Now the Spartans (12-16-4 overall, 8-14-2 CCHA) remain in 10th place in the CCHA standings and likely will need to sweep this weekend’s series at Alaska in order to have a chance at home-ice advantage in the first round of the CCHA Tournament.

MSU is five points out of ninth place in the CCHA standings making it necessary to win at least three and possibly all four of its remaining games to just to have a chance at home ice.

The Spartans’ offense broke its six-game streak of producing two goals or fewer in each game Saturday but suffered uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns that helped sixth-place Northern Michigan erase a 4-1 deficit and win, 6-5.

MSU head coach Rick Comley said on Tuesday the team played sloppy in the defensive zone and turned the puck over a lot, which helped make it easy for the Wildcats to win a game the Spartans should have nailed down.

The previous night, it was a few miscues that prevented the team from making the most of its quality offensive performance.

One of the young Spartans’ problems this season is that they’ve played well for one half of a series but are unable to maintain it for an entire series or more.

Whether it’s been bad bounces, early offensive struggles or late mistakes, the Spartans have struggled to win back-to-back games, but that will need to change quickly.

With four games remaining, the Spartans stand five points behind the Buckeyes and nine points behind the three-team tie for sixth place between Northern Michigan, Alaska and Lake Superior State, meaning this weekend’s series against Alaska likely will be comparable to the Spartans’ first-round opponent.

The Spartans still have hung in against top-tier CCHA opponents but need to show some consistency in coming weekends to better their tournament positioning.

Next weekend MSU will host Bowling Green — which stands 13 points behind MSU as the only team trailing the Spartans in the standings — in its final home series of the season, which could be the exact medicine the Spartans would need before the CCHA Tournament.

This year, the top-five seeds in the conference regular season will receive bye weeks, and the teams standing between sixth and 11th will do battle in the first round of the conference tournament, with three games being played at the higher seed’s venue.

Unexpected champions have sprung in CCHA tournaments before, for instance last season’s U-M team that was the seventh seed at the start of the tournament, but the Spartans need a more complete performance the next two weekends to be feeling in good shape before the CCHA Tournament.

Jeff Kanan is a State News sports reporter. He can be reached at kananjef@msu.edu.