The North Dakota State University men’s basketball team wasn’t the only team of Bisons to score a major upset last weekend.

The North Dakota State men’s hockey team upset the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s fourth-ranked Illinois men’s hockey club in the first of two games this past weekend.

The Bison’s 4-3 overtime win snapped Illinois 16-game home winning streak and extended the Illini’s losing streak to five games. The Illini, however, were able to avenge the loss on Saturday night, beating the Bisons 5-2.

“I thought we had a lot of offensive opportunities both nights,” head coach Chad Cassel said. “The effort was there on Friday night, but we weren’t finishing and it cost us. We let them hang around and ended up losing in overtime.”

Friday night the Illini fans were out in full force, as a standing room only crowd welcomed the Illini back home for its first home game in seven weeks.

After two periods the game was tied 1-1 heading into the third period. But a penalty at the end of the second period would come back to hurt the Illini, as North Dakota State scored on the man advantage 1:59 into the third period to take a 2-1 lead.

The Illini would come back midway through the third period, when sophomore Nick Fabbrini redirected a shot from the point past the Bison goalie to tie the game at two. Less than two minutes later Illini sophomore Drew Heredia and freshman Jason Nemeth hooked up on a two-on-one odd man break for Heredia’s second goal of the game to give the Illini a 3-2 lead.

The Illini were sent into its second overtime game of the season after a late North Dakota State powerplay goal by Bison captain Nick Krebsbach.

A penalty against Illini sophomore Joey Resch midway through the overtime would prove costly, as Krebsbach beat Illini junior goaltender Mike DeGeorge with 38 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Bison a 4-3 upset win.

Saturday night the Bison’s sophomore goaltender Scot Mickelson blanked the Illini in the first period, turning away Illinois’ scoring opportunities early in the game.

Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Illini finally broke through against Mickelson, scoring three times in the second period with goals by freshman Johnny Liang, and sophomores Fabbrini and Nemeth.

Leading 3-2 going into the final period of play, the Illini tacked on two more goals to put away the Bison and end its five game losing streak.

“We finished on our chances on Saturday night,” Fabbrini said. “Friday night we had around 45 shots on goal and we just weren’t finishing. We just really barred down and finished on our chances on Saturday.”

After moving its record to 19-5, the Illini hope to carry the momentum gathered from Saturday night’s win and put together another winning streak as they head into the home stretch of the season.

“I don’t know the last time I lost five games on any team in a row,” Heredia said. “It was hard having a month off and then having to come back and play the two toughest teams in the league. So now that we have a couple weekends under our belt again we’re back in the flow. We have a lot of the season left, and we’re hoping to finish out without another loss.”

Illinois will welcome Saint Louis University to the “Big Pond” next weekend for a pair of Central States Collegiate Hockey League games and look to extend its winning streak against the Billikens to five games.

“I thought we had a good week of practice this week,” Cassel said. “It’s good to get the first win under our belt and hopefully we can roll and have another good week of practice.”