Club hockey team awaits final series at 'Big Pond' against Adrian College

With the seniors preparing to make their final appearances on their home ice, the Illini look to put the finishing touches on an undefeated regular season against No. 24 Adrian College this Friday and Saturday.

The two games will be the final series the Illinois hockey club will play at the UI Ice Arena this season.

For seniors Joey Resch, Ricky Gomez, Johnny Liang, Drew Heredia, Nick Fabbrini, Kevin Wicklin, Dave Schmitt and Alex Park, it will be the final time they will be playing on the "Big Pond".

The Bulldogs (15-19-0) will be the final competition for the Illini (32-0-0) before March's American Collegiate Hockey Association national tournament.

Defenseman Brad Hoelzer, who was named the most valuable player of the CSCHL tournament, said taking on the Bulldogs this weekend would be "tuneup game(s)."

"Once we get to nationals, it'll be all business," Hoelzer said.

The Illini have been steadily improving throughout the second half of the season, said Heredia, the team's captain, who thinks it "looks good" for nationals.

"We've been playing solid every game and getting better every week," Heredia said, adding that last week's championship game victory over Lindenwood "was the first complete 60 minute game that we have put together in a while."

The Bulldogs are in their inaugural year of hockey in the top-heavy ACHA.

It was only last August that the school completed the Arrington Ice Arena, a $5.5 million facility that fostered the formation of an ACHA Division I club team, as well as an NCAA Division III team.

Despite promising victories against defending ACHA Division I national champion Oakland and Division II champion Michigan State, the Bulldogs have struggled in their conference and will play on the wide, unorthodox ice surface of the "Big Pond" for the first time in team history.

Conversely, with a little more than two weeks remaining in their quest for perfection, the Illini have all the expected confidence of an undefeated and, perhaps, unbeatable team.

"If we keep playing like we have, I can't see that loss column getting any higher," goaltender Mike Burda said.