But with the late lead in the third period, MSU gave up a goal at 15:51 to force overtime, where the Spartans lost in the shootout, 2-1.

It’s easy to pick holes in the team’s performance, but head coach Tom Anastos said he couldn’t fault his team’s effort for the weekend.

“Giving up the goal late like that is a tough pill to swallow, but they made a good play. They made a good play,” Anastos said. “I thought we had a chance — (sophomore forward Greg Wolfe) had a real good chance in overtime to win it, and they made a good stop. It was a good hockey game, just not quite the result we had hoped for.”

Junior forward Dean Chelios noticed a discernible difference between Friday’s win and Saturday’s tie. Coming off a six-game homestand where the Spartans went 2-2-2, Chelios echoed Anastos’ words of improving to the point where it finds a good result along with a strong effort in the process each weekend.

“They’re a lot bigger than us, and we played tough and did a good job,” Chelios said. “I think we competed a little bit harder after (Friday) — we came out a little flat (Friday). I think we did a good job but unfortunately we didn’t get the end result. It’ll come.”

The Spartans’ (13-9-4, 8-7-3-2) overtime and powerplay woes continued in the series with LSSU.

MSU has made five trips to overtime in its last nine games including Saturday’s game. With the tie, the Spartans now have gone winless in their last five attempts, accumulating three shootouts and two losses.

The powerplay dry spell also has been a focal point of criticism for the team as of late.

Despite a strong effort against Laker goalie Kevin Kapalka, the Spartans were scoreless in five attempts on the weekend — including nine minutes of powerplay in the second period on Saturday. MSU now has gone without a goal in 26 consecutive powerplay chances, spanning the length of seven games.

Anastos said the team’s lack of success on the powerplay comes as much from his team pressing to get a goal as the solid penalty killing of its recent opponents.

“We’re trying to tell them not to press, just keep going out and keep working,” Anastos said. “Where it affected us is just the rhythm that we had. We had four lines going; we had lots of tempo. I thought it took us out of that rhythm. … You tire certain guys out because they’re going out over and over again and (LSSU) fed off it.”

A win and a tie on the weekend moves the Spartans back to where they started — in eighth place. However, they sit just four points out of second place and six points out of first heading on a four-game road trip.

But the road to the top of the conference won’t get much easier for the Spartans as they prepare No. 13 Ferris State and No. 5 Ohio State in the next two weekends.

Senior forward Trevor Nill said the team needs to “bear down mentally” to make sure it picks up the points it needs down the stretch.

“It’s always frustrating to lose a series, especially like that,” Nill said. “Like I said, next weekend, we need to bounce back, have a good week of practice. We’re going into Ferris State, which is always a tough place to play, but we’re going to work hard and try to go get six from them.”