Hockey eyes prize of league title

In the first leg of its road trip, the Illinois hockey club will travel to a smaller rink and a bigger stage for a two-game series against No. 11 Iowa State this weekend.

By winning their next four games, all of which are away from home, the Illini (25-0-0, 14-0-0 CSCHL) will secure their first regular-season Central States Collegiate Hockey League title since 2003.

"We've got three goals for the year: winning the regular season (title), league (title) and Nationals. We've almost got one of three locked down," goaltender Mike Burda said.

This weekend, however, the Illini will have to stop another double-digit win streak.

The Cyclones (24-8-0, 8-6-0 CSCHL) have won 14 straight games and scored at least six goals in all but three of them. They also have a recent history of success against the Illini in crucial road games.

The most recent meeting of the two teams came in last season's Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament final. Despite sweeping Iowa State at the Ice Arena earlier in the season, the Illini lost to the Cyclones 5-3.

"They're going to be excited to play us (this weekend)," head coach Chad Cassel said. "We're going to have to show up ready to play, and we're going to need a better effort than we had (against Ohio)."

The Illini narrowly escaped their first loss of the season last Saturday against Ohio, surviving an 11-round shootout to remain undefeated. As the conference and national tournaments draw near, the Illini are expecting more close contests.

"We're going to be in games like that," forward Alex Park said. "We're not going to stomp every team 10-0."

The Illini will also be seeing two different playing environments this weekend. After Friday's contest at the Ames/ISU Arena, the series finale will be played on Saturday in Des Moines' Wells Fargo Arena - which seats more than 15,000 fans.

Throughout the series, however, the Illini will likely find themselves cramped on the ice itself. Most rinks the Illini play on away from home are much narrower than the Ice Arena's wider, Olympic-style ice surface, and this weekend will be no exception.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association has no regulations for rink width.

"Iowa State loves to play on small rinks; they're a big, physical team," center Drew Heredia said.

Heredia added that competing on the small rinks will be "a big indicator" for the ACHA National Tournament, which will be played on a similar ice surface at the ESL Sports Centre in Rochester, N.Y.

With the regular season winding down and the tournament season rapidly approaching, the Illini have reached the home stretch of what may become a season for the record books.

"Obviously, we've just got to win these last four, I mean, the first undefeated team ever would be awesome," Park said. "(Last Saturday) was kind of an off game for us, but if we play as a team I don't think we can lose."