The Illinois hockey team has been known for its physicality. But sometimes, that physicality can cause an extended number of injuries.

Two key players, freshman forward Josh Belmont and sophomore forward Kevin Chowaniec, have been added to the list of Illini injuries after a tough two-game series against Robert Morris.

Belmont suffered a big hit in Friday night’s game, leading him to miss action Saturday. He’s been no contact in practice this week, but head coach Nick Fabbrini doesn’t think his injury is too serious to keep him out for a long period of time.

“Belmont got his bell rung a little bit on Friday, so that was more of a precautionary thing,” Fabbrini said. “Hopefully we’ll get him back out there this week.”

Chowaniec’s injury — a concussion during Saturday’s game — was much more serious. He is expected to miss three to four weeks. Fabbrini stressed the importance of being cautious with a head injury of this caliber.

“Until he’s 100 percent cleared and all that, he won’t be back on the ice,” Fabbrini said. “We won’t be messing around with anything like that.”

Belmont and Chowaniec join junior forward Kyle Varzino and sophomore forward Matt Johnson on the injury list. Varzino separated his shoulder against Arizona State and was expected to miss four to six weeks following the game. Johnson has been out of the lineup since the beginning of the season with a shoulder injury of his own and hopes to get back into full-contact practice next Monday.

The Illini just got their senior captains Austin Bostock and Mike Evans back from shoulder injuries a few weeks ago. They have yet to play a game at full health; however, Fabbrini is by no means using this as an excuse for Illinois’ recent struggles.

“I told them (Tuesday) we just have to come back and win a game,” Fabbrini said. “Where we’re at right now, and with the schedule we still have in front of us, we still have a lot of really tough teams, so there’s no time to worry about any of that. We got to step up and win a game.”

The Illini have 14 freshmen on their roster and will need to rely on some of them to step in and fill the roles of their injured teammates. Fabbrini said some of the issues have come down to maturity, but he still expects a lot out of his team.

“We don’t have the experience of some of the other teams,” Fabbrini said. “So yeah, I think a lot of our problems to this point can be traced back to maturity, but I think that we’re learning and we’re growing and I expect us to be a better team. Everybody’s going to go through adversity at one point.”

Illinois has already faced three top-10 ranked ACHA Division I opponents this season, and its schedule won’t be getting easier with three straight conference matchups. But senior goaltender Nick Clarke thinks it’s better for the Illini to deal with their recent issues now rather than later.

“We’d rather have this happen to us early in the year rather than come playoff time,” Clarke said. “What’s done has been done, so we’ve just got to work hard and keep moving forward.”

Joey can be reached at [email protected] and @joeyfigueroa3.