center ice, which could symbolize his time at Michigan State coming to an end following the conclusion of Michigan State’s season.

Following the game, Coach Cole, Combs, and Charleson addressed the media.

Cole began with an opening statement. “The guys battled, our guys played a great hockey game, unfortunately, it came down to one goal but they didn’t cheat us, probably one of our better game of the year. were gonna have to play that way Sunday, we knew we were going to have to play regardless of what happened tonight, no reason not to play our best game of the year next Sunday.”

He was happy with the play in the first period. “We fumbled a couple pucks on the first shift, but the guys were really prepared. Came right out and battled, got some chances, and then settled in really well. We were skating, we were physical, we were moving the puck on the right side but I think we did some decent things last night but the game out away from us. They were pretty determined, and collectively it seemed like they made a decision that they were going to get after it today, not interested in moral victories.”

He also said the feeling on the bench after breaking the scoreless drought was great as they were battling hard against Rowe.

Combs, who hadn’t gotten on the scoresheet since January 16th before his goal today, was relieved to get back on the sheet. “It’s been a while, it’s been frustrating not producing, getting those chances, and not catching a bounce. It feels awesome and it feels even better being Lewandowski’s 100th point, I was happy to help him and happy for him and that’s an awesome accomplishment.”

Charleson stopped 47 of 49 shots today and gave credit to the defense for assisting in his outing. “I thought our guys did a great job at keeping the shots to the outside and not giving them too much, they have a lot of firepower and they score goals, so I think we did a good job today shutting them down.”

The Michigan State Spartans were scheduled to face the Michigan Wolverines on Wednesday, March 10th, but the schools mutually agreed to cancel the game to give both teams extra time to prepare for the Big Ten Tournament, which commences on Sunday, March 14th. The Spartans will take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first round of this year’s tournament, which is a single-game elimination format.

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