As if playing on the road against the No. 3 team in the country wasn’t hard enough.

The Illinois hockey team will hit the road to Ohio to take on the Bobcats shorthanded this weekend. After a brawl in Saturday’s contest against Lindenwood, three Illini players were given one-game suspensions, while a fourth, Kent Kovlasky, was given a two-game ban. Forwards John Olen, Nick Stuercke and Kevin Chowaniec must all sit out Friday’s contest.

“There’s a lot more pressure,” defenseman Mike Evans said. “There’s a lot of pressure on our top line guys to produce when we’re missing some key guys in the lineup.”

Although scoring has never been a problem for the Illini (12-5-2) being without the freshmen Olen and Chowaniec — two of the team’s top four scorers — presents a challenge for the Illinois forwards. That offense was on display just two weeks ago on Nov. 2-3 when these two teams faced off at the Big Pond.

Illinois came out and embarrassed the Bobcats by a 5-0 margin in the first game, before the Bobcats responded in turn with a 3-1 victory in the next game.

Ohio (13-2-1) faced a similar scenario in the team’s first meeting that Illinois is dealing with right now. Bobcats forwards Brett Agnew and Jonathan Gulch were held out of the 5-0 loss, but with the two forwards back in the lineup, Ohio returned to form and were able to salvage a split.

“I’m sure they remember losing 5-0,” head coach Nick Fabbrini said. “I expect them to try and fill the net against us and try and bury as many as they can.”

With the offense missing in the lineup on Friday, Fabbrini said that extra emphasis needed to be put in the defensive zone, an area where the Illini have struggled all year long. Even with the shutout against the Bobcats on Nov. 2, Illinois is averaging 3.5 goals per game allowed against conference opponents this year, parlaying to a 3-3 record.

“We’re going to have to step up our focus on the defensive zone,” Fabbrini said. “I don’t think we can go in there and expect to score five or six goals and come away with a win, we need to play to win 2-1 or 3-2.”

Despite the suspensions, Illinois has been strong on Friday nights all year long. The Illini have won on four consecutive Fridays, and six of their past seven on the year, yet Illinois has lost three straight Saturdays and four of its past five Saturday matchups.

“We play really strong on Friday nights,” Evans said. “I’m not too worried about the fact that we’re missing a few guys because I think we’re ready to step up to the challenge.”

With a week off for Thanksgiving looming next week, the Illini will have a whole week to either celebrate or stew on their performance this weekend.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.