Freshman forward Thomas Ebbing attempts to score a goal as Michigan goaltender Zach Nagelvoort guards the net Jan. 24, 2014, at Munn Ice Arena. The Wolverines defeated the Spartans, 5-2. Erin Hampton/The State News
Losing never leaves a good taste in your mouth — however, it can serve as a building block for improvement.
A few days removed from the Spartans’ last game, a 5-2 loss to then-No. 14 Michigan (12-6-2 overall, 4-2-0 Big Ten), head coach Tom Anastos was able to look at the tough series sweep as a learning tool for MSU (8-12-3, 2-4-2-2).
Anastos said the team has to learn to deal with losing in a positive and productive way when the unfortunate circumstance appears.
“You have to learn how to handle success, and you have to learn how to navigate failure,” Anastos said. “And well, you don’t want to gain too much experience navigating failure, (but) you want to learn from the experience that you have when you have it.”
MSU lost 2-1 on Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on a late goal by the Wolverines.
The following night, the Spartans lost 5-2 on home ice after surrendering three third-period goals, with two within a 51-second span.
Since the last game, Anastos said the team has approached practices and workouts with a positive mentality. Following the game, he said the team needed to “grow up” and didn’t come prepared to play.
“You can’t just be a sunny and 70 kind of guy (all the time),” Anastos said. “When things are going great, yeah it’s easy for things to go how you want them to go. But when things aren’t going the way you want them to go, how you manage that, how you respond to that also matters.”
Anastos also said the weekend series served as a good opportunity for the underclassmen to gain much-needed experience.
MSU had 11 combined freshmen and sophomores who played in the last game.
One of the underclassmen who has played a substantial rule in MSU’s success is sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand. After dominating in recent play with a 1.25 goals against average in the four games leading up to last Friday, Hildebrand struggled in the second leg of the rivalry series, tying his season high for most goals against in a game.
Hildebrand said he plans to move on from this weekend and return to the same high level of play before the 5-2 loss.
“We just want to keep doing what we were doing before last weekend,” Hildebrand said. “I thought Thursday night’s game could have gone either way, so I don’t think we played that bad Thursday night, just have to bury a couple more pucks. But I think we just got to get back to what we were doing before.”
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