First and foremost allow me to be another voice in saying what a disgrace by the Big Ten Network to not get one of these games on for better viewership. This is some special hockey being played, future
stars and a caliber of game that is far more entertaining than some of the garbage that’s been on instead.
Friday night was a close battle with both teams knotted up at 1. Tiernan Shoudy came up big with the OT winner and gave the Spartans the momentum heading into Saturday’s bout. Saturday was a busy day with #1 vs #3 facing off at Munn at 4pm and #22 and #16 facing off at Breslin at 7pm. Let’s also not forget to check out MSU Women’s Soccer tomorrow in the B1G Tournament Final.
The energy at Munn was exciting and MSU was ready to match it. A fast first period and a plethora of chances for MSU. Spartans were on the attack the majority of the period even with having to kill a couple of penalties. Spartans were definitely playing a bit more physical which is a great response to PSU’s ability to create opportunities quickly. Stramel and Martone both had two points each in the first period. Stramel has really been seeing the puck and lanes well and has been threading in some beautiful passes. This team is loaded but right now, Charlie Stramel may be playing the best hockey on this roster. MSU’s first power play went into the books without a goal but it was one of the best I’ve seen the Spartans on. They kept the puck in the zone for almost the entire two minutes.
A couple of oddities in the first period, one being the Nittany Lions continuing to drop sticks or break them. Every time you looked it seemed like a stick was floating around. Ironically, this continued throughout the game. Penn State’s left wings were continually throwing off the face-offs. They were constantly jumping to get an edge and it also felt like the puck was being held a little long.
The second period continued with a Spartan onslaught of shots. 32 shots on goal by the end of the period. Fleming was doing everything he could to keep PSU close. The Nittany Lions were sloppy as the continued to turn the puck over. The second period saw more penalties for the Spartans but not only were the Spartans killing them, they ended up being a lot of four on four. Obviously everyone enjoyed the two minutes for embellishment from Crespo and then a 10 minute misconduct from Katzin is how the second ended. Colin Ralph was the lone goal in the second as he slapped home a beautiful shot from the blue line to record his first goal as a Spartan.
The third period flew by quick in the first ten minutes. PSU finally started to get some attacks and good looks on Augustine but strong forechecks and active sticks helped Trey take care of anything else that came his way. Stramel connected on an empty netter with a selfless assist from Russell. Just prior to PSU pulling Fleming and giving up the empty netter is where we saw a whole bunch of physical play. The game was already filled with big hits and a fair amount of penalties but after Nilson was getting roughed Ryker Lee came in to back up his teammate and landed some haymakers on Crespo. Nightingale mentioned in the presser that MSU needs to get better with the sticks and limit the hookings, interference and tripping calls but he also said that when it comes to roughing or defending our teammates, “We’ll kill those penalties”. This is where I feel like this team is different from last year already and has what they were missing. The team moxie and willingness to be more physical is going to pay dividends the season. Romani connected on a power play goal at 16:56 and the “over-rated” chants began from the Munnsters.
This was one very complete game played by MSU. In somewhat of a “screw you Gavin McKenna” you made the wrong choice kind of statement. However, after the BU sweep and now the PSU sweep, MSU is going to be a very big target for everyone they face, starting with ND next weekend in South Bend. One big take away from this weekend was the very impressive penalty kills. MSU held PSU, who excels on the power play, to 0-9. That is very impressive. Of course, playing short handed is not ideal, but if you can kill penalties like that it is no wonder Nightingale isn’t worried about playing a bit more physical.
Augustine was quite dialed in and has already recorded his third shut out of the year. He stopped 36 shots. It didn’t feel like PSU had that many shots, which is how smooth he was in net. With four points from Stramel, two from Martone, three assists from Russell and a shutout from Augustine the Spartans showed there are many ways they can win. As Nightingale said when asked for one word to describe this team, “humble”, it is the exact word that will keep this team focused on the ultimate goal after a very successful start to the season.
