Postseason seeding on line as Illinois hockey battles rival Lindenwood

The Illini hockey team has had this weekend circled on its calendar since the beginning of the season.

When Illinois and nemesis Lindenwood face off, skates get laced tighter, sticks get more tape and a fiery tension can be felt radiating off the cool ice.

Although the Illini (22-6-1, 11-6-1 CSCHL) have been mathematically eliminated from the regular-season CSCHL title, this weekend’s series at division rival Lindenwood (32-3-1) still carries a lot of weight for the squad.

“I think this is a good test for us, obviously with Lindenwood being the No. 1 team ” sophomore forward Andrew Cardona said. They’re going to be in contention right until the end. I think this is a good test to see what we need to get accomplished before the league and national tournaments come up.”

In the first matchup of the season between the two teams, Illinois was swept on its own ice. The series left some of the Illini players with a bad taste in their mouths, adding more blood to an already vicious rivalry.

“For the last two years, there has been terrible blood between the two teams,” senior Brad Hoelzer said. “With them sweeping us at home in front of our own fans, it’s something we haven’t forgot about.”

While the Illinois players are fired up to go into Lindenwood and try to bite back for their earlier matchup, head coach Chad Cassel knows that two wins this weekend might mean an easier road in the playoffs.

“It means a lot for us because we still have seedings for both our league tournament and the national tournament,” Cassel said. “You want to go in with the best seeding possible. I think this year more than ever it’s especially important with all the auto-bids, especially for the national tournament. You’re going to have three or four auto-bids, which are teams that aren’t in the top 16 (rankings). It would just make that first game much easier. This is a big weekend for us.”

Both teams are coming off sour divisional losses. Lindenwood suffered just its third loss of the season against divisional opponent Kent State at home last weekend. The Lions have a different look from the first time they skated against the Illini, as three of their key players were kicked off the team because of poor grades.

“They definitely lost a couple key guys to their team,” senior forward Matt Jennings said. “It’s a big loss for them, but we’re still going to approach it like it’s any old Lindenwood team. They are still a good team. They have a lot of good players that can score and a solid defense, so it’s going to be two tough games.”

Jennings and Cardona were two of the forwards looked upon last weekend to carry a depleted Illinois offense, with leading-scorer JJ Heredia lost until the playoffs. In Friday’s game against Ohio, Cassel was impressed with front squad. However, Saturday was a different story. The team scored just one goal, losing 4-1.

“Especially on Friday, I felt like it was a good effort all around,” Cassel said. “Guys were working hard. Mike McBride has been our best player the last few weeks. He’s been working hard, and consistently playing well since the Robert Morris weekend, and he’s a very talented player. It’s been big for us. We need a big team effort. We need more than just one or two guys stepping up their game.”

But a bright spot for the Illini was their special teams, which Coach Cassel called one of his keys to winning this weekend’s series along with staying out of the penalty box. Illinois went 3-for-7 on the power play over the weekend.

One of the big question marks of the Ohio series was how Hoelzer would respond to being moved up to the attack from his spot on defense.

“It’s still a work in progress, it’s a tough transition for Brad. Although he’s played the position before, it has been a couple of years and there is still plenty to work on there,” Cassel said.

Illinois is going to need its front to respond strong, as it only scored four goals combined in its first series against Lindenwood.

“The last time we played them we had a great Saturday night that came down to a special teams game,” said captain Pierce Butler. “I think right now our special teams is 10 times better than it was at the beginning of the year. Man-to-man, shift-to-shift, I think we can beat Lindenwood this weekend. It’s an important series because we’re gauging ourselves like it’s the national tournament.”