The Illinois men’s hockey team came up just short in getting a shot at defending its 2005 American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championship this past weekend in West Chester, PA.

In a rematch of last year’s title game, the fourth-seeded Illini were defeated by third-seed Penn State on Saturday 1-0 in the semifinals of the ACHA national tournament.

The Illini finished third with a 4-3 win over seventh-seed Lindenwood in the consolation game, while Penn State advanced to the title game only to be defeated by top-seeded Rhode Island 3-1 on Sunday.

“It is always an honor to be in a situation where you’re one of the top teams in the nation,” senior captain Steve Krates said. “We felt like we deserved a chance to play for the championship, but the bounces just didn’t go our way. But taking home third place in the ACHA is an honor. It is definitely an accomplishment that we are getting the program going in the right direction.”

The Illini advanced to the semifinal game with a 3-0 win over 13th-seeded Robert Morris College in the opening round and a 5-2 victory over fifth-seed Iowa State in the quarterfinals – setting up a highly anticipated matchup between two of the ACHA’s best teams.

It wasn’t until midway through the second period that either team was able to get on the scoreboard, and it wasn’t the Illini. Penn State’s freshman forward Lukas DeLorenzo scored his first goal of the tournament by bouncing the puck off Illini junior goaltender Mike DeGeorge’s leg and into the net.

“We started off the first period pretty slow and let Penn State take it to us,” Krates said. “But the third was one of our best periods we’ve played in a long time. We just didn’t have any bounces going our way in that game.”

The Illini would get an opportunity late in the game when the team went on the power play and DeGeorge was pulled for an extra attacker. But Penn State junior goaltender Chris Matteo was up to the challenge, turning away the Illini’s last chances and sending the Icers to its ninth-straight national championship game.

“It is a tough loss but you can’t win without scoring,” DeGeorge said. “We held them to one goal and that was a great job defensively, but the offense just didn’t come through for us. It was a tough loss and great goaltender battle. When you get two hot goalies it makes it hard to penetrate offensively. It is just unfortunate we were on the wrong side of the outcome.”

The loss sent the Illini to the ACHA’s consolation game against seventh-seeded Lindenwood University, who upset second-seeded Ohio University in triple-overtime in the quarterfinals before being defeated by top seed Rhode Island in the semifinals.

Lindenwood held Illinois to only five shots in the first period and jumped out to a 1-0 lead over the Illini. But three goals in the second period, including two by junior Mike Kincaid, put the Illini ahead of the Lions 3-2 going into the final period of play.

Freshman Jason Nemeth would add an insurance goal to put the Illini up 4-2 midway through the third period. The goal proved important as Lindenwood cut the lead to one with six minutes left, but DeGeorge shut the door on the Lions and preserved a 4-3 win in the Illini’s final game of the season.

“Obviously anytime you play a consolation game it is like a gut check,” DeGeorge said. “We wanted to send the seniors home with a win, and as much as we would’ve liked to be playing for the championship, it was a nice moral victory for the team.”

Illinois’ third-place finish was the fourth time under head coach Chad Cassel that the Illini finished in the top four at the ACHA national tournament.

The Illini finished the season with an overall record of 32-6-1. The team’s 32 wins are the most since the 2002-2003 season in which Illinois finished with a team record 37 wins and also finished third at the national tournament.

“It is not easy to win a National Championship,” DeGeorge said. “Everybody has to play perfect and that is hard to do. Overall we had a very successful year and we hope our fans are satisfied. We have a lot of talented players on this year’s team and we are losing three very talented seniors. But next year we will be starting with the same base from this year’s team so it is going to help us surpass the 32 wins we got this year.”