Michigan
Michigan State
Wolverines Set for Weekend Clash with In-State Rival MSU
2/7/2018 6:24:00 PM | Ice Hockey
THIS WEEK
Friday, Feb. 9Â -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 7:05 p.m.
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Saturday, Feb.10Â -- vs. Michigan State (Detroit, Mich.), 7 p.m.
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• Complete Game Notes -- Feb. 9
• Complete Game Notes -- Feb. 10
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 19 University of Michigan ice hockey team (13-13-2, 8-10-2-1 B1G) is set to face off with Michigan State (10-17-1, 4-13-1-1 B1G) in a Big Ten Conference clash. The two teams will kick off the weekend series on Friday (Feb. 9) in East Lansing, followed by a matchup at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday (Feb. 10) for the annual "Duel in the D."
The Michigan State Series
Michigan and Michigan State will meet for the 313th time since 1925, with U-M holding a 158-133-21 record over MSU in the all-time series. The two teams first met on Jan. 24, 1925, as the Wolverines defeated the Spartans by a score of 6-3. On the road, the Wolverines trail 50-67-10 in the all-time series, while holding a 35-21-7 record against the Spartans at neutral sites.
Earlier this season, Michigan split a home-and-home series against Michigan State, defeating its in-state rival, 4-0, in Ann Arbor (Dec. 7) before falling, 5-0, the following night (Dec. 8) in East Lansing.
The two teams met again in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at Little Caesars Arena for the 53rd-annual Great Lakes Invitational. The Maize and Blue came out victorious (6-4) in the first meeting between the programs at Hockeytown's new home.
Scouting the Spartans
The Spartans are led by head coach Danton Cole, who is in his first season behind the bench for Michigan State. From 2010-17, he coached for the U.S. National Team Development Program with the U-17 and U-18 teams. Prior to that, Cole spent three seasons in the NCAA as the head coach of Alabama-Huntsville, where he went 23-59-12.
Michigan State was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten this season in the Big Ten Preseason Poll. Michigan State comes into this rivalry series following a weekend series split at Ohio State. The Buckeyes took the first contest on Friday night (Feb. 2) by a score of 4-2 before MSU earned revenge with a 6-3 victory on Saturday night (Feb. 3). The Spartans head into the weekend with an overall record of 10-17-1 (4-13-1-1 B1G).
Leading Michigan State
Michigan State is led by sophomore forward Taro Hirose and freshman forward Mitch Lewandowski, who have accumulated 31 and 28 points on the season, respectively. Hirose leads the Spartans with 22 assists, while Lewandowski has scored a team-high 15 goals. In addition, sophomore forward Patrick Khodorenko has chipped in with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists).
In net, sophomore John Lethemon has played in 27 games this season while starting 25 of them. He has allowed 68 goals, an average of 2.78 per game and saved 634 shots for a .903 save percentage. In addition, senior Ed Minney has made six appearances with three starts.
Split at Yost
The Wolverines came away with a split against the then No.18 Wisconsin Badgers last weekend in Ann Arbor. Michigan took the first game of the series, 5-3, on Friday night (Feb.2) before falling, 4-2, on Saturday night (Feb.3).
On Friday, the Badgers opened up the scoring before the Wolverines answered with a goal from junior blue-liner Joseph Cecconi, his fourth of the season. Following Cecconi's goal, junior forward Cooper Marody extended Michigan's lead to 2-1, and sophomore forward Jake Slaker added another goal in the first period giving the Wolverines a 3-1 advantage going into the first intermission. Michigan added another goal in the second period thanks to freshman forward Jack Becker, but the Badgers also found the back of the net, making the score 4-2 heading into the final period. Wisconsin got another goal back, but freshman forward Dakota Raabe sealed the Maize and Blue victory with an empty-net goal in the final minute of play.
Michigan could not complete the comeback on Saturday as they fell to the Badgers, 4-2, in the finale of the series. Wisconsin jumped out to a 4-0 lead within the first two periods of play, prompting a switch in net for the Wolverines. Sophomore Jack LaFontaine came in for fellow classmate Hayden Lavigne following the fourth goal allowed. Michigan scored its first goal in the second period off the stick of Slaker and another goal in the third from Becker. Despite opportunities throughout the third period, Michigan was not able to score again.
Three in Two for 13
Sophomore forward Jake Slaker picked up three points this past weekend against Wisconsin. His two points on Saturday gave him his sixth multi-point game of the year, which ranks third on the team behind Cooper Marody and Tony Calderone.
Four Points = Third Star
Freshman forward Jack Becker's two goals and two assists against Wisconsin over the past weekend earned him the Big Ten Third Star of the Week honor (Feb. 6). This marks the seventh time this season a Wolverine has been named a Big Ten Star of the Week.
Raabe Getting Rabid
Freshman forward Dakota Raabe has recorded three points in his last five games, after not picking up a single point in his first 16 games. Raabe has also compiled a +2 rating over his past five games while seeing significant time on the U-M penalty-kill unit.
Double Digit DMC
Dexter Dancs, Cooper Marody, and Tony Calderone head into the weekend with 10 points each against Michigan State, the most of any current players. The trio combined for seven points in the last meeting with the Spartans (Jan. 2), including a hat-trick from Marody.
Run DMC
Michigan's "DMC" line of Dancs, Marody and Calderone have combined for 78 points out of a total of 238 team points (32.7 percent) through 28 games.
Tony Lights the Lamp
Calderone's 15 goals are the most by a U-M player in the first 28 games of a season since Tyler Motte's 28 goals in 28 games during the 2015-16 campaign.
Marody in Good Company
Marody's 32 points are the most by a Wolverine through 28 games since Kyle Conner had 50 in 2015-2016
Quinntessential Blue liner
Freshman defenseman Quinn Hughes' 16 points (1g, 15a) from the point are the most by a U-M freshman blue liner through 28 games since Zach Werenski had 23 points through that span in 2014-15.
Climbin' the Ranks
Marody ranks tied for 16th nationally with 32 points on the season and tied for 13th with 22 assists. Calderone is tied for 16th nationally with 15 goals.
U-M in the 313
Michigan is 114-64-6 (63.7 percent) all-time in the city of Detroit, dating back to the 1922-23 season (first year of varsity competition) when U-M was defeated by Assumption College, 4-1, on Belle Isle. Little Caesars Arena is the fifth rink that the Wolverines have played at in Detroit (Belle Isle, Olympia Stadium, Joe Louis Arena and Comerica Park).
PairWise Watch
The PairWise ranking is a system that is used to mimic the criteria the selection committee for the NCAA tournament uses by the selection committee. The PairWise compares teams based on record against common opponents, head-to-head and ratings percentage index. Teams are awarded points based on how many comparisons they win against other schools. The top 16 teams make the NCAA tournament, but if a conference tournament champion is not in the top 16, the 16th place team gets bumped and so on until the conference tournament champions and the top of the rankings makes a field of 16. Michigan's 44 PairWise points are good for the 16th spot, placing it right on the bubble.
GOAL!
Michigan ranks 14th in the nation in goals per game, averaging 3.21 goals over its first 28 games. Calderone ranks tied for 20th in the nation in goals per game at 0.54.
Block It Out
Michigan ranks fifth nationally with an average of 14.89 blocked shots per game and seventh in total blocked shots with 417 on the season.
SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS
Michigan ranks 10th nationally with an average of 33.00 shots on goal per game, and is 20th in the nation with a +2.54 shots-on-goal margin per game.
U-M in the Olympics
Michigan hockey will be present at the XXIII Winter Olympic Games as Wolverine alums Chad Kolarik (2005-08) will represent the U.S. and Andrew Ebbett (2002-06) will be part of Team Canada. They become the 15th and 16th Wolverines to compete in hockey at the Winter Olympics (eight for USA; four for Canada; one for Austria; one for Japan; and one for Sweden).
For Matzka
Michigan hosted its second-annual ALS Awareness game on Saturday (Feb. 2). The game was played in honor of former Wolverine Scott Matzka '01, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2015. To learn more about Matzka's story visit www.ScottMatzka.com and Twitter #MYTURN4ALS.
Up Ahead
Michigan will head to South Bend, Indiana, to kick off a home-and-home series against Notre Dame on Friday (Feb.16) at Compton Family Ice Arena. They will return to Ann Arbor on Sunday (Feb. 18) for the second game of the series at Red Berenson Rink at Yost Ice Arena to conclude the 2017-18 Big Ten conference schedule. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. on Friday and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
