MSU lost to preseason No. 1, and currently No. 18-ranked UMass-Lowell Friday night before scoring three goals in the third period to upset No. 13 Boston University on Saturday.

After starting the season with a pair of losses to UMass last weekend, head coach Tom Anastos said each time they take the ice, there is noticeable improvement.

“Looking from start to finish over two weekends, we’ve gotten better every game we’ve played and that’s a good thing,” Anastos said. “To the guys’ credit, we just stayed after it. It showed good character.”

Freshman forwards Mackenzie MacEachern and Joe Cox each scored their first goals in green and white. Cox’s goal was the game winner Saturday night.

He said the win was something the team needed, and the confidence gained will be a big factor going forward.

“The first win is something that everybody has been waiting for,” Cox said. “We held to our fundamentals, and it really worked out for us.”

MSU continued to improve their shoot-first mentality, outshooting BU 33-27, and getting 25 pucks toward the net on Friday against UMass.

Sophomore goalie Jake Hildebrand played both games and made a total of 55 saves throughout the weekend and said he saw something from the team this weekend he hasn’t seen before.

“Every game we’re getting better and better,” Hildebrand said. “We outplayed them the entire game, and once we popped one in the boys just kept going and going.”

One of the biggest areas of the game Anastos stressed all week was the special teams.

The Spartans were 0-12 on the power play and 6-7 on the penalty kill between both games, but Anastos said he still saw some progress in the area.

“We had some good looks and we put some people in different spots,” he said. “Two of our best power play players are (junior forward Matt) Berry and (junior forward) Tanner (Sorenson), and they haven’t played. During the game we put (sophomore forward) Matt DeBlouw on the point. He had never practiced it and I thought he did a good job.”

The Spartans have a two-game set at Munn Ice Arena against American International on Friday and Sunday.

For Anastos, this weekend proved his team is capable of both working hard and competing hard.

“Sure they want to win bad, so I told them to continue to work hard,” he said. “I want to make sure that we competed hard, and to me there’s a little bit of a difference. That’s what I saw right to the end. It was gut check time. They were doing whatever necessary to help keep the puck out of the net.”