No. 4-seed MSU is entering the tournament in the East Region as the apparent underdog. The team was swept by No. 2-seed Miami (Ohio) two weekends ago in the CCHA Tournament and might have to face the team again, given both teams make the regional final Saturday.

But instead of letting it discourage them, senior forward Brett Perlini said being the No. 4 seed might play to the Spartans’ advantage and allow them to focus on relaxing and playing their game rather than being concerned with fulfilling the expectations that high-seeded teams, such as Union, have to deal with.

“I think (the pressure’s off us),” Perlini said. “(Union) is coming in with a No. 1 seed, and the pressure’s on them, so we just gotta go in there and play.”

“When you look at the top seeds, they haven’t really won in past after being picked to win. It’s anybody’s tournament.”

Given that MSU stumbled to the finish with two lopsided losses at the hands of Miami, many people didn’t believe the Spartans even would have been chosen to compete in the tournament this upcoming weekend. But head coach Tom Anastos said once a team’s in the tournament, the path they took to get there essentially is irrelevant.

Despite MSU’s odds against Union, the expectations inside the locker room are more significant than projections of the team’s performance, Anastos said.

“Nobody’s picking us to win,” Anastos said. “But I don’t pay much attention to that because even at the start of our season, most people would have never projected us to be in the NCAA Tournament among the 16 best teams in the country. … Our locker room is comprised of guys who think we can go out to win, and that’s the intention.”

No experience? No problem
This year is MSU’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2008 and the 27th in program history. The team is entering the tournament with a roster filled with tournament inexperience — not a single player on the current roster has made it to the tournament in their MSU career.

Junior defenseman Torey Krug said although none of the current players have competed in the tournament before, the MSU hockey program is rich with tournament history, and he’ll lean on his equally inexperienced teammates for support.

“It’s definitely a unique thing,” he said. “But we have other people we can lean on. This program’s been there year in and year out, and we have other guys we can reach out to in the program.”

The younger players might not have senior experience to model themselves after this weekend, but Anastos said that he hopes seeing the seniors wait until their last season to make a run in the tournament will inspire the younger players on the team.

“For the seniors, this is their first experience,” Anastos said. “We want to make it a meaningful one, but at the same time, we want the younger players to come in and take advantage of the situation, because as they can see amongst their teammates, you can’t take it for granted. It doesn’t always come around.”