But in a do-or-die situation with their playoff lives on the line, the No. 5-seed Spartans gave up a big second period for the second consecutive night and fell to No. 4-seed Miami (Ohio) 4-1 on Saturday at Steve Cady Arena in Oxford, Ohio.

The loss eliminates the Spartans from the CCHA Tournament, and it advances Miami to the semifinal round next weekend at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

“It’s difficult because I’m sick about losing,” Anastos said. “I’m sick for the seniors, I’m sick for our team. And yet, we’re gonna deal with the loss because losing is not something we want to accept here. And yet, at the same time, we’re building some fundamental building blocks for our program to get back to the level we expect it to be at.”

In the first period, the teams traded power play goals in what was a closely contested matchup early on.

The game had a similar start in the first period, as Miami (Ohio) picked up the first tally of the game with senior defenseman Brock Shelgren in the penalty box. The RedHawks forced an odd-man rush up the right side of the ice to create pressure in front of senior goalie Drew Palmisano, and the team’s leading scorer, forward Reilly Smith, capitalized with a goal in the crease at 5:58 to give Miami a 1-0 advantage.

Later in the period, junior defenseman Torey Krug secured the equalizer to end a stretch of 175:28 without a goal against RedHawks goalie Connor Knapp. With the Spartans on a power play of their own, Krug picked up his own rebound on a shot in front of the net and put it by Knapp at 12:04 to knot the game at one goal apiece.

The goal was Krug’s 12th this season, and it set the Spartans up for a strong showing on the heels of a disappointing effort on Friday.

“We came out a lot stronger today,” junior forward Kevin Walrod said. “I think last night, they caught us sleeping, and tonight we woke up a bit. We did a lot of good things and competed hard the whole night.”

But almost in a flash, the game turned into a replay of Friday’s blowout, with the RedHawks scoring three of their four goals of the game in the second period.

Midway through the second period, Miami again would take the lead with a goal on the power play. As sophomore defenseman Jake Chelios sat in the penalty box on an interference call, defenseman Chris Wideman fired a slap shot goal from the high slot to regain the lead, 2-1.

Minutes later, forward Matt Tomassoni came off a stint in the penalty box to pick up the puck and scored to increase the lead once more. Capping a dominant period against the Spartans, forward Alden Hirschfeld beat Palmisano on a one-on-one opportunity in front of the next to build the largest lead of the evening at 4-1.

“It was a hard game again from start-to-finish,” junior forward Anthony Hayes said. “We knew what we were getting ourselves into, and unfortunately, we came up short again tonight. It wasn’t anything they did, this one’s on us again just like last night. We have to play harder, and we have a lot of steps to take if we want to be the team we can be.”

Although Palmisano made 38 saves in the game, the Spartans couldn’t overcome being outshot, 42-22, in the game and possibly will have to wait until next season to get the first playoff win of the Anastos era.

Despite sitting at tie for 14th in the PairWise Rankings — with the top 16 teams earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament — Anastos said he doesn’t like his team’s odds to earn the bid and play on this season.

“Tonight, we’re gonna deal with losing the game and losing the series and the disappointment that goes with it and learn from it and see what the future holds,” Anastos said. “I think we’re a long shot to try and get in the NCAA Tournament but we’ll have to wait and see.”