With the six points earned this weekend, MSU moved past idle No. 14 Michigan (10-6-2, 2-2-0) into third place in the league standings. Head coach Tom Anastos called the sweep a “mission accomplished” in keeping the Spartans in the thick of the Big Ten championship race.

“We want to stay in the mix and these were important points to leave the weekend with, and get us in the middle of that Big Ten race,” Anastos said.

No. 1 Minnesota (17-2-3, 7-0-1) and No. 9 Wisconsin (13-6-1, 4-2-0) are the only teams MSU trails in the conference. Through eight games, MSU is the only team in conference play to earn points when facing Minnesota.

There were plenty of other firsts for MSU, including senior forward Dean Chelios finding the back of the net on Friday for the first time since Feb. 25, 2012.

Chelios said he wasn’t too focused on getting the monkey off his back, but considered it nice to get others to stop talking about it.

“I’m more of a passer-first guy anyway, so I wasn’t too concerned about that,” Chelios said. “But after (hearing) other people talking about it for a few games now, it was kind of bothering me that they were talking about it. So it was nice to get them to shut up.”

Sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand also reached a career milestone in Friday night’s game.

The Pennsylvania native recorded his second shutout of the season, but more importantly, had a career-high 48 saves on the night.

Saturday’s win didn’t come as easy as the night before, with the Nittany Lions keeping the game close until the final buzzer.

Penn State tied the game within the first two minutes of the third period, but it only took 2:33 before senior forward Lee Reimer ultimately scored the game-winning goal.

The game-winning goal was Reimer’s second of the weekend, finishing with two goals and two assists in the two games.

Anastos said following Saturday’s game he was pleased about Reimer’s recent play, stressing that he wants Reimer to continue to shoot the puck more and generate scoring opportunities.

Like Chelios, junior forward Tanner Sorenson scored his first goal of the season against Penn State on Saturday.

The all-senior forward line of Chelios, Reimer and Greg Wolfe played a huge role in the outcome of both games. On Friday, each of them had one goal and two assists in the win, accounting for all three Spartan goals. Each had an additional point on Saturday, as well.

“It was nice to see that senior line score some goals because they have been playing hard,” Anastos said. “They have been generating some scoring chances and the puck hasn’t gone in, so I was hoping the puck would go in before they started pressing.”

Following Saturday’s win, Reimer was pleased with MSU’s play to pick up the two wins and the direction the team is heading with one of its biggest series of the year coming up this week against in-state rival U-M.

“It feels great, it’s good for our team, good for our team’s confidence,” Reimer said. “Basically, we wanted to get six points this weekend and getting our first Big Ten actual win yesterday, and now getting that full sweep is good momentum going into Michigan next week.”