Although the No. 19 Spartans' winning streak ended after splitting a pair of games at Nebraska-Omaha this past weekend, the poise and spirit of the team has not been dampened.
"You can't get down on one loss," senior forward David Booth said. "Look at the positives, how we've been playing so far. We've been playing good.
"I thought we played good enough to win both nights."
Friday's game set a fast-paced, up-tempo tone for the series. After the Mavericks (13-11-2 overall, 7-9-2 CCHA) took an early penalty, it was the Green and White who drew first blood when Booth netted his sixth goal of the season.
"It was my first shift out there and I was playing the point on the power play, which I like doing," he said. "The puck just kind of slid right to me and I just put it high glove."
The teams ended the first period tied at two. Junior defenseman Ethan Graham gave the Spartans (14-9-5, 8-6-4) a 3-2 lead heading into the third, but a third-period Mavericks goal was enough to force overtime.
After freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg stopped Mavericks forward Bill Thomas on a breakaway in the extra session, it was senior forward Colton Fretter who ended the game for good when he picked the puck off a Nebraska-Omaha defender's stick.
"He got about 10, 12 feet inside the blueline and let go with a patented Fretter shot that beat the goalie to the far side," MSU assistant coach Tom Newton said.
"There's not many guys that can score like that. Fretter's one of them, he can shoot the puck so well."
Looking to make it seven straight wins on Saturday, the Spartans found themselves down 3-1 in the second period and were forced to play catch-up in the third.
"I don't think we were as prepared on Saturday," Booth said. "We didn't come out with that same fire that we did on Friday."
Sophomore forward Jim McKenzie put MSU within one at 13:26 of the final period, but an onslaught of MSU shots were kicked aside by Mavericks goaltender Jerad Kaufmann.
"In the third period, I thought we took the game over," Newton said. "We were right there to win and it was a game that was a tough one to lose because we really had a chance there at the end to even it up."
That great chance came when Booth found himself one-on-one with Kaufmann with about four minutes left to play. Booth tried to lift a backhander top-shelf, but Kaufmann came up with the big save and the Spartans fell, 3-2.
Lerg got the start both nights in net, and split the weekend allowing six goals on 78 shots. Saturday's loss was the Spartans' first of the new year.
The Spartans have a quick turnaround again this week and will host Ferris State on Tuesday night at Munn Ice Arena. Face off is set for 7:05 p.m.
