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Re: Minnesota hosts Michigan State: 1/31 & 2/1
It appears MSU has a new theme song for their 2013-14 hockey season: “We will…We will…BLOCK you” (sorry couldn’t resist it
). The only claim to fame for MSU amidst another rollercoaster season under Tom Anastos is their current #2 NCAA ranking (Holy Cross is #1 by .01) of 18 blocked shots per game (Gophers/#42). That was clearly evident in the first meeting of these two teams, where Sparty blocked 24 and the Gophers only 5. As a result, Sparty’s block shot tirade this season has translated into a #18 NCAA ranking in fewest goals against per game at 2.43 (Gophers are #3/2.04). Another aspect of MSU’s game the Gophers will see a lot of this weekend is shot attempts and SOG. In their first game of the series in December (a tie with MSU winning the shootout), MSU attempted a whopping 95 shots (Gophers/91) with 33 of them landing on net.
Overall, Sparty matches up fairly well with the Gophers with surprising team speed, physicality, a good transition game, and aggressive/heads up D that will attempt to keep shots on the perimeter by blocking a ton of shots. The talented freshman line of Ebbing, MacEachern and Haag have wheels and I expect this line to swarm the Gopher net and present another challenge for Wilcox to be his typical stellar-self this weekend. MSU is led by goal scoring leaders and upperclassmen, Greg Wolfe and Micheal Ferrantino, and both have the ability to get up and down the ice with good speed. Sophomore goalie Jake Hildebrand has played surprising well, despite MSU’s losing record of 8-12-3, with a 92.7 SV% (Wilcox/92.9 SV%).
MSU is coming off a disappointing sweep at home by Michigan, but kept it close in the first game losing with just over 2 min. left. Anastos was visibly ticked off afterwards and sounded off on his team’s poor play:
Anastos is hoping his verbal spanking pays dividends this weekend. I expect he'll have his players tuned and primed for battle from the puck drop, and attempt to match the Gopher's intensity and speed on offense while putting lots of pucks on net. If Hildebrand finds his zone in net this weekend, and MSU can find some consistency on offense...game on man and the Gophers will need to be prepared for a physical battle. Bottom line: with some tougher B1G series coming up with the BADgers and Uglies, we NEED these points this weekend. Go Gophers! RAH! 
It appears MSU has a new theme song for their 2013-14 hockey season: “We will…We will…BLOCK you” (sorry couldn’t resist it
). The only claim to fame for MSU amidst another rollercoaster season under Tom Anastos is their current #2 NCAA ranking (Holy Cross is #1 by .01) of 18 blocked shots per game (Gophers/#42). That was clearly evident in the first meeting of these two teams, where Sparty blocked 24 and the Gophers only 5. As a result, Sparty’s block shot tirade this season has translated into a #18 NCAA ranking in fewest goals against per game at 2.43 (Gophers are #3/2.04). Another aspect of MSU’s game the Gophers will see a lot of this weekend is shot attempts and SOG. In their first game of the series in December (a tie with MSU winning the shootout), MSU attempted a whopping 95 shots (Gophers/91) with 33 of them landing on net.Overall, Sparty matches up fairly well with the Gophers with surprising team speed, physicality, a good transition game, and aggressive/heads up D that will attempt to keep shots on the perimeter by blocking a ton of shots. The talented freshman line of Ebbing, MacEachern and Haag have wheels and I expect this line to swarm the Gopher net and present another challenge for Wilcox to be his typical stellar-self this weekend. MSU is led by goal scoring leaders and upperclassmen, Greg Wolfe and Micheal Ferrantino, and both have the ability to get up and down the ice with good speed. Sophomore goalie Jake Hildebrand has played surprising well, despite MSU’s losing record of 8-12-3, with a 92.7 SV% (Wilcox/92.9 SV%).
MSU is coming off a disappointing sweep at home by Michigan, but kept it close in the first game losing with just over 2 min. left. Anastos was visibly ticked off afterwards and sounded off on his team’s poor play:
“I didn’t like our approach to the game. I felt it earlier in the day. I didn’t like it. It’s best that I’m careful what I say so that I don’t say too many stupid things, but we’ve got to grow up. You get humbled in your own building. You’ve got to take pride wearing that jersey representing the people you represent and it takes 100 percent commitment 100 percent of the time. We played a really good team who was ready to play, hungry to play, and they were hungrier to play than us – and that’s unacceptable. If you lose because you’re out-talented, that’s one thing, but if you’re not ready, that’s totally within your control and that’s on me to make sure that me and our staff find guys that are all in and tonight I didn’t feel we had that, and that’s bothersome to me.”
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