With only seven games left in CCHA regular-season play for the No. 14 Spartans, MSU head coach Rick Comley can't stress enough how crucial each game is in the highly competitive conference race.
"It's a log jam and obviously every game is very important," Comley said. "The mindset is so important because every game is going to be tough to win."
MSU (14-10-7 overall, 8-7-6 CCHA) sits in a fourth-place CCHA tie with Northern Michigan. Miami (Ohio) leads the conference with 34 points, but after that only eight points separate second place from last place in the division.
"There was a lot of surprise teams this year," junior defenseman Jared Nightingale said. "I don't think any of us expected it to be this tight.
"There's a lot of dangerous teams that can win on any night."
That's not to say that the CCHA is a poor division. If the 16-team NCAA Tournament were to start today, USCHO.com's pairwise rankings would have five teams slated to be there — more teams than any other conference.
"It makes for a great league, it makes every game exciting," sophomore forward Jim McKenzie said. "Every game means so much and it's just a great environment and a great league to play in right now.
"We've (the CCHA) always been thought of as something less than the WCHA and it just shows that we have quality players that can play."
The Spartans will face Notre Dame (9-14-3, 7-10-3) in a home-and-home series this weekend before meeting Miami (Ohio) and Lake Superior in following weekends. A Thursday game next week at Ohio State will also give MSU an opportunity to move up and create some space in the standings.
"You always like to control your own destiny and we do that by playing teams that we need to beat," Comley said.
But while Notre Dame sits near the bottom of the league standings, the Spartans know that winning two games this weekend will be no easy task.
"They play a left wing lock, they don't give up much," Comley said. "You better be careful against them. These two teams will match up very well."
The Fighting Irish are coming off a split against Ohio State last weekend, with each team winning 1-0 contests.
Comley said junior goaltender Dominic Vicari will get the starting nod tonight. It will be Vicari's first start in more than a month.
While this weekend's series with Notre Dame begins the home stretch in the very competitive CCHA, the parity of the league is one aspect of the conference that the Spartans don't see deteriorating anytime soon.
"I really only see it getting better," McKenzie said. "If you have a team that's beating another team by 25 points — who wants to go watch that?"
Faceoff against Notre Dame each night is set for 7:35 p.m.
