MSU won the shootout after tying PSU 2-2 in their first matchup of the season, before the Nittany Lions responded the following night with a 5-2 win over MSU.

While the Spartans have certainly shifted their focus on the ice over to PSU, much of the talk off the ice still surrounded the loss to the Wolverines.

“You look at it and based on the surroundings, they played a better game and executed better in that environment than we did and they got the better result,” head coach Tom Anastos said. “So move that aside, and kind of assess what we did and how well we did it and how much of it was related to the environment.”

Oh, the environment. Between the cooling system for the ice blowing a fuse and the balmy, sunny weather in the 40s, MSU had its hands full with obstacles to overcome. It might be easier to chalk this game up as an anomaly given how unconventional the setting was, but Anastos and the Spartans made it clear that was not going to be the case.

“Ice conditions were what they were,” junior captain Michael Ferrantino said. “We’re not going to make excuses about it. Both teams were playing on it.”

Still, MSU and U-M had to change their playing styles in order to adapt to the surroundings. With more offensive depth and overall team speed, the Wolverines had the clear advantage in Saturday’s game when it came to playing on that ice surface.

“You go into the game thinking ‘Okay, we’re going to really kind of keep this simple,’ and I’m sure they did too…yet even keeping things simple, who executes better?

“I don’t want to use the ice conditions as an excuse, because we made mistakes that they capitalized on, and we had opportunities that we didn’t and as a result we got the result that we did.”

With that loss, MSU fell to fourth place in the Big Ten while the Wolverines stayed in first place. While closing the gap on U-M was the goal, the Spartans next opponent sits ahead of them in the conference as well. PSU is just two points behind U-M, making this weekend just as important as the last.

“We talked about it immediately after the game,” Anastos said. “We have to learn the lessons that we can take away from this thing, we’ve got to put it behind us and we’ve got to start focusing ahead because we’ve got a big series coming up.”

Junior forward Matt DeBlouw – the lone goal-scorer for the Spartans last weekend – doesn’t doubt that MSU can take what they need from the loss and move on to better things.

“It was a blast. It was a great venue,” DeBlouw said. “I wish the outcome was different, but we’ve learned something from it. We gained a lot, so I think we can carry that with us into the Big Ten Tournament.”