The Spartans recovered from that ugly sweep at the hands of Miami to take 9 points out of a possible 12 over the past two weekends (a win and tie each weekend, winning the shootout against Northern Michigan). MSU sits 8th in the CCHA, which is even more of a mess than the Big Ten in basketball: first-place OSU is just six points ahead, and we have two games in hand on them (as well as on Miami, Michigan, and Lake State). 14th in the Pairwise is a key spot: assuming two auto-bids that would not get at-large bids (which is typical), 14th is the last spot in the tournament. Up ahead: a two-week road stretch at Ferris State this weekend, Ohio State next.