The award is called the Spartan Shield, and freshman forward Ferrantino was this season’s first recipient.

“I wanted to do something that was going to reinforce our core values, and I thought it was more meaningful coming from teammates,” Anastos said. “I told the guys, ‘If people don’t meet the criteria, if we have nobody that meets the criteria, then we don’t give the award out.’ It’s from teammates to a teammate.”

Ferrantino joins the list of young players who made a splash in last weekend’s series against Minnesota.

With a high turnover rate and 10 freshmen on the team, MSU has no choice but to put responsibility on the younger players, and senior forward Chris Forfar noticed how they stepped up to the top-ranked Gophers.

“I don’t think they backed down,” Forfar said. “(Minnesota) has their defenseman (Seth) Helgeson, and I don’t know how tall he is, but he looks like he’s 6-foot-8 on skates. None of the freshmen forwards that I can remember backed down to any of their bigger guys. They took hits to make plays; they all gave hits and sacrificed their bodies for the betterment of the team.”

Two games into the season, Ferrantino has the second-highest faceoff winning percentage on the team, with .667 percent.

Anastos said Ferrantino has impressed the coaching staff with his on-ice intelligence and his ability to “compete like a bulldog.”

Forfar added the environment of Minnesota is a difficult one to step into, noting its superior fans, arena and student section, but he said he believes the freshmen rose to the challenge.

“The adversity was definitely there — they definitely fought through it,” Forfar said. “They didn’t stop competing. You can see some of the lines — (Ryan) Keller, (Matt) DeBlouw, (David) Bondra, Ferrantino — they all competed extremely hard all weekend. I don’t think they let the adversity get to them at all.”

Anastos also took note of freshman defenseman John Draeger, who returned to his home state to take on the Gophers in his first collegiate series.

The head coach said Draeger played a lot for an 18-year-old freshman — a telling move by the coaching staff.

“I thought he did a really good job, considering how much pressure was constantly put on him and on our team by their style of play and their skill set,” Anastos said. “We were very happy with him, and that’s a lot to ask of a newcomer coming in. He’s playing in his home state, so I’m sure he put a lot of pressure on himself to perform well.”

Creating an identity
Although the newcomers to the team have stepped up performancewise, Anastos said it will take the team some time to develop its identity.

“I hope our identity oftentimes stays pretty similar from year to year,” he said. “We want to create a style of play that we embrace and that we play to. Sometimes our team might be better suited offensively, based on our talent level, and sometimes maybe it’s not going to be as explosive. In the perfect world, we like to have an identity that this is the way Michigan State hockey plays and this is what you can expect. We have a ways to get there.”

Anastos called the identity-building a big work in progress, but he said with time, MSU will build a culture surrounding what it’s trying to do.