As the Spartans left Marquette, with their heads hanging in shame, it was interesting to see how different players reacted to the disappointing weekend.

While the media waited to interview MSU head coach Rick Comley, some players walked by with hockey equipment bags in hand, gritting their teeth. Some would only look at us with disgust, and still others kept their eyes to the floor in an attempt to not show their emotions.

Senior defenseman Daniel Vukovic even admitted that the lackluster games drove him to insomnia that evening.

Talk about beating yourself up.

If anything, these current losses only mirror last season’s results. Remember that time the Spartans became the national champions? Lest we forget, in the 2006-07 season MSU lost five of its last eight games.

However, there’s this really pretty piece of hardware sitting in the MSU hockey office that serves as a reminder of last season’s successes — despite finishing the schedule on such a losing note. There’s also this defending-national-championship-bragging-right thing, too.

And know the Spartans are feeling the pressure of these losses as well as the depression and motivation to start playing better.

What’s alarming is the mentality heading into this weekend series against Western Michigan. The Broncos are a team that has absolutely frustrated the Spartans for many seasons. Western has won six of the last eight games played between the two teams on its home ice — and four of those wins have been consecutive victories.

Senior captain Bryan Lerg said moving on from the frustrating Northern Michigan weekend and focusing on the games ahead, and there’s only six of them, are what’s important for the team to achieve high-caliber play. And he’s right, for the most part.

You can’t move ahead without learning from the past, and pushing aside these losses will only hurt the team.

If the Spartans can successfully take away the negatives from the losing Wildcats’ weekend, practice harder, execute plays and communicate on the ice, there’s no reason this next series can’t result in four MSU points.

And get back quickly to defend the rush.

And guys, shot-fake already, will you? Northern Michigan was all over that like white on rice.

The Spartans have not counted themselves out of winning the league title, especially considering there are just enough games left that if they can win the next six consecutive meetings, the team can at least compete with Michigan and Miami (Ohio).

Luckily two of the games are against those pesky Wolverines.

Winning six games in a row is certainly a challenge, but it isn’t out of reach for the Spartans, who went on an eight-game winning streak earlier this season.

It might not be time to purchase a ticket yet, but it’s safe to start checking airplane ticket prices from Lansing to Denver.