MSU hockey gets shot at payback, but U-M still rolling

It was Tom Anastos’ shortest answer of the afternoon.

When asked if he took the Spartans’ last outing against No. 5 Michigan a little more personally — a one-two gut punch weekend of 9-2 and 6-3 losses — the fifth-year hockey coach’s response was measured and perfunctory.

“Sure, absolutely,” Anastos said. “Those aren’t the kind of results you want against anybody, especially against a rival opponent. That was a difficult night.”

Difficult and rare.

This weekend will mark the 308th and 309th games played between Michigan State and Michigan, the most-played rivalry in college hockey. But meetings number 306 and 307 — which featured a 10-goal difference in the Wolverines’ favor — stand out as the most lopsided weekend series between the two since January 1985.

Even in seasons where one program is up and the other down, meetings between the two tend to be more evenly matched. And they typically don’t happen on national TV, as Michigan’s 9-2 win at Munn was.

Michigan blows out MSU hockey, 9-2

So when the two teams take the ice in Detroit on Friday — battling for the newly smelted “Iron in the D” trophy — and again in East Lansing on Saturday, the Spartans will have revenge on the mind.

“Obviously at home, you give up nine goals, you never want to do that,” second-year captain Michael Ferrantino said. “Especially to them, it makes it that much worse. I don’t think anyone felt good at all about the way we played, the way we performed last time they were in here, so I think it’ll be even more of a revenge factor there, and animosity than there usually is.”

In the month since those last meetings, Anastos has seen his team take some incremental steps forward. Individual performances have stepped up, the players have become more detail oriented and found some confidence. Also in the month since those last meetings, the Wolverines are 4-0-1, scoring at a clip of 6.2 goals per game and playing some of their best hockey of an already dominant season.

If the Spartans want to shut down the nation’s most prolific offense, they’ll need to cut off the head. The Wolverines’ top line of Kyle Connor, JT Compher and Tyler Motte is operating at a plus--75 scoring margin since their first grouping at the beginning of December and have accounted for more than half of Michigan’s goals in that time.

“It seems like they’ve all been playing together forever when you watch them play,” junior forward Joe Cox said.

It’s a riddle no team has been able to solve yet. And Anastos wasn’t tipping his hand on how the Spartans plan to do it this weekend. But the Spartans, who are surrendering 3.5 goals per game, tied for tenth worst in the nation, will have to pull out all the stops to slow down the hottest team in the country.

“It’s going to require a great defensive effort on the part of our entire team, including our goaltender and we’ll see if we can put together an effort and a scheme that can slow it down,” Anastos said. “I don’t think you can stop it, there’s too much depth on their team offensively. But hopefully you can slow it down a bit.”