After spending three weeks in Granada, Spain, representing Team USA in the World University Games, center John Olen and goaltender Joe Olen will be back for the Illinois hockey team. And the timing couldn’t be more convenient.

For the first time since 2008, the Illinois Ice Arena serves as the host site for the CSCHL tournament. On Friday night, the No. 4 seeded Illini (21-15-1) start off the conference tournament with a quarterfinal game against No. 5 Iowa State (21-13-5) at the “Big Pond.”

Joe Olen expects the home crowd to be a factor this weekend, giving the Illini energy and an extra boost. Illinois is 15-4-0 at home this season, 9-0-0 at home on Fridays.

But the Illini’s greatest advantage might be the rink they play on. The Illinois Ice Arena’s rink is larger than regulation size and head coach Nick Fabbrini believes his team’s familiarity with the bigger ice will also give the Illini an edge against Iowa State.

“We’re going to try to take advantage of our speed,” Fabbrini said. “We think we skate better than they do as a team, so we’re going to look to take advantage of that out on a big ice here.”

Friday’s game will be the fifth time this season Illinois has faced Iowa State. In the Nov. 14-15 series at Illinois, the Illini swept the Cyclones, outscoring them 5-2 in the weekend. When Illinois traveled to Iowa State Jan. 9-10, the Cyclones returned the favor, sweeping Illinois and outscoring the Illini 10-3 in both games.

Fabbrini has strategized practice in accordance to what he observed in the first four encounters with Iowa State. One thing he noted is Iowa State limits its mistakes and instead pressures its opponents to make mistakes.

Since the teams’ first meeting, Iowa State’s goaltender Matt Cooper and forward J.P. Kascsak represented Team USA. The Cyclones have also added a couple of forwards this semester, who add scoring depth to the roster. Fabbrini admits Iowa State is a different team since the first series in November, but he thinks Illinois has also improved in that time.

Improvement has especially been noted during the absence of the Olen brothers. During that time, Illinois has gone 4-2-0. Freshmen James McGing and Eric Cruickshank have been key contributors to Illinois’ success. With the Olens back in the lineup Friday, Fabbrini said they will add to the Illini’s achievements.

“Anytime you get your captain and starting goalie back, it’s definitely going to be a boost,” Fabbrini said. “Especially with the way these other guys have stepped up in their absence.”

The winner of the Illinois vs. Iowa State game will face the No. 1 seed and regular season conference-champion Ohio (25-6-5) on Saturday in a semifinal game. The other Saturday semifinal game is between No. 3 Lindenwood (14-13-3) and last year’s tournament champs, No. 2 Robert Morris (29-4-2). The championship game is Sunday.

Before Illinois starts gearing up for possible games Saturday and Sunday, the focus remains on Iowa State.

“If we don’t focus on them, we’re going to be done Friday night anyways,” Fabbrini said. “If and when we’re able to beat Iowa State, that’s when we’ll start talking about Ohio.”

Matt can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @MattGertsmeier