The MSU hockey team's seven departing players played well on Senior Night, but a pair of sophomores upstaged all of them in the Spartans' regular-season finale.
Second-year center Jim Slater, who has been battling a shoulder injury, scored a goal in each period for his first career hat trick Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena.
His classmate, right wing Mike Lalonde also netted a pair of goals and added two assists in MSU's 8-5 win over Western Michigan.
The crowd of 6,909 people armed with thundersticks Saturday, joined four of the fans who threw their hats onto the ice to celebrate Slater's achievement.
His third goal, scored at 1:27 of the final period, turned out to be the game-winner.
"It was their night, I was just trying to help them win," Slater said of the seniors.
Complementing the efforts of Slater and Lalonde, senior defenseman John-Michael Liles and freshman left wing David Booth had three assists apiece, and senior defenseman Brad Fast notched a goal and an assist.
The Spartans (21-13-2 overall, 17-10-1 CCHA), who won Friday's series-opener 4-0 in Kalamazoo, finished fourth in the CCHA standings.
They will play the No. 9 seed Alaska-Fairbanks in the first round of the CCHA playoffs next weekend at Munn.
MSU sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio made 22 saves Saturday, while Mike Mantua stopped 35 for Western (15-19-2, 13-14-1).
MSU seemed to take control of the game by scoring four goals in the second period, including three in a span of 2:13, but the pesky Broncos hung around until the end.
The Spartans took the first lead, as Slater took a centering pass from Lalonde and buried the puck past Mantua at 6:03 of the opening period.
However, the Broncos notched the next two goals and took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
At 12:21, Western left wing Pat Dwyer took a backhand shot in the slot that appeared to hit something and beat Migliaccio stick-side.
About four minutes later, Bronco defenseman Rob Yamashita found center Shaun Rose with a pass just above the crease. From there, Rose one-timed the puck past Migliaccio for his fourth goal of the year.
Slater got his second goal on slap shot from the top of the right circle 1:22 into the second period, bringing the score to 2-2.
Midway through the middle frame, the floodgates opened for MSU. On a 5-on-3 power play at 8:03, senior left wing Brian Maloney knocked the rebound of a Liles shot into the net to make it 3-2.
One minute and 39 seconds later, with the Spartans on a 4-on-3 advantage, Fast took the puck from the right circle to the slot and snapped a shot over Mantua's glove.
The senior captain's two-point performance extended his points streak to 11 games (two goals, 15 assists).
"We'll take victories any way we can," Fast said. "It's good to go into the playoffs scoring goals."
MSU made it 5-2 just 34 seconds later after Mantua lost track of the rebound of sophomore forward Brock Radunske's shot. Junior defenseman Joe Markusen saw it
between Mantua's skates, swooped in and punched it in.
Markusen has two goals in the last two weeks after scoring once in his first two years with the Spartans.
"It seemed like there was a lot of open ice tonight," Markusen said. "I knew Brock was going to put it on net, so I just went down and looked for a rebound.
It was just laying there - I don't think (Mantua) knew where it was."
Western cut the deficit to two goals with a power-play marker late in the second. Rose redirected defenseman Mike Jarmuth's soft shot beneath Migliaccio with 10.3 seconds left on the clock.
But Slater got his hat trick goal at the end of a 2-on-1 with Lalonde less than two minutes into the third, putting MSU up 6-3. Slater has 16 goals this year.
The Broncos made it interesting again three minutes later when right wing Dana Lattery swatted a deflected centering pass past a scrambling Migliaccio, cutting the score to 6-4.
Bronco center Vince Bellissimo made Spartan fans sweat by scoring from in close at 13:24, but Lalonde chipped a shot over Mantua's near shoulder at 16:19.
Lalonde also registered an empty-netter with 43.3 seconds to play for his 13th goal of the year.
"Well, we tuned up our defense for the playoffs tonight," MSU head coach Rick Comley said sarcastically. "At times, it looked like we were going to take the game over, but we made some turnovers and kept the game interesting.
"We gave up some goals we shouldn't have."
The Spartans went 2-for-5 on the power play Saturday, while Western was 1-for-1.
Personnel: With Koski in the lineup, freshman right wing Nenad Gajic was scratched Saturday. Koski played on the fourth line with junior Tim Hearon at left wing and senior Troy Ferguson at center.
Sophomore left wing Kevin Estrada joined Slater and Lalonde on a line that was listed as No. 3 on Saturday.
Booth played with sophomore center Ash Goldie and freshman right wing Colton Fretter for the second straight night.
