After a spectacular start to the season coming on the heels of a season to forget, the Michigan State Spartans were the darlings of the CCHA. And even though the green and white came back to earth with a pair of frustrating losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota in the College Hockey Showcase last weekend, it’s not time to panic in East Lansing just yet.
The Spartans fell behind early against the Badgers and never seemed to recover, and then struggled to find the back of the net for more than two and a half periods against Minnesota. And after junior Andrew Rowe finally snuck behind Minnesota netminder Kent Patterson to tap in a goal and tie the score with less than four minutes remaining, the Gophers regained the lead for good 39 seconds later when Mike Carman used a screen to beat Drew Palmisano from the high slot.
“Disappointing for sure,” head coach Rick Comley said of the goal. “It wasn’t even dangerous, we just gave them the puck. But again, young kids sometimes, it’s not easy every night for them. Minnesota’s a good team, they’re struggling a bit, but they had 17 NHL draft picks dressed tonight. They skate very well, but we had plenty of chances. We know it’s a really tough stretch of games. I told them, ‘Just relax, you played hard, you tried hard, you could have won the game. So, you know, lesson learned and plow ahead.’ ”
While Comley and the Spartans are still optimistic about the team’s prospects going forward, Comley’s experience told him that there would be rough spots like last weekend’s struggles.
“At 9-2-2 you’re going ‘Wow’,” Comley said. “But you had to be careful. Because the first 10-game stretch was super, the next 10 look much more difficult and we’re fighting our way through that. You plug away for the first half then you find out for sure. Young kids are up and down. You don’t dress 14 freshmen and sophomores and don’t pay some price of inconsistency.”
The Spartans play a pair of tough series over the next two weekends, traveling to Marquette to play a Northern Michigan team that is 3-0-3 in its last six games and then a home-and-home series against a Bowling Green team that has wins over Alaska and Michigan, as well as a shootout win at Notre Dame.
