How the mighty have fallen.

The No. 10 Lindenwood (4-5-3) entered the season primed to be one of the nations best teams, as it was No. 2 in preseason rankings. Friday and Saturday’s games will be the first time in years No. 8 Illinois (11-4-2) has a higher ranking than Lindenwood.

After beginning the season 0-3, the Lions have not been able to get in a consistent groove. Lindenwood has already suffered two sweeps, one at the hand of Central Oklahoma, a team Illinois dominated a few weekends ago.

After coming off an impressive split against No. 2 Ohio last weekend, Illinois looks to turn its fortunes around against a Lindenwood program that has dominated the Illini. In four meetings last year, the Lions won each game handily en route to a 31-5 record that season.

Junior forward Matt Welch said sweeping the series “is a must” for Illinois.

“These games are very important for us,” he said. “The past couple of years that I’ve been here, Lindenwood has been a top team.”

The Illini’s key to victory against the Lions will be getting shots on net. A stubborn Lindenwood defense is allowing only 26 shots per game, but sophomore goaltender Kirk Croswell’s save percentage is only .880. Getting pucks to net shouldn’t be an issue for Illinois, as the team averages just under four goals per game.

“I think we just need to play our game,” Welch said. “We know what we do well and what kind of team we are. Individually, guys need to play to their strengths.”

One of those strengths will be size. Head coach Nick Fabbrini is sure to use both Welch and sophomore forward Derek Schultz as screeners in front of Croswell to deflect shots and clean up loose pucks.

Both players are over 6 feet and are tough to move when stationed in front of the net.

“We have to make sure we have a lot of net presence against them,” senior forward Scott Barrera said. “A lot of goals we scored against them in the past were mostly off of rebounds and loose pucks in the crease.”

Fabbrini said the Illini’s focus against a weaker opponent will be a concern. He has said one of the team’s main problems is playing down to its opposition, which was evident in head-scratching losses to Michigan State and Arizona.

“We have stressed all week what Lindenwood is capable of,” Barrera said. “They have played really well every time we have played them since I have been here (late 2009), so we need to ignore how they have been playing and make sure we do everything right.”

Blake can be reached at [email protected] and @BlakeP.