Junior Brian Tilden

Feb 23, 2002 - A junior stole the show in the final home series for Illinois' seniors.

Junior forward Brian Tilden scored six goals in two games this weekend as Illinois defeated Ferris State 9-1 Friday and 9-5 Saturday.

"The seniors are nice guys and let me get the pucks so I could still shoot," Tilden said.

The Illini did not care who scored as long as the puck got into the net.

"We'll take them however we can get them," Illinois head coach Chad Cassel said.

Tilden started the scoring on Friday for the Illini with a power play goal that he deflected in off of junior defenseman Tom Ennessy's shot.

After the Bulldogs tied the game at one, the Illini came back with eight unanswered goals in the final two periods. Junior forward Luke Carlson scored two goals within two minutes of each other in the second period.

Tilden scored his second goal of the game when putting a rebound off of junior forward Joel Superfine's breakaway.

Before the Illini opened the flood gates in the second period, they got off to another slow start.

"Once again we got off to a slow start, and it's a little discouraging," Cassel said. "(Sophomore goalie Tim) Danlow played awesome for us in net, otherwise it could have been a different game."

Danlow turned back 17 Ferris State shots.

With 59 shots, Illinois had chances early, but the puck just couldn't get in the net.

"Sometimes you're putting on good shots, and they don't go in," Tilden said. "Sometimes you're just missing them. I think it was a combination of the two."

The pace of play was physical all weekend. After Danlow got taken out in the first period of Friday's game, the intensity picked up. There were 52 penalties in the two games and multiple fights on Friday.

"All of a sudden they make a few cheap hits; they hit Danlow and it got real rough," Tilden said. "There was a lot more fights than usual. The intensity always picks up when you get pissed off."

Saturday the Illini quickly fell behind 3-0 to the Bulldogs. Once the Illini got their first goal midway through the second period by sophomore forward Kyle Mulvey, Illinois scored five consecutive goals, two by Tilden, to take a 5-3 lead into the third period.

"We came back after the second period frustrated, but it still took us another 10 minutes to really realize we were losing the game to a team we blew out the night before," Tilden said.

Tilden added two more goals in the third period for a total of four.

"The last shift of the game they put me out there with (seniors) Rick Kohler and Steve Cichocki," Tilden said. "If I would have done nothing but pass, they would have killed me."