The Illinois men’s hockey club kept its perfect record last weekend with a pair of wins on the road against the red-hot Western Michigan Stallions.

The Stallions came into the weekend having lost just one game of its first 11, but the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s No. 2-ranked Illini shut down Western Michigan, beating the Stallions 7-3 and 5-2 to move their record to 10-0 on the season.

Sophomore forward Jason Nemeth and freshman forward Jason Jennings led the way for the Illini. Nemeth finished the two-game series with four goals, while Jennings came away with four assists for the Illini.

“These were the two biggest wins of the season for us so far,” head coach Chad Cassel said.

“We played well and our special teams came up huge for us all weekend and really were the key to our success,” he added.

On Friday night, the Illini came out strong and sent a quick message to Western Michigan that they would not fall victim to an upset.

The Illini scored three goals in the first period, two courtesy of Nemeth, who would later add a third goal in the second period for a hat trick.

“Jason’s been playing well all year and he really stepped it up for us with some big goals on Friday,” Cassel said.

The Illini lead 5-1 going into the third period, but Western Michigan scored two goals with just over 10 minutes left to play.

The Illini responded with two goals by Jennings and fellow freshman Brad Hoelzer to quickly slam the door in the face of the Stallions.

It would be the Stallions who got off to a fast start Saturday, though.

Western Michigan jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period and became just the second team to out-shoot the Illini in a game this season.

Despite being out-shot 34-32, Illinois used its special teams to take down the Stallions.

The Illini scored four power-play goals and forced Western Michigan to go 0-for-10 on the power play en route to its 5-2 victory.

Over the course of the two games the Stallions were 0-for-13 on the power play, in large part to the play of Illini senior goaltender Mike DeGeorge.

DeGeorge frustrated the Stallions offense all weekend, stopping 54 of Western Michigan’s 59 shots.

“Our penalty kill was the best it’s been all season,” Cassel said.

“I’ve never seen so many 5-on-3 man advantages in one weekend, but we stepped up and shut them down. A large part of that was Mike’s play in net. All great penalty kill units start with good goaltending, and he really came up with some big saves for us,” he added.

The two wins boosted the Illini’s record to 4-0 in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League, allowing them to remain in second place in the CSCHL and just four points behind CSCHL leader Ohio University at 6-0.

“Anytime you can go on the road in your conference and get wins it’s big,” Cassel said.

“But we have to start getting off to better starts at the beginning of games and come out with more intensity,” he added.

Illinois will look to catch Ohio in the standings this weekend when it faces off against Eastern Michigan at home at the University of Illinois Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.