While MSU ice hockey (17-16-2, 11-7-2 Big Ten) didn’t accomplish all of its goals this season, it was still a step in the right direction — a big step.
For a program that has been in a rebuilding mode for the last three seasons, it looked early on as if the Spartans might suffer another mundane season. Everything changed around the New Year though, and MSU went 10-5-0 over its last 15 contests.
The impressive run was good enough to earn the Spartans second place in the Big Ten, and a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.
MSU’s eventual opponent in that semifinal game turned out to be University of Michigan. It was the third straight game that MSU played the Wolverines, and the sixth overall time in the season.
The Spartans ended up losing that matchup Friday night by a disappointing 4-1 score. It would have taken an unbelievable performance by junior goaltender Jake Hildebrand to keep the Spartans in the game. Even with the four goals allowed, the Big Ten Player of the Year still made 45 saves at Joe Louis Arena.
“My first two seasons here we knew it was going to be a process,” Hildebrand said. “And then this year, halfway through the season I feel like that was kind of the turning point. (It) leaves a bad taste in our mouth, but just how much harder you have to work over the summer to not have this feeling at this time.”
Junior captain Michael Ferrantino shared a similar sentiment to the Spartans’ star goaltender.
“Any time you don’t reach your goals at the end of the year, obviously you’re going to be hungry in the offseason,” Ferrantino said. “Especially losing to Michigan. I think that just fuels the fire even more.”
Senior forward Matt Berry scored the lone goal for the Spartans on Friday to tie the game 1-1 in the second period. It was the last game that Berry and four other MSU seniors will wear the Spartans’ green and white jersey.
“I’m looking forward to next year,” sophomore forward Joe Cox said. “Right now I’m just kind of down a little bit because we kind of let the seniors down for how much they gave us this year. I thought we had a lot more to give, a lot further to go, but now it’s just time to rebuild and come back next year with a stronger team.”
Still dealing with the fresh wound of a season-ending loss, head coach Tom Anastos had a hard time reflecting on the seniors’ time spent in East Lansing.
“They were part of that team that we had that went to the NCAA Tournament,” Anastos said. “They’ve been through the growing pains that we’ve had to experience over the past couple years.
“There’s certainly been highs and lows along the way, and I think they, like virtually all the guys that we have, really showed a resiliency, and I think that’s a characteristic of our team that pops up from time to time when necessary.”
MSU will certainly take some time over the next few weeks to look back on its puzzling season. There are certainly positives to carry over to next season, such as a defense that finished the regular season 12th in the nation in goals-against average.
However, there are also plenty of miscues and close losses that the Spartans can learn from and try to fix this offseason.
Whether it was a stagnant offense early in the season or learning how to deal with success late in the season, MSU gained valuable experience throughout the year.
As the Spartans prepare for their fifth season under Anastos in 2015-2016, their goals will be as high as ever. Not many outside the program thought MSU could finish second in the Big Ten this year, but it was still a goal for the Spartans to earn that first-round bye.
Cox said that if before the season, someone told him MSU would end up with that bye and a semifinals match against U-M, he would have taken in it a heartbeat.
Come next season, that might not be the case anymore.
