The MSU hockey team fell flat on its face Friday night. But, to the Spartans' credit, they stood up, dusted themselves off and actually took a baby step forward in the CCHA standings this weekend.
With a series split against Miami (Ohio), the Spartans rose from fifth to fourth place in the league. They are two points behind Michigan, three back of Ohio State and six behind Ferris State.
The split was acceptable as far as furthering MSU's goal of earning home-ice advantage in the first round of the CCHA Tournament. To do so, the Spartans (15-10-2 overall, 11-7-1 CCHA) must finish in the top six in the league standings.
But Friday's 5-3 loss to the RedHawks (16-12-2, 10-10-2) not only snapped MSU's unbeaten streak at seven games (6-0-1), it also subdued MSU's faint hopes of winning the league title.
"Last night was a little bit of a letdown," MSU head coach Rick Comley said Saturday. "We weren't going to go undefeated, obviously, and it's hard when you've been going a month with must-win, must-win, must-win games. It's been like that since (Jan. 4) Lake Superior.
"But we moved back into fourth place, and that's exactly what we're trying to do right now - creep up the ladder."
The Spartans rebounded from Friday's loss with a hard-fought, come-from-behind 3-2 win Saturday. After falling behind 2-0, senior left wing Brian Maloney, freshman left wing David Booth and sophomore right wing Mike Lalonde combined for three unanswered goals to propel MSU to victory.
"We're a little bit unsatisfied with the split," Lalonde said. "You're at home, you've got to be ready to play. Obviously, we weren't Friday night and you can think of all the excuses you want, but we just didn't work hard enough."
Sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio, who Comley said didn't play well Friday, made 31 saves in Saturday's winning effort. His head-first dive across the crease to deny Miami forward Matt Medvecz's rebound shot preserved MSU's lead with 1:15 to play.
"I thought Miami was one of the toughest teams we played all year," Migliaccio said. "Not getting riled and coming back like that showed a lot of character in our team."
As it turned out, the Spartans would be tied for third place with U-M if they had beaten Miami on Friday. The Wolverines split their home-and-home series with Ferris, which paved the way for MSU to move up with a sweep. Although it didn't happen that way, the Spartans tried to focus on the positives of the weekend instead of harping on what could have been.
For example, MSU's torrid power play success continued, accounting for five of the six goals this weekend. Only Booth, who scored MSU's second goal Saturday, could break through Miami goaltender David Burleigh at even strength.
Another bright spot was Maloney's pair of man-advantage goals - one each night - which gave him six tallies in the Spartans' last six games.
"Obviously, we wanted four points, but the two points are important," Maloney said. "Anyone can beat anyone down the stretch here and anything can happen as long as we keep playing strong.
"We took the positives from Friday night and carried them on to Saturday night and got the two points we needed."
With Maloney's effectiveness serving as a constant, the re-emergence of MSU's top line Saturday was probably the biggest difference between the win and the loss.
Booth, Lalonde and sophomore center Jim Slater had two points apiece in the second game, after recording no points and a combined minus-8 rating the night before.
Booth and Lalonde assisted on each other's goals, and Slater also assisted on both.
"I don't want to say that all three of us took the night off (Friday), because we were still working hard and had some good chances," Slater said. "They bottled us up pretty good. But tonight, we played our regular game and we were cycling real good.
"The two goals we scored were the exact same plays - just crashing the net. That's pretty much what our line does, just crash and bang and get what we can. Everyone played a solid game all the way through."
