MSU seeing offensive production from freshman class
By Alyssa Girardi –
EAST LANSING – When looking for potential future Spartans, Tom Anastos swears by the recruiting philosophy of “recruit offense, teach defense.”
It was the general rule when the MSU head coach played for the Spartans from 1982-85, and it’s been a philosophy he’s gone by during his coaching career. With the offensive woes MSU faced last season — averaging just 2.07 goals per game and 25.6 shots per game — an importance is placed on bringing in offensively talented players.
“Find guys who have certain skill sets … and teach them to play defense,” Anastos said. “Certainly, there’s hockey intellect to playing defense, but a lot of it comes down to just being committed and competing relentlessly and working hard. But it’s hard to turn somebody who’s never really scored goals and creates offense into an offensive type player.”
And if offensive type players are what the Spartan coaching staff is looking for, it found a couple of them in this year’s freshmen class.
MSU added six new players this year: forwards Thomas Ebbing (Troy), Mackenzie MacEachern (Troy), Villiam Haag, Joe Cox (Chelsea) and JT Stenglein and defensemen Chris Knudson. Redshirt freshmen defensemen Rhett Holland and Brock Krygier (Novi) and forward Connor Wood (Bloomfield Hills) have also joined the lineup after sitting out last season.
Of the five true freshmen forwards, four have scored at least a goal this season. A two-goal performance in Sunday’s 4-1 win against American International College by MacEachern puts him at the front of the pack with three goals.
His tallies helped MSU to a sweep over AIC and the team’s third consecutive win.
“Getting those two goals helped me get some confidence, but also helped our line because we got a bunch of chances in previous games but never got the results,” MacEachern said.
Cox has two goals and one assist for three points, and Haag and Stenglein have a goal apiece. Cox’s first collegiate goal was the game winner in MSU’s 3-1 win against then-No. 13/14 Boston University on Oct. 26.
While Ebbing has yet to put one up on the scoreboard, he has two assists so far — both of which were helpers to MacEachern’s goals on Sunday.
“They’ve been doing a great job,” said captain and senior forward Greg Wolfe (Canton). “It’s a good group. They come here, they’re ready to work — they’re on the ice early, they stay out after. You can tell that they really want it; they really want to get better every day. They’ve been working really hard and obviously the results are showing.”
The young group’s contribution is part of a greater emphasis by the coaches on creating offensive opportunities. Despite a rocky three-game losing streak to start the season, the team already is blowing past last season’s scoring statistics.
The Spartans are averaging 35 shots on goal per game and have outshot their opponents 210-176, including a 82-56 gap in first-period shooting. MSU looks to build on its recent success as the team travels to Michigan Tech for a two-game road series on Nov. 8 and 9.
“Our goal is not to get these guys to focus on scoring, as much as just focus on learning to play hard and the scoring opportunities will result from that,” Anastos said. “I know it sounds cliche, but you’re so focused on the process of getting the result rather than focusing on the result and when you do those kinds of things, you get more opportunities and pucks will eventually go in the net.”