With Saturday's game against Notre Dame tied at one heading into the second intermission, the message in the Spartans' locker room was clear.
"We just said, 'Those are our two points and we need them,'" senior forward David Booth said. "So we went out there and got them."
After clanging the goal post on numerous third-period chances, the No. 14 Spartans (16-10-7 overall, 10-7-6 CCHA) finally got the go-ahead goal on the power play when Booth let a shot go from the point and junior captain Drew Miller deflected it past Notre Dame goaltender David Brown.
"I saw Booth wind up to shoot it, I just tried to get in position for a tip," Miller said. "I didn't even know it went in until I heard the crowd cheer."
The Spartans held on for a 2-1 win and completed the weekend sweep in the home-and-home series against Notre Dame (9-16-3, 7-12-3). The four points are good enough to put MSU in second place in the CCHA.
"Any point in this league right now is a good point, I don't care how you get it," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "We found a way to get it done. You don't want to lose pretty, so winning ugly is OK.
"We've been battle tested. We've been through a lot of tough games."
Anchored behind junior goaltender Dominic Vicari's first start in more than a month, Friday's game was dominated by the freshman trio of Justin Abdelkader, Tim Kennedy and Tim Crowder — each had a goal in the 3-2 win at Notre Dame.
"We're supposed to go out there and hit and bang and maybe score every now and then but now ever since we're playing better and better, our team looks for us to score a goal at least each night," Kennedy said. "It's a big step for our line and hopefully we just continue to do that the rest of the year."
Booth got the Spartans on the board first in the series closer at Munn Ice Arena when he tipped a shot from the point by junior defenseman Ethan Graham into the net 7:19 into the game. The goal continued a point streak for Booth at nine games.
The Fighting Irish tied it up with less than a minute to go in the second period when forward Erik Condra beat his best friend — freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg — on a bad angle shot.
"He just gets it and throws it to the net, I know his game," Lerg said. "I'll be hearing about that one for the whole summer."
Lerg bounced back to stop all 10 shots fired his way in the third as the Spartans let out a collective sigh of relief when Miller scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal 14:31 into the third.
"Obviously we'd love to score six or seven goals but we don't do that," Comley said. "You're not going to beat people easy."
The last three MSU wins have been by only one goal and the past seven contests have been decided by a goal or less.
"We're all concerned about where we finish, but I don't know if there's anybody you want to play," Comley said. "It's going to be a whale of a playoff once it's finally decided."
The Spartans hit the ice again on Thursday when they play at Ohio State before taking a weekend break from action.
