Untimely penalties have led to some of the MSU hockey team's woes, and the penalty trouble didn't change last weekend when the Spartans visited Miami (Ohio).

In both games of the series, MSU took early penalties, including one 19 seconds into Saturday's contest, that were partially responsible for the sluggish first periods of play on both nights. The Spartans lost a 4-1 decision Saturday.

"When you take penalties early in the game like that, you kind of lose a little flow of the game," junior defenseman Corey Potter said. "I don't necessarily think it was a negative thing this weekend, but it definitely was a disadvantage to us."

Penalties have been on the rise overall this season since NCAA officials have decided to call games more closely, and MSU (11-10-1 overall, 6-8-0 CCHA) is guilty of an average of about 16.41 penalty minutes per game, which is among the least in the CCHA.

"It's not like we're running around taking bad penalties, it's just maybe, if anything, some of them are untimely," senior forward Adam Nightingale said.

Injury update

Freshman defenseman Jeff Dunne, who has appeared in 12 games, injured his left shoulder in the championship game of the GLI tournament on Dec. 30 and is scheduled to miss four to six weeks.

"Dunne is a big loss," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "He had really settled in and was doing a nice job for us and getting better all the time."

Junior defenseman Jared Nightingale and freshman defenseman Daniel Vukovic will fill the void until Dunne's return.

Senior goaltender Matt Migliaccio broke his hand in an off-ice incident during winter break and also is scheduled to miss four to six weeks.

Junior Rod Tocco will back up sophomore Dominic Vicari until Migliaccio's return to the ice.

Migliaccio has played in five games this season, posting a 2.61 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage.