After 3-1 start, Spartans travel to face national runners-up, No. 1 Redhawks

The Miami (Ohio) hockey team was a minute away from a national championship last season.

But, somehow, the team let a commanding lead slip through their grasp, allowed two goals in the final minute of regulation and lost the game in overtime to Boston.

So it should come as no surprise Miami began this season hot, starting out 3-0-1.

“They will use the championship game loss as major motivation,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “There is a great carryover of success and they are a legit team. Anyone that beats them is going to have to earn it.”

The Spartans (3-1-0) look to be the first team to upset the No. 1 RedHawks when they open CCHA play in Oxford, Ohio, for a two-game series starting Friday.

Last season, the Spartans split with Miami on the road, and Comley said the RedHawks “just beat us up to death.”

Miami returns five of its top six scorers from last season, but the Spartans aren’t too shabby offensively, either. They’re currently sitting in a first-place tie in scoring offense, averaging 4.5 goals per game.

Junior forward Corey Tropp leads MSU’s offense — and the conference — with nine points (four goals, five assists) and said this weekend should help grade the Spartans’ progress so far this season.

“How we do against Miami will give us a good picture of where we are as a club,” he said.

After watching film, the Spartans expect two high-paced, high-energy games.

“They really pressure you hard and come at you full-force,” senior forward and co-captain Nick Sucharski said. “They don’t give you any time to make decisions.”

The series against Miami marks the second-straight weekend the Spartans will be on the road — an experience Sucharski said benefits the young squad.

“The atmosphere in Maine was a great atmosphere to play in and it will help us in the future,” Sucharski said. “They are really on top of your goalie and really on top of you. They heckle you pretty hard. Miami will be the same atmosphere and intensity.”

The freshman class, which has recorded 17 points so far this season, is excited to get a crack at the No. 1 team in the country early in the year.

“You can tell, especially by the pace of practice this week, that everyone understands what we have in front of us this weekend,” freshman forward Anthony Hayes said.

Comley said it would be a huge morale boost for the program to win the two games.

“It’s another key step to get back at the level we want to be at, which I think we are going to be at before it’s all said and done,” Comley said.