Power play capitalization demonstrated to be the significant key to Michigan State Men’s Hockey’s opening game on Monday. The Spartans brought down Western Ontario 6-1 in their display season opener at Munn Ice Arena.
“The guys made some plays and got some pucks on net. We learned some things and things we will have to tighten up, some things that we like, but overall we wanted energy, we wanted some enthusiasm and the guys did a nice job with that,” Head Coach Danton Cole said before adding that the team, “Accomplished everything we wanted to tonight.”
In the primary time frame, two early punishments against Western Ontario prompted back-to-back power plays for the Spartans that pushed the green and white hostile play into motion. For basically the whole first time frame, the Spartans overwhelmed the ice, putting 21 shots on objective instead of the Mustang’s five.
Seven minutes in, Michigan State’s Tommy Apap put a shot on the Mustang objective that redirected off of goaltender David Ovsjannikov’s stick. The puck arrived back at the skates of Apap who shot the puck back, shooting past Ovsjannikov and making the principal objective of the Spartans’ season, putting them up 1-0.
“There was a good screen and the goalie just didn’t see it, we got lucky there a little bit,” Apap said.
Later in the period, Western Ontario promoted off of a strategic maneuver incited by a stumbling punishment on Michigan State’s Wojciech Stachowiak. Simply under a moment into the strategic maneuver, Western Ontario had the option to put three shots on Michigan State’s objective, one of which flew past MSU goalkeeper John Lethemon, tying the game 1-1.
Following the power play the Spartans kept on keeping up their hostile predominance. Green bean Nicolas Muller from Switzerland made his first vocation objective before the finish of the primary time frame putting the Spartans up 2-1.
In the second period, Western Ontario turned a switch on, looking increasingly alive and resolved to tie the match back up.
The Mustangs dramatically increased their shots on objective in the second period, provoking a goaltender change from Lethemon to sophomore Drew DeRidder on the Spartan side with 10 minutes left to play. The switch remained steady with the group’s methodology last season and Cole’s guarantee to keep on having the two fight for the main spot at media day.
Without further ado into his time on the ice, it was DeRidder and Western Ontario’s Franco Sproviero eye to eye at the Spartan net. Sproviero discharged a hard hit shot that was marvelously spared by DeRidder, denoting the greatest spare of the game.
With a genuinely back-and-forth second time frame, a Spartan strategic maneuver provoked an objective with simply under a moment left to play in the second time frame by Mitchell Lewandowski putting the Spartans up 3-1 going into the last time frame.
The Spartans came into the third time frame with similar energy as the first, offensive domination.
A little more than 6 minutes in, Apap made a smooth go to Spartan defenseman Cole Krygier, which Krygier launched into the net, putting the Spartans up by 3 objectives.
A few minutes after the fact, two significant punishments on Western Ontario’s Kyle Langdon, incited another champion strategic maneuver for the green and white.
Following in his twin sibling Cole’s strides, sophomore Christian Krygier made a strategic maneuver objective at a little more than 11 minutes into the period.
“As twins they’ve (Cole and Christan) got a pretty good bond and they kind of know where each other is at and they work well for each other. Last year as true freshman we were a little hesitant to throw them together like that … but I think that they’re real comfortable with each other and that kind of levels things out,” mentor Cole said in regards to the twins’ dynamic.
A moment later, senior Logan Lambdin made one more power play objective for the Spartans giving them an overwhelming 6-1 lead to end the game.
“I learned that we are good offensively. We can still score goals and we always need a little bit more work defensively I think,” senior Patrick Khodorenko said. “Our power play was working around, we had a lot of chances both power plays.”
