MSU hockey hosting No. 8 Notre Dame this weekend to kick off rigorous Big Ten stretch

Lansing State Journal

Michigan State sophomore forward Taro Hirose is checked by a Notre Dame player during a game last season. The Spartans and No. 8 Fighting Irish will play a two-game series Friday and Saturday nights at Munn Arena.

EAST LANSING – Michigan State hockey will begin its rigorous path through the Big Ten this weekend, facing No. 8-ranked Notre Dame at Munn Ice Arena.

The Spartans dropped to 4-4 after back-to-back losses on the road last weekend to now No. 19-ranked Arizona State. The latter of the two, a 2-0 defeat, was the first time MSU has been shut out this season.

MSU will play Big Ten games from this point on until the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 30-31. The Big Ten still has five teams ranked in the top 20 as it did at the start of the season, but Wisconsin has climbed up to be the team with the second most votes outside of the top 20. MSU, meanwhile, received one vote.

"It's a fun league to be in, given the excitement of the games and the intensity and the competition we play against," MSU coach Danton Cole said. "As we get better, it'll become even more fun."

Scouting the Irish

Notre Dame – the runner-up from last season's NCAA Tournament – sits at 5-4-1 and has already gotten a taste of Big Ten play, splitting two series with No. 6 Ohio State and No. 16 Michigan.

Notre Dame is led by senior forward Cal Burke, whose six goals and seven assists give him a team-high 13 points. Right behind him is senior defenseman Bobby Nardella, who has 12 points, and his five goals lead the NCAA in scoring for defensemen.

"They are real consistent and they don't beat themselves," Cole said. "They take what the game gives them. It's a very mature way to play the game of hockey and it's hard to convince guys to play that way.

"They can score six goals and beat you and they could score one goal and beat you. They are a very dangerous hockey team."

Maturity has been one of the focal points of the season for Cole's group – a roster comprised of 15 underclassmen compared to 13 upperclassmen and which regularly dresses and starts three freshman defensemen.

The lapses in maturity and patience have appeared here and there for the Spartans all season. For example, the Spartans' Big Ten-leading 84.6 percent penalty-kill rate is a tremendous step above their mark from last season. However, they have still taken 54 minor penalties in just 8 games – or 6.8 penalties per contest.

"We certainly need to play with more control out there and knowing the boundaries," said freshman forward Dennis Cesana, whose six points lead all MSU defensemen this season. "Calls are getting tighter and we have to be more conscious of it. It's something we can learn from and mature from and cut them down as the year goes on."

Notre Dame also returns two strong goaltenders in junior Cale Morris and sophomore Dylan St. Cyr. Morris is 3-4-1 on the year, while St. Cyr has won both contests he's started.

For the Spartans, junior John Lethemon is 4-2, and his four wins are tied for the most in the Big Ten right now.

A telling weekend

This weekend should be a good barometer of how well the Spartans are going to fare against their Big Ten foes. They play at home against a top 10 team that just split with two of the other better teams in the conference.

If the Spartans are able to get at least one win, or at the very least play competitively for a full 60 minutes with one of the best teams in the country on back-to-back nights, it's a step in the right direction.

"Seeing some people pick us last before the season, you know I carry it with me," MSU captain Sam Saliba said. "Like a lot of the teams here (at MSU), we carry a chip on our shoulder, too. We are focused on what we are doing here every day and improving every day, and it's our job to translate that into wins."

If MSU is going to have a successful season in the Big Ten, it might fall on the shoulders of its "KHL line" –– made up of junior forwards Patrick Khodorenko (K) and Taro Hirose (H), as well as sophomore Mitchell Lewandowski (L). The line has combined for 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists), which equates to 45 percent of the Spartans' total points.

Hirose leads the group with 14 points, good for fourth in the NCAA and third in the Big Ten behind Penn State's Nikita Pavlychev and Alex Limoges.

MSU's power-play has been on point this season as well, converting at a 26.5 percent (9-34) clip, with Khodorenko ranking second in the NCAA and first in the Big Ten with five man-advantage goals.

Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @Nathaniel_Bott