Spartans beat Western Ontario 4-1 in season opener
By Alyssa Girardi –
EAST LANSING – Villiam Haag summed up what the MSU coaching staff has been preaching for months: if you want to score goals, you have to shoot.
The message was clear, and in Wednesday night’s exhibition against Western Ontario, it appeared it had sunk it with the Spartans as they defeated the Mustangs, 4-1.
“You have to score goals,” the freshman forward, a native of Gothenburg, Sweden, said. “If you don’t shoot, you don’t score. (We) try to keep moving our sticks and shoot as soon as we get the chance and go to the goal for rebounds.”
Head coach Tom Anastos has been preaching the sentiment after the team had struggled with finding the back of the net last season. In the exhibition win, MSU put 47 total shots on net, crushing its pregame aim at 35 shots.
The last time MSU put up at least 47 shots in the regular season was Feb. 11, 2011 when the Spartans put up 52 shots against Northern Michigan.
In his mission of looking for shots, Haag lead the team with 6 and also opened up scoring for MSU after redirecting a slapshot from the blueline by junior defenseman RJ Boyd.
“When I arrived here, you always dreamed about scoring in front of the student section,” Haag said. “When I see the puck go in, I just feel so happy. It was so exciting. I came here to be a part of the energy in the campus like this, and the big crowed. I’m just really excited and happy for the team to do this.”
After taking a medical redshirt last season, senior Dean Chelios (Bloomfield Hills) marked MSU’s second tally 44 seconds into the third period in his first game in more than a year. He skated the puck into Western Ontario’s zone and sniped a wrister from the right circle. Assists went to captain and senior forward Greg Wolfe (Canton) and freshman defenseman Chris Knudson.
After being tripped on a breakout play, Michael Ferrantino (Plymouth) was awarded a penalty shot in which he beat Western Ontario goaltender Marc Nother in his five-hole.
He helped MSU notch another goal while on the penalty kill about eight minutes later. Ferrantino skated the puck into Western Ontario’s zone and tapped it to Joe Cox (Chelsea), who was wide open above the crease.
“I said ‘You come in there and think shot,’” Anastos said. “‘You think shot and if someone’s open and you hear them, then you’ll make the play.’”
Western Ontario’s only goal of the game came at 9:43 of the third period, when Steven Reese skated around the perimeter of MSU sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand’s crease and lifted the puck over him. Hildebrand stopped 20 of 21 shots.
The Spartans played six true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen, and they were evenly distributed throughout the roster with veteran counterparts.
Troy, Mich., natives Mackenzie MacEachern and Thomas Ebbing were on a line with Brent Darnell, and JT Stenglein and Cox were matched with Ferrantino. Haag played with Ryan Keller (Farmington Hills) and Matt DeBlouw (Chesterfield).
Blueliners Rhett Holland, Brock Krygier and Chris Knudson were part of the constantly rotating defensive pairings.
“I think they looked good,” Wolfe said of the freshmen. “They’re pretty different players, but I think they all brought kind of a unique thing to the game. … They look like they’re adjusting well, and hopefully they continue progressing going into the beginning of the season.”
With injuries throughout the roster last year, the coaching staff was left without enough healthy players to put in the lineup for some games. Wednesday, MSU made four healthy scratches, and the exhibition lineup was a taste of what last season lacked: steep competition for playing time.
“If we can start to build a little bit of depth and we’re building that competition on the team, guys are going to have to perform of they’re gonna find that those spots in the lineup are very valuable,” Anastos said.