By Michael Caples –
EAST LANSING – The Michigan State Spartans had four different power-play opportunities in the first period of their Saturday night contest with the Miami RedHawks. They failed to capitalize on all four.
Miami took advantage of the Spartans’ inability to seize an early lead, scoring one goal in the second period, and three in the third, to post a 4-0 win at Munn Ice Arena.
“Well my opening comments are simple – disappointing performance by us, especially tonight, but all weekend,” coach Tom Anastos said to start his press conference. “And a major reason why is because I thought Miami played excellent. So I give the credit to them.”
Michigan State was held scoreless on eight power-play opportunities on Saturday. The night before, the Spartans were 0-5 with the man advantage in a 2-1 overtime loss.
Anastos said that there is “lots” to work on when it comes to the power play moving forward.
“We have to generate more meaningful scoring chances,” Anastos said. “We have to get pucks through. I thought Miami was really good, really good, at blocking shots. We’ve got to figure out a way to get pucks through. We have to get more traffic in front of the net. And in addition to getting shots through, we have to get second and third chances in front of the net, and so, we’ve been working on our power play every day, and we’re going to have to continue to spend more and more time on it.
“In any game when you get as many opportunities as we did on the weekend, and you come away with nothing, that’s not going to be good enough. It leads to lots of frustration.”
The loss bumps the Spartans’ record to 11-9-2, and 6-7-1-1 in conference play. Miami improves to 11-9-2, and 7-7-2-1 in the CCHA.
Reilly Smith, younger brother of Red Wings prospect Brendan Smith, opened the scoring at the 10:17 mark of the second period. While on the power play, Smith found the puck on his stick to the left of Will Yanakeff, and managed to beat the Spartans’ sophomore goaltender short-side.
Miami followed Smith’s second-period goal with three in the third. Tyler Biggs, Alden Hirschfeld, and Blake Coleman all scored to extend the RedHawks lead.
“Well, Miami’s a good team, they came out strong, and they definitely out-battled us,” assistant captain Trevor Nill said. “That’s something we have to work on. This second half is going to be a battle for us, and we need to step up our game. That’s what we’re going to work on next week, make sure that we pick up our pace, and that we win those battles down low. We need to take a look at the film, work harder, and come back ready for next week.”
Yanakeff had 40 saves on the night, while Miami’s Connor Knapp posted a 20-save shutout.
Nill said that the young Spartan team needs to improve on their mental toughness.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily injuries or lack of stamina, I think that at the end of the game it comes down to mental toughness,” Nill said. “That’s where we need to make sure we bear down and win every battle that we can. I think our stamina is there, the training staff has done a great job of keeping us as healthy as possible, it just comes down to us being mentally tough.”