Columbus, Ohio - The cities and opponents keep changing, but the theme throughout the MSU hockey team has stayed the same: The Spartans aren't scoring enough to win.

And win they didn't in a two-game series at Ohio State this weekend.

The Buckeyes out-played MSU both Friday and Saturday, cruising to 5-2 and 4-1 victories. MSU (5-5-0 overall, 3-3-0 CCHA) only generated 20 shots on goal each night, while OSU posted 37 and 34.

Except for a seven-goal outburst against Lake Superior State on Oct. 24, the Spartans have been plagued by offensive inconsistency all season. In their other nine games, they are averaging only 2.33 tallies a contest.

First-year MSU head coach Rick Comley was known for cultivating potent goal-scoring teams at Northern Michigan. And upon taking the MSU job in March, he vowed to jazz up the Spartans' stagnant offense.

But revamping the youthful team has been tougher than he expected.

"You've got to have talent to get shots," Comley said Saturday. "We're a little bit devoid of talent right now. There are no secrets in this game, you've got to be able to skate, and handle the puck, and have skill and maturity. We're deficient.

"But our kids played hard. This was just a classic example of a team with 15 or 16 juniors and seniors against a team with five or six. There's never a time to panic, there's never a time to give up. This is just 10 games, and you play 38 or 40."

MSU hadn't been swept since last October at Nebraska-Omaha. The Spartans hadn't been swept by OSU since November 1972.

The last time the Spartans' record was .500 or worse through 10 games was in 1990, when they started 3-4-3 and finished 14-13-5.

"I can't really put a finger on what's going on with this team," sophomore forward Mike Lalonde said. "It's not a question I can answer. Work ethic is usually the answer for everything and, obviously, we're not getting the job done."

OSU (8-2-1, 5-0-1) lived up to its billing as a league-title contender this weekend, displaying the deft passing and offensive quickness that Comley covets. The Buckeyes also got solid goaltending from Mike Betz, who made 37 saves during the weekend.

But while OSU was clearly the better team at Value City Arena, the Spartans didn't put up much of a fight. Senior left wing Brian Maloney even said that a few of his teammates aren't pulling their weight.

"I think you can tell the difference between the guys who are working hard and the guys who aren't working hard," Maloney said. "Guys just have to go out there and play the game and maybe not think about the individual side of the game. We have all the skill in the world, but you're not going to win anything with skill."

MSU's bright spots were few and far between this weekend, but Lalonde and senior forward Troy Ferguson both scored their first goals of the season. Sophomore center Jim Slater also continued his hot streak, scoring a slop goal Friday.

Slater now has four goals this season, three of which have come in his last three games.

Sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio made 32 saves Friday, but twisted his knee in a first-period collision and didn't play Saturday. In his place, freshman Justin Tobe made 30 saves on 34 shots.