Spartans need series sweep this weekend
A fight to get out of last place might not be the position MSU hockey wants to be in, but it’s the reality.
A fight to get out of last place might not be the position MSU hockey wants to be in, but it’s the reality.
This season, the MSU hockey team is 7-4-1 when netting a power-play goal, but only 1-16-2 when the Spartans fail to score on a man-advantage. Last Saturday, captain and junior forward Greg Wolfe snapped a four-game streak of no power-play goals.
When Greg Wolfe was going through a rough patch earlier in the hockey season, his head coach told him not to worry about the results, just worry about the process.
In a break from the normal practice routine, the MSU hockey team had an inter-squad skills competition Monday afternoon.
Some college hockey teams only would be happy with a swept series. MSU (8-19-3 overall, 6-15-1-0 CCHA) is pleased with the progress made in a split.
Week after week of getting its confidence chipped away, the MSU hockey (8-19-3 overall, 6-15-1-0 CCHA) team finally was able to gain a bit of it back.
With Bowling Green next in the schedule and the end of the regular season drawing closer, the MSU hockey team is looking to follow the path the Falcons did last season.
Tom Anastos received a text message last week and it has been stuck in ever since. It said something along the lines of “difficult times don’t define one’s character, they reveal it.”
John Draeger said if possible, he would stay on the ice for every minute of every hockey game. Some days, his body probably feels like it does.
A break down of the goals scored by the MSU hockey team so far this season.
And there’s two more losses for the Spartans, (7-18-3 overall, 5-14-1-0 CCHA) albeit this weekend’s might have stung a little more than usual.
After Saturday night’s game, Chris Forfar said somebody could have heard a pin drop in the MSU hockey locker room.
For the third time this season, MSU hockey got beaten by Michigan in the third period. Heading into the final period with a 1-1 tie, the Wolverines bested the Spartans and came out on top, 3-2, Friday night at Yost Ice Arena.
Most MSU student-athletes get the opportunity to face rival Michigan once, maybe twice, a season. After this weekend draws to a close, MSU hockey (7-17-3 overall, 5-12-1-0 CCHA) will have gotten its fifth.
At five-foot-eight, Michael Ferrantino might not be the biggest player to step on the ice each game, but he is determined to be the hardest working.
This season, Tom Anastos has juggled lines and mixed and matched players in hopes of finding something that sticks, sometimes being forced into changes because of lingering injuries.
In a weekend when MSU hockey generated more goals than it had since early November, the offense still wasn’t enough for the Spartans, who split their series with Penn State.
After Friday night’s victory, the MSU hockey team finally was gaining a bit of confidence back to a struggling season. Saturday night, that confidence was taken right back with a 3-2 win by Penn State) over the Spartans (7-16-3 overall, 5-12-1-0 CCHA). MSU carried over its offense from Friday’s 5-3 victory into Saturday’s first period, and it was Spartan defenseman who got MSU on the board. Sophomore RJ Boyd and senior Matt Grassi netted two very similar goals about two and a half minutes apart in the first frame. Both took slapshots that made their way into the net above Penn State goaltender Matthew Skoff’s glove hand — Boyd from the left point and Grassi from the right. That goal was Grassi’s first of the season. “It was nice,” Grassi said.
Penn State hockey got the better of MSU on Saturday night when the Nittany Lions overtook the Spartans, 3-2.
In a preview of future Big Ten play, MSU and Penn State hockey took the ice for the first time against each other, in which MSU came out on top, 5-3.