By Stefan Kubus –
EAST LANSING – Coming off a hard-fought weekend series against Ohio State that ultimately saw the Michigan State Spartans get swept on home ice, the hunt for offensive production continues.
Shut out 1-0 last Friday and defeated 3-1 the next night by the Buckeyes, head coach Tom Anastos said he was disappointed that his team came away with zero points on home ice, essentially reiterating the evident need for goal production.
“Certainly, there were parts of both games that I thought we did a lot of good things and played pretty well,” Anastos said at his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon. “I thought our team defense continues to get better, and we’re trying to find some offense.
“We have to keep working. We’re going to try some different things to see if we can stimulate some offense. I do think our team is getting better in spite of not getting some meaningful, tangible results to show for it yet, so we have to stay the course.”
Freshman defenseman Travis Walsh, an East Lansing native, said he believes once the first goals do start coming for the Spartans, the floodgates will open for his teammates.
“Some guys are just snakebit, I think, right now,” Walsh said. “Once the first one goes in, it’s going to be a big weight off their shoulders and they’re going to start scoring a lot more.”
Walsh and fellow freshman defenseman John Draeger – a third-round pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2012 – have been a part of a solid, young defensive corps in East Lansing this season.
“Just because we’re not scoring doesn’t mean we’re doing anything wrong,” Draeger said of the Spartans’ offensive woes. “We’ve just got to find that back of the net. Get pucks to the net, keep doing the things we’re doing and when you get a good chance, you’ve got to bury. I think it’s more of a mental thing right now. I think we’re working hard and getting in the right spots. We’ve just got to have that mentality that you’re going to score when you get a good chance.”
With the offensive struggles they are currently working through, heading to South Bend to take on No. 4/5 Notre Dame (11-4-0; 7-1-0 CCHA) this coming weekend isn’t exactly what the doctor ordered. The Fighting Irish are the best defensive team in the CCHA with only 12 goals allowed. Offensively, they’re equally as strong, with 30 goals for in the conference, only one behind Ferris State’s 31.
Michigan State is 60-41-11 all-time against Notre Dame, and defeated the Fighting Irish in their final regular season game last season, 4-2, to snap an 11-game winless streak against them. In South Bend, MSU sports a 22-25-7 disadvantage to ND.
“Notre Dame is not just a good defensive team, I think they’re a good offensive team,” Anastos said. “I think that they’re playing with a lot of confidence. In the games that I’ve watched back, I think they’ve possessed the puck real hard in the offensive zone. They’re attacking you hard through the neutral zone, and they play a really good two-way style of hockey right now.
“They were a team that I picked to be right at the top of the country in the preseason, so I’m not surprised by what I’m seeing. I don’t think we’re just going to be tested in terms of trying to score. I think they’ll test us very much from their offensive approach, too.”