Staring at just four regular season games to play before the CCHA Tournament, Perlini said the closeness in the conference standings has made the stretch at the end of the season exciting for the players.

“You’re always looking at the standings and saying, ‘Oh yeah, if we just win this game, we could get up there,’ and it’s exciting,” Perlini said. “It’s been so close this year. A couple wins and you’re up there. There’s definitely something to build off and something to look forward to.”

The Spartans’ season record currently sits at 16-12-4 with a 11-10-3-2 mark (38 points) in the CCHA. As most teams prepare to wrap up their regular season, six teams in the top of the conference sit within nine points of one another and are jockeying for home-ice advantage in the CCHA Tournament.

The upcoming weekend series with 10th-place Alaska carries implications of both postseason positioning and redemption of a year ago. Last season, the Nanooks won three of the four games played between the two squads, including a season-ending sweep of the Spartans in two games at the CCHA Tournament in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Unlike last year’s Spartan team — who stumbled down the stretch with a 3-5 record heading into the tournament — this team carries the momentum of three wins in four games against teams in the upper echelon of the conference, and they have two winnable series left on the schedule against Alaska and a struggling Notre Dame.

Despite the Spartans maintaining a goal to finish the regular season in the conference’s top four teams in order to secure home-ice advantage in the CCHA Tournament, head coach Tom Anastos said the team’s expectations are a bit loftier than that.

“If you’re asking me would I be satisfied with getting home ice, and that’s the end of the season, the answer would be no, it wouldn’t be,” Anastos said. “If we do the right things this weekend and next weekend, and we position ourselves to earn that home-ice berth, and you’re playing at home, and now you get into — hopefully you position yourself for tournament play where it’s one and done — we can win on any given day.”

Salute to the seniors
Four years have come and gone for another set of seniors on the MSU hockey team.

In MSU’s last home series of the season against Alaska, the program will honor the team’s nine seniors on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.

“I can remember coming on campus the same way (as the other seniors), not knowing what to expect, just hoping to do my best and thinking I had all the time in the world,” senior defenseman Brock Shelgren said. “Looking back, it’s gone way too fast.”

The group includes forwards Trevor Nill, Daultan Leveille, Mike Merrifield and Perlini, defensemen A.J. Sturges, Tim Buttery, Matt Crandell and Shelgren along with goalie Drew Palmisano.

When Anastos came into the program, he made a commitment to win with the players left over from the Rick Comley era. And Anastos said he couldn’t have been happier with the way the senior players committed to him as well.

“These guys will have a very unique spot in my heart forever — regardless of what comes in here in the future or my time with the rest of the guys that were here,” Anastos said. “We talk about doing the right things and focusing on the process, and the results will take care of themselves. Who knows at the end of the day what the results will be? But to date, I couldn’t ask for any more than for what these guys have been willing to give.”