Eliminated from regular-season title contention, hockey focuses on postseason play

Illinois' Tom Connell (9) skates back to his team at the end of the game while goaltender Mike Burda (1) looks at the last goal Ohio scored at the UI Ice Arena on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. The Illini were knocked of out contention for the season conference title.
Christine Chung The Daily Illini

Coming into each season, the Illinois hockey team has three goals: win the regular-season CSCHL title, win the CSCHL Tournament and ultimately come home with the ACHA National Championship hardware.

With a split against Ohio at home this past weekend, Illinois will not be able to reach the first of its trio of goals. After Friday’s win, the Illini still mathematically had a shot at taking the title, but realistically, it would have been a stretch.

Sitting in third in the conference standings, the Illini (22-6-1, 11-6-1 CSCHL) would have needed help from the two teams in front of them, Lindenwood and Ohio. With a loss to Ohio on Saturday, however, Illinois didn’t help itself.

But despite being out of the regular-season title picture, the Illini know the season boils down to being prepared for the big picture.

“Winning the league is important, but it’s semi-important,” senior forward Tom Connell said. “The most important thing is the national tournament. If we want to give ourselves the easiest possible route, we got to win these games to get the best seeding. It’s nice to win the league tournament, but in all honesty it doesn’t really matter. No one really remembers who won the regular-season tournament.”

Losses like the one the Illini suffered Saturday are the kind that has been more of a concern than capturing the regular-season title for much of the season. In the its nine series against conference opponents, Illinois has split five of them — all against teams in the top 25 of the latest ACHA national polls.

With the Illini certain to face similar competition in the one-and-done national tournament, the team understands there is much to be done if it hopes to capture its third goal.

“Our consistency is a huge concern because you have to be able to string some wins together,” head coach Chad Cassel said. “We’re not a good enough team to take a shift off, let alone a night. We got a lot of work to do. We got a big series next weekend against Lindenwood. We got to regroup and get ready to come out and work hard in St. Louis.”

Double-duty

One area of play in which consistency wasn’t a concern this past weekend against the Bobcats was goaltending.

For the first time all season, the Illini used the same goalie for an entire series instead of splitting the duties between Mike Burda and DJ Kohler.

Burda, who has been the more consistent goalie of the two since the second semester started, came up huge in Friday’s win but could only do so much in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat.

“I thought he played well (Friday), so I gave him an opportunity to play (Saturday),” Cassel said. “DJ will get another shot. But obviously Burda was not our problem (Saturday), he played fine.”

Burda stopped 37 shots in Friday’s game, none bigger than the flurry of saves he made late in the third period and in overtime. After giving up the equalizing goal on the penalty kill with five minutes to go in regulation, Burda staved off another Ohio power play in overtime with a series of dazzling saves before stopping all three Ohio players during the shootout.

Burda was not surprised about getting the nod for Saturday’s game but did see the consecutive starts as something important for a goalie come tournament time.

“I appreciated that (start) from Chad, but I think I deserved it,” said Burda, who recorded 29 saves Saturday. “Friday night was a battle in goaltending, and sometimes you got to go with the hot hand. I didn’t come out as hot (Saturday) as I wanted, but you like to start building up and get hot for nationals. I personally felt great, I’m pretty happy with my effort.”

Filling a Hoel(zer)

Looking at the stat sheet, it might not seem like defenseman Brad Hoelzer’s switch to the forward corps was significant. But the team likes what it saw in his first action at forward this past weekend.

“It was good,” Connell said about playing on a line with Hoelzer. “I thought he did really well. He brings a different approach to it, he’s got a lot of speed. Playing defense, he approaches the game a little different. It’s something I like added, I like to be able to throw the puck to his side and let him get in a foot race with a defender that he will win nine times out of 10.”

Hoelzer tallied one point in the series, an assist on a Rob Deubel power-play goal early in the second period of Friday’s game. The puck possession and ability to get the puck to the net that Hoelzer displayed often in Friday’s game stalled a bit Saturday — but it was expected.

“It’s tough because he just got thrown in there,” Cassel said. “There’s a lot of work to be down there. He provides good energy, and he has a lot of offensive ability.”