If you`re talking Illinois-Chicago hockey and home-ice excitement, the weekends don`t come much bigger than the one just past.
In splitting a pair of 6-3 decisions with the fifth-ranked Spartans of Michigan State, UIC broke two records for attendance and senior center Rick Judson set two personal marks.
In Saturday night`s 6-3 Flames victory, 5,577 fans showed up-an all-time record for a regular season CCHA game at the Pavilion (7,502 saw UIC play the U.S. Olympic team in 1988). The combined attendance for the series of 9,513 fans also is a UIC mark.
Judson, meanwhile, moved into second place all alone in career scoring. His hat trick Saturday gave him 155 points (69 goals, 86 assists) with at least 12 games left, including playoffs. Career leader Jeff Nelson is still a long way off, though, with 194. Judson also set a record for the earliest goal in a single period when he scored 8 seconds into the second period Saturday, breaking his own mark of :09.
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Senior goalie Damian Holland was named UIC player of the week. In his first start of the season Saturday, he stopped 40 of 43 shots.
In women`s basketball, Angela Gilbert ranks 10th nationally in rebounding at 11.2 per game. UIC (5-15) clobbered Chicago State 77-53 last week before falling 58-53 to Loyola Monday night at the Pavilion.
All-arounder Barry McDonald is still nursing injuries, but freshman Rick Simonski has helped plug the gap. He won the all-around (55.05) to lead the men`s gymnasts past Western Michigan 271.95-261.40 last week.
In swimming, the men lost to Notre Dame 133-108 but beat De Pauw 140-94 and Eastern Illinois 161-74. Freshman Tyler Koyle was UIC`s individual star, winning the 200 IM and 100 freestyle against De Pauw, the 200 and 500 freestyle against Eastern and the 200 butterfly and 200 IM against the Irish.