Despite a four game losing streak and a severe lack of scoring throughout the lineup, the MSU hockey team remains positive and hopes that a win or pair of wins against Nebraska-Omaha this weekend will change its luck. The Spartans (4-6-2, 2-4-2 CCHA) are averaging 1.5 goals a game; good for 56th nationally out of 58 teams. They are last in the CCHA in offensive scoring and have an 8.3 percent success rate on the power play, after going 0 for 14 with the man advantage last weekend.

“You can’t win with one goal a game, I don’t care what style you play,” MSU head coach Rick Comley said Tuesday.

By Comley’s estimation, the Spartans had 20 good scoring chances on Saturday and 13 on Friday in last weekend’s series with Miami. The Green and White will face a tough test in this weekend’s series. The Mavericks lead the CCHA in scoring at 3.40 goals a game. They also pose a threat on special teams, ranking second on the power play and the penalty kill. The players however, are continuing to stress the importance of staying positive and putting in a good effort from week to week.

Everybody goes through their skids, everybody loses games. It’s how you bounce back next weekend and perform the following week, is how you’re defined on those,” senior forward Matt Schepke said. “We gotta definitely come into Nebraska-Omaha, ready to go, looking for a big win Friday and not worry about Saturday and just see what happens.”

In his 36 years as a coach, Comley said this is the third time he has seen one of his teams go through early struggles to find the back of the net. Though each of these cycles has been marked by success the previous and early departures, Comley stressed that time was key in getting through the rough periods.

“You always believe that guys are gonna score and there’ll be some growth,” he said.

The Spartans scoring woes haven’t been helped by injuries to many of their top players. Senior center Nick Sucharski, who was out for several weeks with a shoulder injury, finally got a chance to play again last weekend, but re-injured his shoulder in Friday’s game and did not play Saturday. He may opt to red-shirt this season, in lieu of risking further injury by playing, leaving the Spartans with no returning centers from last year.

Freshman forward Andrew Conboy also joined the list of injured Spartans this past weekend, going down with a shoulder injury on Saturday. He is expected to miss a few weeks. Defensively, the Spartans are also hurting a bit. Ryan Turek remains week to week with a shoulder injury and A.J. Sturges remains sidelined with injuries stemming from an incident last month.

“You have to take this team and build this team and not dwell too much on the past. We’ve made the statement about who we lost and the difference they would make, Comley said. “A lot of players are gonna get more ice time then they would have gotten.”

A sudden increase in goals, while boosting confidence, would also help to take some of the pressure of senior goaltender and captain Jeff Lerg. While his numbers so far this season have been good (2.09 GAA and .931 save percentage), Lerg has a 3-6-1 record, mainly because of the stagnant offense.

“He knows, like he said ‘that if I make a mistake he could cost us the game’ and that’s a reality but it’s tough for a goalie,” Comley said. “He knows that one bad goal might cost a game.”