"They're a new team," senior forward Jagger Joshua said. "They move pucks well, they work hard and they're gonna give us everything they've got so we've gotta come out ready."

Looking to LIU

LIU (1-2-1) will wrap up its seven game road stretch in East Lansing this weekend. The sharks traveled to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last Friday where they fell 1-0. 

Despite a roster made up of a majority of newcomers, the Sharks have played strong defense and put up a fight against ranked teams this season.

LIU’s starting goaltender, senior Vinnie Purpura, has allowed a total of seven goals this season. Purpura was a powerhouse in the Sharks' overtime loss against No. 9 Northeastern, where he made a career-high of 43 saves.

Other key players to look for are junior forward Nolan Welsh and graduate student forward Anthony Vincent. Vincent leads the team in goals (3) with Welsch trailing behind (2).

Welsch contributed to the scoring of a 3-2 loss at Northeastern on Oct. 1 when he scored the equalizer early in the second period. 

Another standout from Northeastern is a familiar face to the Spartans: alumnus and graduate student forward Adam Goodsir. 

Goodsir transferred this season for his last year of eligibility after he played the past four with the Spartans. He scored in LIU's first game of the season and was named an alternate captain.

“That will be interesting playing against Goody,” Joshua said ”I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited and I'm sure he’s excited to come back home. It will be a good series.”

Michigan State Head Men's Hockey Coach Adam Nightingale said the team is consistently looking to improve. He noted that there were guys on the ice at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday ready to grind, without there being a required practice. 

The Spartans are working on several aspects of their game ranging from playing a strong second period, to taking advantage of the power play and, more recently, maintaining consistency throughout the entirety of a series. MSU aims to change the results this weekend after failing to complete the sweep against Bowling Green and UMass Lowell.

“We’re always just focused on our next game,” Nightingale said. “As a whole when you look at college hockey it’s hard to sweep. We’re focused more on the process than the results right now and we want to keep playing better every game we play. I think from our exhibition game to now every game we played we played better. That will be our goal going into this weekend.”

The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.

“Most of it is just playing our game, playing Spartan fast,” freshman forward Karsen Dorwart said. “That’s the biggest thing. Obviously we look at some of their tendencies but it’s mainly about us.”