“It’s not about how you start; it’s about how you finish.”

A generic quote, granted, but one Illinois can definitely use to move on from losses piled up from potentially its toughest part of the schedule.

Now, Illinois isn’t on the brink of a lost season by any means, and it’s still early. Over the past four setbacks – three losses in regulation and one in overtime – each coming to teams ranked in the top ten nationally: No. 2 Lindenwood, No. 3 Minot State and No. 10 Central Oklahoma. But after facing the brutal stretch, Illinois is finally in the manageable part of its schedule and has an opportunity to get on a roll.

Coming to the Big Pond ice arena this week are the Maryville Saints, who are currently struggling on the year with a 5-10 record, losing nine out of their last 12 games.

Although, on paper, it looks like the Illini should snap their losing skid. But despite Maryville’s overall struggles and mounting losses, the Saints haven’t been completely inept offensively, scoring at least two goals in the past ten games.

Maryville, who boasts plenty of players with a handful of goals, is lead offensive by Timothy Prexler, a six-foot, 175 pounds forward who’s scored 18 points on the entire season, including scoring a goal in three straight games. With an even amount of goals scored and goals assisted, Prexler could wreak havoc for the Illini by either taking it into his own hands or getting others on his team involved.

But this past weekend in the Chicago Classic, Illinois split the two-game series, losing the first game 4-1 to Minot State before storming back to knock off the University of Nevada, Las Vegas 4-1, signs of improvement for a defense that has struggled to shut down opposing offenses as of late. Illinois head coach Nick Fabbrini noted last week he thought the improved defensive play was the difference of the results, not the goalie switch to Jake Barnhart in the UNLV game.

As for Maryville’s defensive outlook, the Saints utilize a goalie-by-committee approach, using Arren Romeril, Edward Coffey and John Massara, with the former two getting the majority of playing time. While Romeril has accumulated the most starts so far this season (nine), it appears Coffey has taken on more of the load with Romeril only going 1-7 in his starts.

While Coffey has played a bit better than Romeril, the Saints are still vulnerable to being exposed defensively, and with the Illini prone to hot starts, games could get out of hand quickly.

After this two-game weekend series back at home with Maryville, who’s had a rough beginning to the campaign, the Illini seem like they have a perfect chance to pad up some victories and move on from their recent struggles against the top teams in the nation: Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and Robert Morris — teams who have less than stellar seasons — follow for Illinois.

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