Illini
Tame the Stallions in weekend sweep
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Zabrin
& Coleman helped the Illini hand the Stallions the
losses. |
February
3rd, 2003 - The Illini return home with two more wins and
the division title under their belts. With only one more weekend
left before the CSCHL playoffs, there is no one left that can catch
them on points and the Illini will show up in Ames as the #1 seed.
The win on Friday didn't come easily though as the Stallions of
Western Michigan slowed down the Illini offense and charged through
on the defense. In the first period the Illini were not able to
capitalize on a power play opportunity and only had seven shots that
wound up on goal and none of them were able to get by the WMU
goaltender. Heading into the second period, knotted at zero, both
teams picked up the pace and played a little more physical hockey.
Again the Illini couldn't take advantage of the power play, but did
however spoil the man advantage for the Stallions. With the period
winding down, Western Michigan was the first team to light the lamp
behind the opposing net minder and ended the period with a 1-0 lead.
In the third period the Illini were able to tie things up as Brian
Coleman scored an unassisted goal and notched his fourteenth goal of
the season. Again the Stallions were keeping the Illini away from
the net, and the end of the period was drawing close, but with the
help of Brian Coleman and Dan Lynch, Kyle Zabrin fired a rocket from
the right wing blue line giving the Illini the lead and the win.
Saturdays match
was quite a different story, as the Illini were able to take
advantage of the power play opportunities presented to them and keep
the stallions corralled away from the Illini net. The start of the
game almost appeared to be a bad omen for the Illini as just
thirteen seconds into the game they found themselves shorthanded. If
that wasn't enough, once that penalty had passed and the WMU power
play thwarted, another Illini penalty left them short handed once
again and the penalty killers likewise did their jobs not allowing
the Stallions the chance to run free on the ice. Due to slow line
changing by the WMU players and the subsequent too many men on the
ice penalty, the Illini welcomed back Brian Tilden with a power play
goal, and assists going to Pat Olson and Brett Duncan. With the
period coming to a close, Brett Duncan decided to put the Illini up
by two goals before heading into the locker room, help came from
Brett Pachol and again Pat Olson. Not wanting to be left out from
showing everyone that they were all back from Italy, Luke Carlson
started the Illini scoring in the second period, assists going to
Joel Superfine and Tom Ennessy. As the closing minutes were ticking
off the clock for the second period, Brian Coleman teamed up with
Jim Rogers and put the Illini up 4-0. With the Illini on a roll and
the Western Michigan defense full of holes, the Illini came out
shooting in the third period and put the Stallions to shame. Scott
Kohler was the first to score in the period, assisted by Brad Eaton
who would find himself sitting in the sin bin seconds later. Coleman
and Rogers would team up again, this time with Jim putting the puck
into the WMU netting. With a Stallion in the stalls for high
sticking, Coleman and Rogers would team up again, but this time hand
it off to Kyle Zabrin to know it home on the power play goal. With
the third period winding down, Kyle Mulvey with a feed from Joel
Superfine put the eighth Illini goal on the board. And since eight
is never enough, Jeff Condis put the icing on the cake with a power
play goal at 19:37, assisted by Brian Tilden. Congratulations
to the team for clinching the division, Brian Coleman for another 5
point weekend (14 points in 6 games), Kyle Zabrin for the Friday
night game winner, and for the prodigal sons that returned and
burned off some of that pasta.
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