Meanwhile, the Spartans (12-12-2, 6-4-2-2 Big Ten) head into the weekend series playing some of their best hockey of the season. MSU is 8-3-1 over its last 12 games and 5-1 over its last six.

Even with the Spartans and Badgers sporting completely different records and levels of confidence, MSU can easily relate to what their conference adversary is going through.

“Wisconsin is a team that we can relate to having gone through a similar change a couple years ago when we lost 11 players,” head coach Tom Anastossaid. “I thought their team was of championship caliber last year. … They lost 11 players, that’s a big number to lose.”

With half of their roster gone from last year, the Badgers have been forced to push young, inexperienced players into key situations. They have faltered at times, as their record shows, but MSU knows they will be playing their best hockey at the end of the season.

“Forget about their record,” Anastos said. “They’re at home, they’ve gained experience, we were that team two years ago and our best hockey was played at this time of year.”

These are usually the types of games that coaches have to worry about their team overlooking an opponent. Given the fact that MSU was in the Badgers' position two years ago, the Spartans know how dangerous they actually are.

“We’ve been a team the last couple years that we thought was a lot better than our record showed, so we know how that is and how that feels,” junior captain Michael Ferrantinosaid. “Even though the last couple of years we weren’t where we wanted to be, there was still plenty of confidence going into those games and we thought that we could win any night, and I think they do too. That’s what makes them so dangerous is there’s no quit over there.”

Throughout the season, MSU has almost always played the same type of game, no matter the opponent. Whether it was an early season loss against Boston Universityor a win over U-M at Joe Louis Arena,, the Spartans play stout defense to pair with a hardworking offense. The key to both, and what will be key this weekend against Wisconsin, is keeping things simple and putting the team first.

“(Wisconsin’s) doing a lot better of late and they’re an improving team,” junior forward Matt DeBlouw said. “They’re gaining experience every single game and I think this weekend’s really going to be a good test because they’re home, we’re coming off a little bit of success and we can’t dwell on that. We just have to keep doing the little things we’ve been doing to succeed.”

With the weekend series taking place at the Kohl Center in Wisconsin,the games will begin at 9 p.m. EST  Friday and 8 p.m. EST Saturday. MSU is currently tied for third place in the Big Ten with 22 points,trailing first-place U-M and Minnesota by two points.