Krug has done a lot of growing up since then as has the No. 16 MSU hockey team. And even with a string of recent success for the Spartans, Krug and the players know that — despite Bowling Green’s record — they will have to compete at a high level to pick up a pair of wins this weekend at Munn Ice Arena.

“We know they’re going to come at us fast, they’re going to come at us hard and going to be really aggressive,” Krug said. “As far as any other team we’ve played so far, we may not have seen as aggressive of a team yet, so we know what we’re going to get and we gotta be ready for them.”

Despite having questions on offense, the team has developed a consistent scoring attack, led by senior forward Mike Merrifield, sophomore forwards Greg Wolfe and Lee Reimer and team’s most improved player from a year ago, junior forward Kevin Walrod. The quartet of scorers have combined for 23 goals this season and are proving themselves prudent in the CCHA’s second-best scoring attack (3.36 goals per game).

In the net, Anastos has opened up a battle of healthy competition between senior Drew Palmisano and sophomore Will Yanakeff. Considering each have had early success, it’s a proverbial toss-up to determine the weekend starter.

For several of the players, having success against the elite programs in college hockey has allowed the Spartans to find their identity at both ends of the ice.

“As a team, I think we’re finding our identity a little more as a team that works hard and kind of grinds out our opponents and takes the third period,” sophomore defenseman Jake Chelios said. “We played, especially for a team that big (like Minnesota) and we have some smaller forwards, I thought we stepped up to the occasion and did a good job.”

It’s been a program-building couple of weeks for the Spartans (8-5-1, 4-4-0 CCHA). The team has seen road games against Western Michigan, Northern Michigan and then-No. 3 Minnesota at home and came out of the stretch 4-1-1.

With an upcoming series against hated in-state rival Michigan (7-7-2, 3-5-2) next week, the CCHA’s last place Bowling Green (6-8-2, 1-8-1-1) almost seems like an afterthought. But head coach Tom Anastos has challenged his team to rise to the occasion.

Last season, the Spartans swept Bowling Green in consecutive games in the last home series of the season at Munn Ice Arena. However, MSU only outscored the Falcons by a 4-1 margin that weekend and will need to be at the top of its game to top a win-hungry Bowling Green team.

Although the Falcons have struggled in CCHA play, the team is coming off a weekend where it was shutout in two games at home against Alaska-Fairbanks, and will be looking to earn respect against an up-and-coming Spartan roster.

“It’s a bit of a trap because you come off these consecutive weekends and you’re playing a top five team, a top 20 team, a top two or three team, and you’re playing an unranked team who’s working on their own identity,” Anastos said.

“If we’re not ready to compete real hard, and set a high tempo and a high level of compete, we’ll put ourselves in a bind.”