The sweep extended the Spartans’ unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1), while the Wolverines now have lost four straight games.

“If you can beat them, everybody feels good,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “It’s a good feeling around here.”

Junior forward Dustin Gazley said sweeping the Wolverines is more than a “good feeling” — he said it’s “one of the best feelings ever.”

“The MSU vs. U-M hockey rivalry is the biggest rivalry ever,” Gazley said. “A sweep this weekend was huge and all the guys are loving it.”

U-M head coach Red Berenson wasn’t happy with his team’s performance on the weekend, calling the Wolverines “fragile” after Friday’s loss and saying the team is “in a dilemma” after MSU completed the sweep Saturday night.

All eyes were on junior forward Corey Tropp this weekend. After last season’s slashing incident on U-M senior defenseman Steve Kampfer, coaches, fans, players and media were interested to see how both players would react when matched up against each other.

But neither of the games were chippy. The only hostility between the two players came after Friday’s game when they refused to shake hands. But on Saturday, they met at center ice, shook hands and gave each other a pat on the chest.

In Friday’s victory at Yost Ice Arena, Tropp netted one of the prettiest goals of the season. He dragged the puck back, went 1-on-1 against Kampfer and released a wrist shot that was in and out of the net in a blink of an eye. His goal quieted the rowdy U-M crowd, who had been booing him all night.

“He was great,” Comley said of Tropp. “At U-M that’s a really tough situation for a young kid to handle. I thought their crowd was fine and I thought everything was fair. The building was well run. I thought both teams let it go.”

After Friday’s narrow victory, the Spartans (9-2-1 overall, 6-1-1 CCHA) knew they would have their hands full when the Wolverines made the voyage to East Lansing to try and avoid the sweep.

But the MSU fans came out in hordes to support the Spartans. Saturday’s crowd of 7,099 hockey fans was the fifth largest crowd in the history of Munn Ice Arena.

And they made their presence felt throughout the game.

“Going out onto the ice for the start of the game, I got chills coming out in the smoke and seeing 7,000 plus (fans),” said sophomore goaltender Drew Palmisano, who is from Ann Arbor. “When everyone was on their feet cheering, it was something I’ll never forget.”

Palmisano was the difference-maker in Saturday’s game, stopping 31 shots en route to his second career shutout. He called the sweep over the Wolverines “up there” as one of the best weekends of his hockey career.

On the weekend, the Spartans capitalized on U-M defensive miscues. Both of the Spartans’ goals Saturday night, and one goal Friday, were the results of U-M turnovers.

“There are times when your defense isn’t playing well and they’re turning the puck over,” Berenson said Saturday. “You saw that tonight with two costly goals. And there are times when your forwards can’t score, and you saw that tonight.”

Entering the weekend, MSU had the best power play in the conference, going 15-for-59 (25.4 percent).

But the story of the weekend was the penalty killing of both teams, as neither team surrendered a power play goal. MSU went 0-for-9 on the power play, while U-M was 0-for-11.

Palmisano credited the crowd for helping the Spartans kill penalties Saturday night, resulting in the Wolverines going 0-for-5.

“All weekend long, the penalty kill was great,” Palmisano said. “We read their passes and cleared all the pucks we could. We didn’t leave too many loose pucks in the corner. The crowd was a big part of it tonight and really helped us out.”

Comley said he was ecstatic with the weekend sweep, but recognizes the importance of coming back down to earth, especially because it’s a short week for the Spartans, as MSU hosts No. 8 Notre Dame on Thursday at Munn Ice Arena.

“Coming into practice on Monday, I’m sure everyone will refocus and have our sights set on Notre Dame,” freshman forward Chris Forfar said. “They are a great team coming in, and we won’t take them lightly.”