Coming into this season, freshman Eric Cruickshank didn’t have high expectations for himself in his first year on the Illinois hockey team.

The winger emerged as a catalyst and regular starter for the Illini. Cruickshank finished the year with 15 goals and 20 assists and was second in points for Illinois.

“I came in and used my strengths to the best of my ability, and I guess it came out to be a pretty good season for my freshman year,” Cruickshank said. “I’m hoping to build off that.”

In Illinois’ second-round loss to Robert Morris on Friday in the ACHA tournament, Cruickshank scored both of the Illini’s goals. Head coach Nick Fabbrini said he was a factor in all three zones of the ice.

With Illinois hockey done for the season, Cruickshank already has his eyes set to next season and expects the rest of the freshmen class to make strides in the direction of a national championship.

Including Cruickshank, nine freshmen return for Illinois. This season the freshmen accounted for 120 points.

“There’s a lot to be taken away from how well our freshmen produced this year,” Fabbrini said. “We’re going to have all those guys back next year with more experience.”

Crucial penalty ends Illini season

Illinois was called for a total of five penalties in its two ACHA tournament games. One penalty in particular proved to be decisive in Robert Morris’ win.

Early in the third period of Friday’s game, Illinois received a two-minute minor for too many men on the ice. On the powerplay, Robert Morris’ Connor McGovern scored to increase the Eagles’ lead to 3-1.

Fabbrini didn’t agree with the call and thought Robert Morris had gotten away with having too many men on the ice earlier in the game but was not penalized.

Despite giving up a power-play goal on the penalty, Cruickshank said the call didn’t prevent Illinois from mounting a comeback.

“It’s out of our control. That’s on the refs. But it’s just a bad bounce, and there’s really nothing we can do about it now,” Cruickshank said. “We still battled back and scored that one goal with a minute left in the game to give us a chance to tie it up.”

Unfortunately for the Illini, that was the only goal they could muster up — they failed to score in the final minute of regulation.

CSCHL well represented in ACHA tournament

Throughout the season Fabbrini had said the CSCHL is a tightly contested league and one of the most competitive in the ACHA. This year’s national tournament proved his point.

The CSCHL was the only conference in the ACHA to have all its teams represented in the tournament — No. 4 Robert Morris, No. 6 Ohio, No. 9 Lindenwood, No. 10 Iowa State and No. 13 Illinois.

Every CSCHL team except for Illinois had a first-round bye.

After winning its first-round game 4-1 against John Carroll on Thursday, Illinois faced Robert Morris. The Illini had a 2-1-1 record against their CSCHL opponent prior to Friday’s loss.

Cruickshank said getting knocked out of the tournament by Robert Morris wasn’t easy to handle.

“There was some anger and a little bit of emotion,” Cruickshank said. “But overall, I think we’re happy. We came to play and played as hard as we could and just didn’t get the results we wanted.”

Four of the eight teams in the ACHA quarterfinals were from the CSCHL, but none of them advanced to the semifinals.

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@MattGertsmeier