East Lansing, Mich. - Michigan State semi-enjoyed an old school tie, Thursday in the hockey season opener against Arizona State in a new-normal environment.
In a pandemic-induced empty Munn Ice Arena, the only sounds after each team’s goal in a 1-1 tie were the screams and shouts of teammates on the ice and from the bench. That made it feel a little bit like the youth hockey days for some of these guys, especially MSU’s Christian Krygier, who scored his first goal since juniors.
Five minutes of three-on-three overtime netted no goals and no great scoring chances.
With Arizona State playing as a Big Ten affiliate member this season, but not a full-fledged conference team, this game didn’t go to the Big Ten’s usual shootout stage to determine a winner.
Krygier gave Michigan State a 1-0 lead early in the second period. It was the first goal of his college career.
Arizona State tied the game with 15:46 left in regulation when Boston College transfer Chris Grando beat Michigan State goaltender Drew DeRidder after a brief lapse by Spartan defensemen following broken coverage in the corner.
Arizona State (0-2-1) lost two games at Michigan last weekend and played with desperation in the third period when trailing. At about that time, Michigan State (0-0-1) lacked mid-season gas, said head coach Danton Cole.
“I thought (our legs) were good in the first and second,” Cole said. “I thought in the third, they looked a little like practice legs at the end there. They (ASU) had a little more jump.
“I thought we defended well, but boy when you keep defending from those situations, that’s when a goal like that gets scored (by Grando). You get beat off the wall and guys don’t get back to the slot.
“It wasn’t much different than we thought it would be. But I liked the start, I liked what we did early. Coach Mason used to say, hey when the blood stops flowing to the brain, that’s when you start making mistakes. And I think you saw a little bit of that in the third.
“That’s something that will come around and I expect that to be better tomorrow.
“Overall, (we had) way more positives and lots of stuff to build on.”
Michigan State will face ASU in game two of the two-game series at 6 p.m. on Friday at Munn Ice Arena (Big Ten Plus).
FOUR TAKEAWAYS
1. Five of MSU’s 19 Skaters were Freshmen
Michigan State had a freshman center on the No. 1 line (Kristof Papp) and a freshman winter on the No. 2 line (A.J. Hodges).
Michigan State played two freshmen defensemen (Nash Nienhuis and Aiden Gallacher), and had a fourth-line forward (Kyle Haskins).
Michigan State has nine freshmen this year, including a pair of back-up goalies. That’s a big class, considering the Spartans had only three freshmen last year.
“There’s some nerves and things you have to shake out,” said sophomore Josh Nodler, who assisted on Krygier’s goal. “But they’ll learn quickly. There’s a lot of skill and smart players that we’ve got as freshmen.”
Hodges (6-0, 184, RW, Littleton, Colo.) seemed the most comfortable of the rookies.
He played on the No. 2 line with Nodler and Bemidji State graduate transfer Charlie Combs.
“He did a nice job with that line,” Cole said. “He distributes the puck and puts them on net. I think he’s going to make more plays offensively as it goes along and he understands where he has time and where things are created out there. He’s going to be fine.”
2. Krygier Was Feeling It
Krygier is a tough, responsible, stay-at-home defenseman.
“For a guy like me, I don’t score much,” said Krygier (6-2, 185, Jr., Novi). “I don’t know if I’ve scored a goal in the last three or four years.”
He won’t forget this one.
“It’s kind of like, ‘Finally,’” he said. “You remember doing it as a kid. Obviously scoring is so much fun. The puck went in, and I went into the corner and I was just pumped.”
Krygier jumped out of character a bit in racing with the puck toward the net prior to his goal. He was turned away by traffic. But then, as Nodler and Combs worked a give-and-go in the corner, Krygier said to himself, “as long as I have my speed up, I might as well wheel in again.”
Nodler worked behind the net and saw Krygier heading down the slot.
“I saw Nods running around the net. We work on it a lot in practice, hitting that D coming down. So I just followed my route, Nods gave it to me, and made contact with it and it went in.”
3. Confidence Is Up
The Spartans feel they let a victory slip away, but are optimistic they’ll see improvement in Game Two.
“I thought we outplayed them about 75 percent of the game,” Krygier said. “And the times that they out-played us, they worked us pretty well but I think the majority of the time we were in control and that was our game to lose.”
Michigan State outshot ASU 13-7 in the first period but just 26-23 for the game.
“On the defensive side, not bad. Neutral zone was okay, but our transitional defense, I didn’t think our last two forwards did a very good job and I think we missed a lot of opportunities of shutting down some of their rushes in transition. We always talk about speed, then read. I think we were looking around to see what was happening, and then it’s a little too late. But that’s something that guys will learn.
“We’ll tighten those up tomorrow. The guys’ legs will be a little bit better in the second game, just from … we haven’t done this in eight months. It’s just different.”
4. DeRidder Was Solid
DeRidder made 22 saves and came up big a handful of times.
DeRidder (5-11, 175, Fenton) split duty somewhat evenly with John Lethemon two years ago. Last year, Lethemon became the every-day goalie and DeRidder saw action in only four games.
This year marks the first time DeRidder has been the undisputed No. 1 goalie. That status can change in a hurry in this sport. It’s not likely to change after this game.
“I thought Drew did real well,” Cole said. “He bailed us out when he needed to. He probably wants one more save, but that (goal) is not on him. He played a real strong game, got us some whistles when we needed it, took care of his rebounds. He was pretty tidy.”