The Only Colors, a Michigan State Spartans community

3-1 loss to Union in the first round. Still, after where the hockey program was the past couple years, making the tournament at all is something of a moral victory.

We're the 4 seed (lowest) in the East by the USCHO projection; first-round matchup with Mass-Lowell, with Union and BC in the other half of the region. Big series this weekend with Michigan - at Munn tonight (7:35 ET, BTN), Joe Louis tomorrow (same time, Fox Sports Detroit). They've been on a major roll since the GLI, aided by Jon Merrill's return from a coach-imposed suspension and some great play from Shawn Hunwick in net. Chris Brown, their second-leading scorer, will be out tonight due to picking up a game DQ for fighting last weekend against Miami. Despite being a matchup of the teams at #3 and #7 in the conference standings, we actually have the two best goal differentials in conference play (Michigan +19, MSU +8; Ferris and Western, the conference leaders, are both at +7). A sweep could vault us up as high as second place; a split probably keeps us in the bracket for next week.

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.

Link is to the boxscore. The teams traded goals 12 seconds apart in the first period, but Jimmy Mullin won it for Miami just 1:24 into OT. That drops us to 9th in the CCHA, albeit as part of a major logjam - a win would have left us tied for 4th. Edit, 1/7: Miami 4, MSU 0 on Saturday. Outshot 44-20. With the CCHA being as jammed up (outside of the top two and bottom two) as it is, the Spartans will have to break out of this slump in a hurry.