However, the Spartans didn’t need to be perfect Friday night to beat the CCHA’s last place team. Head coach Tom Anastos said his team got away from the little details he and his staff have been preaching early in the season, and it made for the staff to appreciate the result of the win, if not the process in securing it.

“It was a different kind of game tonight and we expected a different game than certainly we played last weekend (against Minnesota),” Anastos said. “While we got off to a really fast start, I almost think that hurt our mentality a little but because it came too easy. I thought a lot of the game was kind of sloppy and yet you have to play in those games and learn how to win those games.”

Early success has been a virtue for the Spartans this season and Friday’s game was no different. The dust had hardly settled from the faceoff when junior forward Kevin Walrod rifled a shot past the left side of Falcon goalie Andrew Hammond at the :20 second mark in the first period to give MSU a 1-0 lead. Minutes later, junior forward Dean Chelios — who previously had not scored a goal since Oct. 28 against Robert Morris — notched his third goal of the season on a pass from freshman forward Brent Darnell to extend the Spartan lead to 2-0.

The lead would be shrunk in the waning minutes of the first period. Falcon forward Ted Pletsch — son of current CCHA Commissioner Fred Pletsch, who succeeded Anastos at the position — sent a blistering slap shot past senior goalkeeper Drew Palmisano to bring Bowling Green within a goal to end the period.

Continuing to ride his hot hand from the Minnesota series, Palmisano made 21 saves against the Falcons to improve his record on the season to 4-3-1. Palmisano now has made three consecutive starts, after seeing sophomore Will Yanakeff start the previous four games.

“We got those first two goals quickly and after that — the effort level — we kind of sunk into a groove there and we weren’t too happy about that,” senior forward Brett Perlini said. “We had a good second and third there and we worked really hard and we got it right back.”

Perlini would add a goal of his own at the 2:10 mark in the second period. Although Perlini’s initial shot attempt at Hammond was blocked, Perlini picked up the rebound from the netminder and buried the puck in the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season. Later in the period, freshman forward Matt Berry would get the Spartans’ fourth goal of the game on a tipped shot by senior defenseman Tim Buttery

The Spartans would cap off the night with a goal at the 18:30 mark in the third period by Darnell to bring the game to its final score of 5-1.

After seeing others such as sophomores forward Greg Wolfe, center Lee Reimer and senior forward Mike Merrifield carry the offensive load early in the year, Darnell — who now has two goals on the season — said it felt good to get on the stat sheet and give his team a chance to win against Bowling Green.

“You’ve just got to stay patient,” Brent Darnell said. “You can never doubt yourself. You’ve just gotta stay confident in your abilities and keep working and eventually it’s going to go in. Fortunately tonight, it went in for me.”

The Spartans wrap up the series with Bowling Green at 6:05 p.m. Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.