With the season coming to a close, there are going to be a lot of lasts in the near future for the No. 9 Illinois hockey team. No. 4 Robert Morris’ coming to town this visit will mark the Illini’s last conference home game of the season.
Even though the Orange and Blue have yet to face Robert Morris this year, familiar faces are sure to be on the ice.
“There might be a little bit more pride on the line just because there are so many Chicago area guys on their team,” head coach Nick Fabbrini said. “I think there’s a lot of familiarity between the two of us, so that will probably lend itself to some added intensity this weekend.”
Personal pride may be on the line this weekend, but something the Illini have taken pride in all semester is their power play and penalty kill.
“Our special teams are really good. … We’re about 29 percent on the power play and something around 90 percent on the kill,” junior forward Matt Welch said. “That’s something we’ve been priding ourselves on. … I know they are going to have a pretty good special teams because Chico (Adrathas) is their coach.”
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Some of the Illini are sure to be just as familiar with the Eagles’ players as they are their head coach, Adrathas. With assistant coach Dan Rooney and Nick Clarke having played for Adrathas, some tactics may be recognizable.
“Our assistant coach, has played for (Adrathas,) he knows him really well. He knows what he likes to do. I wouldn’t say it’s an advantage, because he can switch things up like that,” Welch said. “ Just knowing that he is going to switch the game up instead of keeping things one-dimensional means we have to switch our game up as the game goes on.”
The result of this weekend’s two-game series could play a role in switching up the CSCHL standings as well. There are as many contingencies for who will win the conference as there are checks in a game. But with a clean sweep, the Illini can pick up 12 conference points this weekend, and with at least one Lindenwood loss, the Illini would secure a spot at the top of the conference with momentum on their side.
The top two teams in the conference are guaranteed a bye for the first round of the CSCHL tournament.
Both the Eagles and the Illini will be looking to earn that free pass to secure some extra rest for the postseason, a postseason where the two teams may meet again.
Patrick can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @_patrickkelley_.
