St. Louis — Resilient.
It's the word MSU head coach Rick Comley has used again and again this season to describe his team.
The Spartans continued to define the term Thursday in the Frozen Four national semifinal game when they found themselves down 2-0 to Maine less than four minutes into the game.
Maine scored twice on its first four shots of the game, somewhat reminiscent of the 3-0 lead it took against the Spartans last year in the NCAA Tournament, on its way to a 5-4 victory over MSU.
"This year, they were up 2-0, I don't think there was one guy yelling at another guy," junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic said.
"We were all positive. We just knew we had to get going."
The Spartans got going and scored the next four goals of the game to advance to the national championship game Saturday night with a 4-2 win. It was the only time this season Maine had lost a game after leading by two goals.
"All year long, they've been very resilient, and it just kind of got better and better and now we have a chance to play for a national championship," Comley said. "I'm about as proud as you can be."
Rather than panic after falling behind, MSU stuck to its system and its matchups — and it ultimately ended in victory.
"They were patient in a lot of ways, as far as they didn't abandon their game plan," Maine head coach Tim Whitehead said. "We knew what we were up against. We knew they were a very good team that was very determined.
"(Rick Comley's) teams never give up — I've always known that."
Not so power play
Maine entered Thursday's game with the nation's hottest power play, operating at 25.7 percent.
But Maine failed to capitalize with the man advantage against the Spartans, partially because they only had two power-play opportunities.
"We're the least penalized team in our league," Comley said.
"We don't take a lot of penalties. You hope kids, when they get to big games, they will make good decisions."
When the Spartans were on the penalty kill, sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg stood tall, stopping all four shots fired his way. MSU's defense did its share of shot blocking, as well.
Back in the mix
Vukovic returned to game action for the first time since suffering a knee injury in the March 24 NCAA Midwest Regional final against Notre Dame.
"I felt really good," Vukovic said. "It's been a long road recovering (my knee). It felt almost 100 percent. It felt really well. Nothing wrong with turning or anything like that."
Comley dressed seven defensemen for the game — with freshman Mike Ratchuk as the spare — rather than four complete forward lines in order to help with matchups and fatigue.
Attendance
The announced attendance of 18,857 is the second largest crowd to watch a national semifinal game. The largest was in 2002 when more than 19,300 fans gathered in St. Paul, Minn., for the Frozen Four.
