A weekend of statistical success

The first series of the MSU hockey season was one of those weekends that makes you dive into the media guide.

It was a weekend where you were constantly asking yourself, “When was the last time the Spartans did that?”

In MSU’s 6-1 win over Clarkson on Friday and 4-3 victory on Saturday, the Spartans looked impressive and were hungry on the puck.

Here are a couple of the most notable stats.

-It was the first weekend sweep for the Spartans since Feb. 29 through March 1, 2008, against Bowling Green.

-After scoring only 20 power play goals last season, MSU went 5-for-16 on the power play this weekend.

-The weekend sweep marked the first time since the 2005-06 season the Spartans won their first two games of the regular season.

-The Spartans scored 10 goals in a weekend series for the first time since Feb. 29 through March 1, 2008, against Bowling Green. Last year the Spartans averaged 1.61 goals a game.

-The Spartans scored 10 goals. I just had to repeat that one because I’m still somewhat shocked by the offensive outpouring.

Spreading the wealth
Eight different Spartans scored this weekend, justifying MSU head coach Rick Comley’s stance that this year’s team would be able to put the puck in the net.

“We have so many guys that can score,” senior forward and co-captain Nick Sucharski said. “Everyone is a threat.”

Having 18 underclassmen on the team seemed to be recipe for disaster again this season, but this year’s group is much different.

It’s pretty obvious they have something to prove.

“A lot of us were embarrassed with last season,” junior forward Corey Tropp said. “Having a season like that, after looking at other (MSU teams), it was one of the worst seasons in MSU hockey history. I don’t think a lot of us want to be part of that again. I think that’s stuck in a lot of our heads all summer.”

Weird weekend

It was a wacky opening weekend of college hockey.

Here are a couple of the strange scores that came out of the first weekend of the regular season.

-Ohio State dropped both games to Quinnipiac, 4-2 on Thursday and 3-1 on Friday.

-Michigan lost their first game of the season against Alaska on Friday, 2-0. Then the Wolverines came back and beat the Alaska-Anchorage 6-1 on Saturday.

-Notre Dame lost to Alabama-Huntsville 3-2 on Friday but regrouped and won Saturday’s game 3-1.

-Maine dropped both games to Union, 4-1 on Friday then 6-3 Saturday.

With two road series against Maine and Miami (Ohio) in the next two weekends, I thought the Spartans would be lucky to win one of their next four games. But after watching the Spartans play this weekend — and seeing Maine’s struggles — I don’t see any reason why MSU can’t split both weekends.

One thing’s for sure — we will know a lot more about MSU’s team after the next two weeks of hockey.