It was as if age didn't matter for the MSU hockey team.
The Spartans (3-3-0 overall, 2-2-0 CCHA) bounced back from an Ohio State series last weekend that grossed only one goal and two losses by sweeping Western Michigan (2-3-1, 2-3-1) with 11 total goals in two games. MSU defeated the Broncos 4-2 Friday and 7-3 Saturday.
"You always want to get sweeps, especially going home-and-home," MSU junior captain Jim Slater said. "Winning a tough game Friday night in our place and then coming here (Saturday) and keeping the same thing going - putting seven goals on the board. You know you need goals to win games and we did that this weekend."
Saturday's game, probably the most telling of the two, aged the Spartans. Entering a raucous Lawson Arena with 4,575 in attendance, the Spartans faced a crowd that wouldn't let up - even when the Broncos' fate seemed sealed, down 4-1 heading into the third period.
Even more adversity stacked itself against the Spartans, as senior defenseman Joe Markusen's undetermined injury Friday night sidelined him in Kalamazoo, leaving the MSU defense with only two sophomores and four freshmen to play on the blue line. In goal, freshman Dominic Vicari faced the first road contest of his collegiate career, adding more inexperience to the defense.
Head coach Rick Comley said he thought about playing junior goaltender Matt Migliaccio, who had 26 saves Friday, in back-to-back games, but playing Vicari on hostile ice proved positive.
"With the noise in this building, you were really wondering how they were going to come out," Comley said. "But like I told the kids in the locker room, I thought the pressure was on them, not us. Because when you get in this atmosphere and they don't get it every night, you have to perform."
Comley has said all season that the Spartans' effort rests on the junior class.
In a still-early season, Slater has not only been the backbone of the team, but the MSU option.
Ironically enough, Slater didn't score a single point in Friday's 4-2 defeat of the Broncos. But that left little worry with the Spartans, as junior forwards Mike Lalonde and Ash Goldie and freshman defenseman A. J. Thelen picked up the goals in the series' first game.
Lalonde scored two goals in a game for the fifth time of his career. Thelen added three assists to his Friday night stat line, making him the game's No. 1 star and the highest single-game, point-scoring Spartans player since 1997 when Andrew Hutchinson had four assists against Northern Michigan.
"(Thelen's) one of those defensemen that if you give him an opportunity, he'll make you pay for it," Vicari said. "He's a big defenseman; he really helps back in our zone and he helps in the offensive zone. He's just one of those guys that you really look at."
Slater returned to the scoring column Saturday, notching the game's first goal, while adding a second late in the 14th minute of the third period. He also had three assists.
Sophomore forward David Booth and junior forward Brock Radunske both scored their first goals of the season, while Goldie and freshman forward Tommy Goebel added goals Saturday to balance the MSU attack.
The weekend was a step in the right direction for the Spartans as they begin their climb up the CCHA standings. Age has been a bit of a stumbling block so far, but Comley received help from his players, regardless of their class status.
"I have to force-feed them even if it hurts us a little bit early because we don't have upperclassmen to fall back on," Comley said. "We have what we have - we just have to make it better.
"Youth doesn't disappear for 20 or 30 games, but that's all we have right now - we have juniors and we have freshmen for the most part. So we just have to play them and coach them and let them get better."
