The Spartans enjoyed a weekend sweep of the University of Illinois-Chicago
Flames with a 4-1 win on Friday followed by a 8-3 drubbing on Saturday.  Fresh-
man goaltender Chad Alban saw his first collegiate action in the win on Satur-
day, with Mike Buzak picking up his 50th collegiate win with a stellar perfor-
mance in between the pipes on Friday.
 
What coach Ron Mason should be most impressed with is the way his team spread
the wealth around over the weekend.  Junior center Anson Carter was the only
Spartan to light the lamp more than once, with two power play goals on Saturday.Ten more Spartans tallied single goals in the two game series (Murray, Suk,
Sylvester, and Watt on Friday; Harlton, Crane, Tuzzolino, Keyes, Berens, and
Guolla on Saturday).  He also seems willing to stick with his all-freshman line
of Keyes, Watt, and Berens, which has shown some flashes of brilliance on the
ice.
 
The Spartans started slow on Friday, showing some defensive confusion as UIC
started the game with some aggresive fore-checking.  As has become habit during
his career, when the Spartans look sloppy, captain Rem Murray steps to the
fore (as he did last year in the Spartans' 4-2 win over UIC last year in the
only regular season contest between the two teams in East Lansing).  The
Spartans built a 3-0 lead and looked to give Buzak a rare shutout victory,
until early in the third when the Flames finally gave the goal judge something
to do.
 
Saturday's game saw a little more of a strong defensive effort from the Spar-
tans early, only allowing six shots through to Alban.  The Spartans opened up
a 4-1 lead midway through the second, until UIC tallied two quick goals on the
freshman netminder to pull within one.  It looked as if Mason might reach for
the hook, but the Spartans picked up a goal late in the second and added two
quick goals early in the third to earn Alban his first (of many, hopefully)
career victory.  The 5-8, 160 Alban turned aside 25 of 28 shots to pick up the
W, including a good stretch in the second during a 4-on-3 situation.
 
The Spartans now head to Kalamazoo for a Friday matchup against a team that has
had MSU's number recently, the Western Michigan Broncos.  It will be interestingto see how the team reacts to their first road trip of the season.  The team
depth seems to be a new weapon, as UIC coach Larry Petrie indicated.  He felt
his team just got worn out from having to face four strong lines from the gents
clad in Green and White.  Petrie's problem is that he gets to see the Spartans
one more time this month, when MSU visits the Windy City on Saturday.
 
After the two-game road trip, the Spartans return home to play probably the
most-anticipated game of the year, the first meeting with the defending nationalchampions, the Lake Superior State Lakers.  Assuredly, LSSU's welcome to Munn
Arena will not be as hospitable as their last trip here was.
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University 2-0-0, 3-0-0
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?