Freshman defenseman Carson Gatt, junior defender John Draeger, junior forward Michael Ferrantino, and senior forward Matt Berry celebrate a goal scored by Ferrantino Nov. 14, 2014, during the game against Boston College at Munn Ice Arena. The Spartans lost to the Eagles, 3-2. Erin hampton/The State News
—After splitting all five of their two-game series this season, MSU hockey (5-8, 1-1 Big Ten) will look to string together two wins this weekend. With preseason Big Ten favorite No. 3/6 Minnesota (8-4, 0-0 Big Ten) coming to town, the Spartans will face a daunting task. Still, MSU has found some success against the Gophers recently.
MSU and Minnesota will drop the puck at 7 p.m. on Friday before facing off again Saturday at 5 p.m.
In the four matchups last season, MSU went 0-2-2 against last year's national runner-up. All four games came down to the wire, with MSU winning the shootout in both ties and losing one-goal games in the other two.
Always looking to take the next step forward as a program, head coach Tom Anastos will be looking to notch a couple early victories over the Gophers.
"I'm confident our guys will be ready to play," Anastos said. "We had everybody playing hard in our lineup [last year]. That's a really important focal point for us - we need to get everybody going every night. It can't be two groups or four [defensemen], it's got to be everybody."
With the Gophers reeling a little bit coming into East Lansing (1-4 in their last five), the Spartans could slightly overlook their talented, experienced opponents. According to sophomore forward Villiam Haag, however, MSU knows how dangerous of a team Minnesota really is.
"We know that Minnesota is a really good team, on the paper and all the times we've played against them," Haag said. "Everyone is prepared that we have got to step up and do our best game...The whole team's going in with a mentality that we've got to work as hard as we can to beat these guys."
Having the confidence of last year's results is sure to help the belief and attitude of the Spartans heading into this game. And even though the Gophers are a top-ranked team, the Spartans early season schedule has them used to battling top teams.
"We know coming in we can play with them and we can compete," junior captain Michael Ferrantino said. "A lot of it is just carrying it over. Doing the things we did well last year and then improving on the things we didn't do so well, so that way we can get wins in regulation and have more success."
Outside of the Gophers, there is a great deal of parody in the Big Ten this season. Getting two wins, or even one, against a stout Minnesota would go a long way in determining MSU's standing in the conference. Anastos is pushing for a similar performance his team gave last year against the Gophers, but hopefully with better results.
"Last year when we played them, for whatever reason, both here and there, we played some of out better hockey all season long," Anastos said. "I'm hoping that's the kind of effort we'll see this weekend."
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
