Unfortunately, this opponent turned out to be No. 7 seed Michigan — a team that hit its peak at the right time and entered the weekend series playing its best hockey of the year.
And the Wolverines, who played with walk-on goaltender Shawn Hunwick in net and without captain Chris Summers, had their way with the Spartans this weekend, earning a weekend sweep with two dominating wins. Friday, the Spartans fell, 5-1, and Saturday was the same story, with MSU losing 5-3.

The weekend sweep all but eliminates MSU from receiving an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament and likely ends the Spartans’ season.

Although the Spartans defeated the Wolverines three-out-of-four times during the regular season, MSU head coach Rick Comley acknowledged the improvement U-M displayed down the stretch of the season.

“They cranked it,” Comley said of U-M. “They have three lines with 30 goals, 30 goals and 40 goals. The only other team we’ve seen play at that caliber is Wisconsin. Even Miami (Ohio) I don’t think is as good as that team is playing right now.”

Because of the Wolverines dismal regular season, they need to win the CCHA Tournament to receive a bid into the NCAA Tournament, which would be as the CCHA’s automatic qualifier.

And that extra motivation had the Wolverines playing their best hockey of the year.

“I thought we were a much better team this weekend than we were all year,” U-M head coach Red Berenson said. “I think our game is coming together.”

Fluke accident
Junior forward Corey Tropp injured his ankle when he stepped on a puck during warm-ups Saturday. The injury prevented Tropp from dressing in the Spartans’ must-win game.

Tropp’s 20 goals tied for the league best, and he established himself as the Spartans’ go-to offensive threat throughout the regular season.

Freshman forward Kevin Walrod started in Tropp’s place on the first line. Walrod hadn’t played in four straight games entering Saturday’s matchup.

“It’s definitely disappointing to see one of your top players going down,” freshman defenseman Torey Krug said. “But Walrod did an unbelievable job stepping in. We had the leadership and the guys to help us maintain our heads. There was a little buzz in there with Walrod stepping in and coming out without a warm-up.”

Bye, bye
Prior to the U-M series, the Spartans only had played four games in a span of 33 days.

The scheduled bye weekend after the team’s trip to Alaska, coupled with the bye the Spartans earned for finishing second in the regular season standings, resulted in the Spartans finding themselves out of sync this weekend against U-M.

MSU came out extremely flat in Friday’s game and fell behind three goals before the end of the first period. The same was true on Saturday, as U-M tallied two quick goals early in the opening frame.

Comley said the bye weekends late in the season hurt, more than helped, his team.

“Byes can work different ways,” Comley said. “I don’t think it’s a good system. I don’t think it’s good for anybody. Unfortunately for us, we had two byes in a month.”