Posted: 11/16/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Josh Birnbaum Illinois' Jason Nemeth tries to keep the puck away from a North Dakota State defender during the men's club hockey game at the Ice Arena in Champaign, Ill., on Saturday. This weekend the top-ranked Illini will go on the road to square off against No. 15 Kent State.

The No. 1-ranked Illinois men's hockey club will hit the road for just the third time this year, traveling to Kent State for a pair of Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) conference games this weekend.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association's (ACHA) top-ranked Illini will put its perfect 14-0 record on the line against the No. 15-ranked Golden Flashes on Friday and Saturday nights in Kent, Ohio, but the Illini will have to do it without a few key players.

Illinois will be without junior forward Kevin Wicklin, out with a broken foot, junior defenseman Dave Schmitt, who is suffering from a hernia, and senior forward Marshall Chubirka, who sat out last weekend's pair of wins against North Dakota State and is still ailing from a right shoulder injury. Additionally, freshman forward J.J. Heredia has been listed as inactive after injuring his left knee against the Bison in last Saturday's win.

"They are four of our best players and are all big losses for us," head coach Chad Cassel said. "Now it just becomes an opportunity for other guys who haven't seen much ice time to play more. We are going to need them to step up because it's a huge weekend for us."

Without Heredia and Chubirka, the Illini will be forced to switch up a few lines in hopes of replacing the offense both players usually provide.

J.J. Heredia is currently ranked third of the Illini with 21 points on nine goals and 12 assists. He has played in every game so far this season, while Chubirka, one of the Illini's assistant captains, has tallied nine points for the Illini in 12 games.

"J.J. and Marshall have both been two of our best players this year," junior forward Nick Fabbrini said. "Marshall is our most physical player so with him out we're going to have to be a lot more physical as a team this weekend."

The Illini are 6-0 in conference games and in a three-way tie for first place with Robert Morris College and Ohio University, with 24 points, and will have a chance to distance themselves from both schools this weekend while both the Eagles and Bobcats have the weekend off from conference play.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.

The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.

If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.