“I almost had one,” joked MSU head coach Rick Comley.

The MSU victory comes after a disappointing two-game losing streak at the 43rd annual Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit Dec. 28-29.

Crowder’s first goal, which was assisted by Ratchuk, came a little more than a minute into the game. The Lakers, who have yet to win a CCHA game this season, picked up an early penalty about four minutes into the game, but Lake Superior’s Zac MacVoy scored an unassisted shorthanded goal – tying the game at one apiece.

“We played good today, hopefully that carries over into tomorrow,” Crowder said. “We played harder than we did over the last weekend … there were less mistakes, less turnovers and everyone’s more focused today.

“You could see the anger in everyone’s faces from last weekend’s games. Everybody was a little frustrated, and we just wanted to get the win.”

Seconds after the tying goal, junior forward Matt Schepke tipped the puck into the net, scoring a powerplay goal and putting the Spartans up 2-1. Less than six minutes into the game, a combined three goals had already been scored by both teams.

And there would be no slowing the Spartans down.

MSU captain Bryan Lerg scored, putting the Spartans up 3-1, and about five minutes later, Ratchuk deked past Lake Superior’s Pat Inglis to put MSU up by three goals. The Spartans headed into the locker room sitting on a lofty 4-1 lead.

About three minutes into the second period, MSU had an almost goal that went under review and was called back. But junior center Justin Abdelkader answered with a go-ahead goal assisted by senior forward Chris Mueller and junior forward Tim Crowder, with just under nine minutes left in the period. The Spartans scored again, as Ratchuk got his second goal of the evening, for a 6-1 lead.

But with about a minute left in play, Lakers Justin Gutwald put the puck past MSU goalie Jeff Lerg, chipping away at the Spartans five-goal lead, making it 6-2. Before the buzzer sounded, junior forward Tim Kennedy headed to the box for a two-minute tripping minor.

As Kennedy finished up his penalty box time at the beginning of the third period, Crowder scored a shorthanded goal, his second goal of the evening, to put the Spartans back up by five. The goal was assisted by Lerg and junior forward Matt Schepke, who notched his third assist for the evening.

The 4,900-plus crowd applauded Lerg for a job well done as Comley replaced him with sophomore goaltender Bobby Jarosz to “get Bobby some minutes.” Shortly thereafter, freshman forward Corey Tropp scored for the 8-2 final score.

“Everybody was moving tonight,” Schepke said. “Everybody had that sense of urgency that we lacked at the GLI, that feeling of must-win here on out.

“We need to come in as a team again, and realize that today was today and tomorrow is a completely different game … respect what we did last night, but at the same time respect them as the team that they are and come out and play just as hard as we did tonight, hopefully with the same results.”

The Spartans take on the Lakers Saturday at Munn Ice Arena. The puck drops at 5:05 p.m.