A heartbreaking last-place finish in the Great Lakes Invitational in late December — a tournament the Spartans won the year before – and gaining a win and a tie against a Lake Superior team that ranks at the bottom of the league, are adding to the team’s frustrations.

And the two GLI losses knocked the Spartans from No. 5 nationally to No. 10, which leaves a funny taste in the mouths of the defending national champions.

“(We’re) definitely better from where we were,” senior captain Bryan Lerg said. “We’re still not at our best. We can still be better. It’s all a big process. We’ve got to take baby steps right now.”

The Spartans celebrated the new year by slaughtering the Lakers, 8-2, on Friday at Munn Ice Arena. Junior forward Tim Crowder and sophomore defenseman Mike Ratchuk had two goals each. But that victory would not carry over into Saturday’s meeting as the teams skated to a 3-3 tie. The Spartans are now unbeaten in their last 18 overtime games, posting a 6-0-12 record.

“We just need to put this behind us, learn from our mistakes and work harder in practice,” Lerg said.

A quick goal by Lake Superior’s Nathan Perkovich, 24 seconds into the first period, helped set the tone for Saturday’s game. These were not the same Lakers that left the ice after the first game of the weekend series.

“We just need to step it up … play one game at a time, and we’ll be all right,” Lerg said.

With top-ranked teams such as Notre Dame, Ohio State and No. 1 Michigan on the horizon, the Spartans say strengthening a young defense will play a major role in turning around the second half of the season.

“We give up so many shots, holy cow,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said. “It just blows my mind how many quality shots shouldn’t even get to the net. We know we have a young defense that has a ways to go.

“You can’t give up 35 or 37 shots a game without getting burned on it.”

And the championship bull’s-eye painted on the Spartans’ backs doesn’t register for this year’s team, he added.

“Obviously, we’re not all there yet,” Comley said. “And the question is, will we get there? Names on paper (and) last year’s stats don’t mean anything.”

Both the Spartans and Lakers stepped up their physical play Saturday with a combined 16 penalties in regulation and a whopping eight penalties in overtime alone. At one point in regulation, junior forward Justin Abdelkader was speared in between plays, fueling the game’s scrappiness.

There was standing room only in both penalty boxes with about a minute left in overtime as players from both teams screamed at each other across the glass. Finally, the referee sent them to the locker room to continue play.

Junior goaltender Jeff Lerg said he was wary going into the second game because of Friday’s blowout.

“I was a little nervous coming in, especially because of the mental psyche of our team,” Jeff Lerg said.

“It looked like we were ready to go there, but then that first 24 seconds and they’re up 1-0.

“We’ve got to come ready to play every game,” he said. “We have a real tough part of the schedule here, and our attention to detail has got to be there.”

The Spartans face Notre Dame at 7:35 p.m. Friday at Munn Ice Arena, then take to the road for a second meeting with the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind., on Sunday afternoon.