The MSU hockey team registered its first series sweep since late October by thumping Alaska-Fairbanks 6-2 on Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena.
Sophomore right wing Mike Lalonde led MSU's dominating effort with two goals in the second period - which gave him four tallies in the last three games.
The Spartans out-played the Nanooks for most of the night, and they even notched a pair of short-handed goals - one by Lalonde and one by senior defenseman John-Michael Liles - in front of 6,588 fans.
MSU beat Fairbanks 5-2 in Friday's series-opener. The Spartans (11-9-1 overall, 7-6-0 CCHA) desperately needed to sweep the Nanooks (8-9-3, 5-8-3) this weekend to climb back into the conference title race. With the four points, they moved up into a tie for seventh place, nine points behind first-place Ferris State.
Sophomore goaltender Matt Migliaccio turned away 33 shots Saturday for MSU.
Nanook goalie Preston McKay made 16 saves before being pulled in favor of Lance Mayes with 5:53 left in the second period. Mayes made 11 stops the rest of the way.
MSU jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Liles and freshman right wing Colton Fretter.
Liles scored his seventh goal of the year at 8:47, while the Spartans were playing a man down. Seeing a Nanook pass cruising through the neutral zone, Liles cut hard and intercepted the puck. If he had missed it, it almost certainly would have been a 3-on-0 rush for Fairbanks, but one he gained possession, he had a clear path to McKay.
He faked a slap shot in the left circle and then wristed the puck between McKay's legs for his fourth goal in five games.
Less than two minutes later, Fretter got the rebound of sophomore center Ash Goldie's shot and slipped the puck past McKay's outstretched right skate for his fourth goal of the year.
Fairbanks halved MSU's lead on a power-play rebound goal by center Blaine Bablitz 1:42 into the second, but Lalonde answered with his first tally of the game 34 seconds later.
After sophomore center Jim Slater missed a breakaway, Lalonde circled from behind the net and jammed a backhand shot between McKay's pads.
The Spartans took a firm stranglehold on the game when freshman right wing Nenad Gajic scored three seconds after a Nanook penalty to chase McKay from the net at 14:07 of the second, making it 4-1.
Lalonde added a short-handed marker with 13.1 seconds left in the second, and then Goldie notched a power-play goal one minute into the third to up MSU's cushion to 6-1.
Bablitz poked in another power-play goal with 8:19 remaining, completing the game's scoring.
MSU went 1-for-8 with a man-advantage Saturday, while the Nanooks went 2-for-8.
The Spartans' next action is a home series against Nebraska-Omaha on Jan. 17-18.
Personnel: MSU dressed the same 23 players as Friday night, but head coach Rick Comley changed around some of his forward lines Saturday. Most notably, Lalonde moved back to the first line, while Fretter was demoted to the third.
Position-wise, Goldie switched from center to left wing, Gajic moved from right wing to center, and sophomore Brock Radunske went from left wing to right wing.
Gajic also went down to the third line and Radunske moved up to the second.
Injury scares: Senior defenseman Brad Fast and freshman defenseman Corey Potter both had to be helped off the ice at different times Saturday, but both returned to action later in the game.
