As hard as it was to believe how far Michigan State sunk into the depths of the CCHA standings last year, it seemed even harder to conceive a bounce back to contender status so quickly after the graduation of goaltender Jeff Lerg, the program’s cornerstone.

But through two weekends of the regular season, the buzz seems to be back around East Lansing and coach Rick Comley’s smiles have returned during his weekly press conferences. The Spartans swept Clarkson convincingly on opening weekend and split a hard-fought series on the road at Maine’s not-so-welcoming Alfond Arena this past weekend.

A key to Michigan State’s speedy recovery has been the play of a freshman class led by forward Derek Grant, who won the CCHA’s first rookie of the week award for this season, and blue liners Zach Josepher and Torey Krug, who have helped fill in some of the large chinks in last year’s Spartan armor. Having opened the season well against Clarkson provided a glimpse of just how potent a class this may be and, better yet, that potential withstood the test of a relentless and hostile crowd in Orono.

“They did great,” Comley said of his freshman class during his weekly meeting with reporters Tuesday. “I think it was a good trip for them, good bonding. It’s always good to get away for three or four days and they handled the atmosphere very well. The atmosphere at Maine is as good or second to none as far as noise in the building. And that crowd, boy, they have a purpose coming into that building.”

As trying of an environment as that can be for freshman who are just finding their college hockey legs, it wasn’t any easier on sophomore netminder Drew Palmisano—the brave soul charged with softening the blow levied by Lerg’s graduation.

Michigan State goaltender Drew Palmisano successfully battled Maine— and team's rabid fans—in Orono last weekend.

“You drive up to the building at five o’clock and there are 1,000 students lined up outside,” Comley said. “They’re there for the warm-up, they taunt your goaltender all through the warm-up. They’re throwing foam pucks on the ice to mix in with the regular pucks so your kids never know what they’re shooting. You know, it’s just non-stop.

“I thought Palmisano did a good job in dealing with that, because for four of the six periods, he’s just surrounded because they have a balcony at that end of the rinks. It’s as good of a college crowd as I’ve been around.”

It may be too early to call the Spartans a threat to revive visions of the impenetrable top four in the CCHA that reigned for several seasons prior to last year, but the development of Grant and his classmates and the (so far) steady Palmisano behind them give Comley hope. Add in the revived Corey Tropp, who has returned from last year’s season-ending suspension with nine points in four games, and Jeff Petry, who may just be better than he was during his dazzling freshman season, and MSU might just have the supporting cast to give opponents headaches.

When asked just how important a win or two in this weekend’s series at top-ranked Miami would be, Comley was confident that it would officially mean his program is back on track.

“I don’t know [about a] program win,” Comley said. “But I think it’s another key step on the road back to being competitive at the level that we want to be at, which I think we’re going to be before it’s all said and done … You know, I’m very much encouraged by this team and where I think it can get to. I like how they play hard, I like the areas of the ice that we can play in, we don’t get outmuscled now, we win faceoffs, we compete and we can score goals.”