If Nenad Gajic scores against Michigan tonight, his parents, Lazo and Helen Gajic, are going to stick out like sore thumbs at Yost Ice Arena.

After all, Nenad is an MSU hockey player, and the Spartans and their parents are considered enemies in Ann Arbor.

But one key thing will separate the Gajics from the rest of the MSU hockey parents. If their son scores, they'll be cheering his goal from a precarious spot in the middle of the U-M hockey parents' section.

It surely would be strange, but the Gajics have an excuse for their location. They got those seats from a different son - Milan Gajic, a sophomore forward for U-M. The Gajic brothers and their respective teams play a home-and-home series this weekend.

"It's going to be very tough for us," Lazo Gajic said from the family's home in Burnaby, British Columbia. "I don't know how to handle it, but I wouldn't be afraid to cheer for my sons."

Saturday night, the Gajic parents and the series will shift to Munn Ice Arena, which could find them audibly cheering for the Maize and Blue in Spartan country.

"I don't think it would be fair to root for one team or one son," Lazo Gajic (pronounced "guyish") said. "It wouldn't be right. Both teams are the same to me, so I hope both of them have good games and whatever comes out, comes out.

"I'm not going to wear any blue or green or whatever colors you have there."

Milan Gajic, 21, has nine goals this year, including four in his last four games for the Wolverines. Nenad, a freshman, has scored four goals overall, most recently Jan. 11 against Alaska-Fairbanks.

Tonight will be the first time the Gajic parents have seen Nenad play for MSU in person. They traveled to a handful of Milan's games last year, including "The Cold War" in Spartan Stadium, but they haven't visited East Lansing since then.

And this weekend's series is even more interesting to them because the brothers have never played against each other in either of their two major endeavors - hockey or lacrosse. Together, the duo won the Canadian junior lacrosse national championship with the Burnaby Lakers this summer.

But tonight, they are part of a bitter rivalry, and both of them vowed not to take it easy on their sibling.

"I'm not going to go kill him," said Milan, who was suspended for two U-M games because of academic troubles in November. "But you can't pass up something during the game.

"I'm not going to hesitate to take him out if I need to, and I'm sure he won't hesitate to take me out."

Lazo Gajic said the boys were extremely competitive growing up, and many of their one-on-one childhood games ended in fisticuffs. But as the boys grew older, they became more supportive of each other.

"The rivalry only goes so far," Nenad said. "When you're talking about family, you just want the best for each other. At the same time, I can't wait to get this going - I wish we were playing right now."

A center by trade, Nenad is more of a two-way player than his offensively gifted brother. But Nenad has struggled to find his niche at MSU, bouncing around forward lines and between center and right wing.

He was a healthy scratch for MSU's last two games, a move MSU head coach Rick Comley said was designed to "get him going."

"I have something to prove, obviously," Nenad said. "There's even more pressure on me now, more than just playing against my brother and with my parents here.

"But I've been excited for this all season, not just because of my brother, but because it's Michigan/Michigan State."

No matter who wins tonight, there will be no trash-talking between the brothers in the postgame handshake line. After all, the teams have to do it all over again Saturday in East Lansing.

However, if one team manages a sweep, the loser can expect to get an earful later.

"Probably not till Sunday or Monday though," Milan said. "After the games, I'm just going to tell him 'good game,' and our parents will probably take a photo-op on the ice."

Indeed, for Lazo Gajic, getting scrapbook pictures is more important than the game outcomes this weekend.

"I don't know which one will win, but there will be a Gajic win," he said.