No matter how they do it, the Spartans are winning.
Now victors of nine out of 10 games and back into contention for the CCHA regular-season title, the way the No. 11 Spartans (16-8-1 overall, 12-6-1 CCHA) have won recently has been formulaic — get behind early, come back, keep the other team in the game by dangling a one-goal lead in front of their visors, but in the end, pull away for the victory.
The Spartans perfected this formula again Friday against Lake Superior (13-10-3, 7-8-3) with a 3-2 overtime victory, and used Friday's offensive disappointment as fuel for Saturday's 4-0 rout.
The Spartans appeared rattled by a smothering Lakers defense on Friday and trailed 1-0 after the first period, but they wasted little time in erasing the deficit.
"We just came together more as a team in the locker room after periods," junior forward Bryan Lerg said. "We were down 1-0 after the first, and we didn't panic at all. We've got 40 minutes to go out there and score a couple goals, and we did that."
Just 5:14 into the second period, sophomore forward Nick Sucharski scored while the Spartans had a two-man advantage during a delayed penalty call against the Lakers. One minute and 57 seconds later, the Spartans seized the lead with a power-play goal, when sophomore forward Justin Abdelkader threw a laser past Lakers goaltender Pat Inglis.
Abdelkader's blast from the point put the Spartans up 2-1. The goal was his seventh of the season.
Lakers forward Josh Sim scored his second goal of the night 14:32 into the third period to put the Spartans in what has become too familiar a place — tied, late in the game.
Just as they did the week before against Alaska, the Spartans prevailed in overtime. Bryan Lerg deflected sophomore defenseman Brandon Gentile's shot 2:52 into the extra session, knocking the puck to the ice and through Inglis' legs.
"We don't score easy, and when you don't score easy, you're going to be in a lot of tight hockey games," MSU head coach Rick Comley said.
"And how many times have we played where we should have had more of a lead and haven't been able to do that?"
But the Spartans had no trouble grabbing the lead and running with it Saturday night, as they let loose all their offensive frustration in a 4-0 win.
While the Lakers defense supplied the Spartans with headaches Friday, it was sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg who was the defensive force Saturday, stopping 27 shots for his third shutout of the year.
The Spartans received boosts from two timely goals at the end of the first and second periods by Bryan Lerg and junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic, respectively.
Bryan Lerg scored the game's first goal with 35 seconds left in the first period, when he sent a slap shot high from the right circle off a pass from freshman defenseman Mike Ratchuk.
"(Ratchuk) didn't even look to me. I think he just knew I was there and threw it," Bryan Lerg said.
"I got a hold of that one. I think the goalie even got over, so it was a good thing I got it up.
"We've been known to give up in the last minute, and that's hurt us in the past. Now that we're scoring in the last minute, that's huge for our team."
Junior forwards Chris Mueller and Jim McKenzie scored the other goals in Saturday's game.
The Spartans are idle next week and resume action Feb. 2 for a weekend series on the road at Nebraska-Omaha.
