Forwards Justin Acton and CJ O'Neil celebrate after netting a goal
Illinois Roller Hockey is back in season, starting off the 2011-12 campaign with the Second Annual Illini Invitational in Homer Glen, Illinois. Both the Diteams were action, playing the maximum 5 possible tournament games and capping off the weekend with back-to-back championship victories over Bethel University. The D1 team finished 4-1 on the weekend, while the B team’s championship victory pushed their record to 3-2. Overall, both squads showed tremendous improvement from the first game through their last, and there are plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about the Illini Roller Hockey Club heading into the first weekend of regular season play.
The Fighting Illini opened their pre-season against a familiar opponent in DePaul University (Division II), who they went up against in last year’s quarterfinals of the Illini Invitational. This year’s Illini squad, featuring six new players in Tommy Short, Anthony Lupo, Matt DeGroot, Russell Feathers, Ryan Musa, and Adam Corazzi, was slow out of the gate as there were some obvious adjustments that needed to be made playing on the much bigger Megaplex rink. DePaul came out hustling, and both teams battled to a scoreless tie to start the first period. About halfway through the first period, the Illini were in the midst of a solid shift in the DePaul zone when Lupo found himself with a clear shooting lane from the point. Firing a low slap shot, he found Adam Corazzi for the re-direct, giving the Illini their first goal of the season. Later in the first period, DePaul would tie the game on a 3 on 1 rush as Justin Claxton fed a teammate with a back-door saucer pass. The game would remain tied into the second period until CJ O’Neil ripped a nice wrist shot right under the crossbar on an Illini powerplay for a 2-1 Illinois lead. However, shortly thereafter DePaul answered again when an Illini turnover lead to a clean breakaway. The Illini would quickly regain the lead when Ryan Musa calmly tucked in a back door pass from Matt DeGroot, and the 2nd period ended with a 3-2 Illini lead. The third period would be a much different story, though, as Illinois finally found their rhythm offensively and netted 3 more goals, skating away with a 6-2 victory over a very gritty and determined DePaul team.
Illinois’ next game was against Bethel, who many of the returning players feel was the best team they played at nationals last season. Even though the Illini had beaten the Wildcats 6-3 then, they went in knowing just how good Bethel is expected tough game. Bethel only reaffirmed Illinois pregame thoughts as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead less than 15 seconds into the game off a broken play that led to Bethel’s top scorer being left alone in the low slot against Jimmy DeGrado. The Wildcats would control play the rest of the period, and only the play of DeGrado, who was the Fighting Illini’s best player all tournament, kept the deficit at 1. The second period started the same as the Illini couldn’t muster much of anything offensively and were smothered by Bethel backcheckers. The Wildcats would double their lead when a Bethel forward picked up a loose puck off a faceoff and wristed in a sneaky shot right off the far post and in. The Illini didn’t have much of an answer all period, but Zack Wand was finally able to get Illinois on the board when he skated into the Wildcat zone, weaved through a defender and then fired a wrist shot against the grain to the goalie’s stick side. Bethel would quickly answer Wand’s great play when an Illini defender in-avertedly redirected in a Wildcat pass past DeGrado, and a tough luck play reestablished the Bethel two goal lead. The Illini went down a man at the end of the period, and Bethel started the 3rd with a man-advantage, quickly passing through the Illini box and netting their 4th goal on a one-timer. Illinois never mustered much offense the rest of the period, but DeGrado was able to make enough stellar saves to keep the score much more respectable than it could have been. Bethel skated off with a 4-1 victory, improving to 2-0 while dropping Illinois to 1-1.
The Illini would finish off pool play against Illinois State University (Division II), who they had beaten 10-0 twice last season. The Fighting Illini were also playing with a chip on their shoulder after being outworked and outplayed by Bethel, and this had the making of a runner from the beginning. The Illini were able to beat the Red Bird defenders all game, with plenty of crisp passing while breaking out, re-grouping, and especially in the offensive zone. Plenty of Illini players got in on the offensive action, and Illinois breezed to a 10-0 victory after two periods, setting up a rematch with Illinois State Sunday at noon.
With the Division 1/II bracket only consisting of 4 teams, the #2 seeded Illini played the #3 seed ISU Redbirds in a rematch for a chance at the championship. Much like their previous game, Illinois was simply better in all facets of the game and skated away with another 10-0 victory after two periods, but Kulbersh was in net this time and made a few key saves late in the 2nd period to preserve the shutout. Bethel also went on to defeat DePaul, setting up another rematch for the championship.
Working their way to a 3-1 tournament record, Illinois was slated to play against 4-0 Bethel University in a rematch for the title game. After the Illini’s poor offensive effort in round robin play, they changed up their mentality heading into their final game, but how big of a difference could it make? At first, it didn’t seem like much. Bethel won the opening faceoff and proceeded to make their way in to the Illini zone, where they immediately caused trouble for the Illini defenders. Just 25 seconds in to the game, a Bethel player was left all alone in front of DeGrado and would pick up his own rebound to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead on the first shift of the game. However, this time around the Illini would call for a quick line change and prove today was going to be much different from their previous game.
After winning the faceoff the Illini entered the zone, giving Ben Brandsen the chance to corral the puck and fire a nice pass from the hash marks to Tommy Short in the high slot, who quickly one-timed the pass and watched with the rest of the Illini team as the puck nicked off the crossbar and dropped in to the goal for a vital answer to Bethel’s quick start. Illinois wasn’t done, however, as the same offensive duo would win the faceoff and establish possession again for the Illini, where Chris Corazzi would carry the puck in after some nice passing. Looking to the slot where Anthony Lupo had found time and space, Corazzi found him with a soft pass and Lupo let a wrist shot fly low glove, giving the Illini a 2-1 lead just 1:30 into the game. Illinois would continue solid play the rest of the period, but a hooking penalty late gave Bethel a chance on the powerplay. After winning the faceoff, Bethel established control in the Illini zone and kept looking for the cross-rink pass, but the Illini penalty killers did a good job of covering the slot. Finally, the top man of the Bethel diamond decided to shoot it himself, and a quick wrist shot found its way into the top corner of the net and past a screened DeGrado, knotting the game at two heading in to the second period.
The second period started and continued at the pace of the first – with the Illini possessing the puck more and slowing the game down, helping to subside the quick and potent Bethel offense. Most of the Wildcat’s opportunities came on rushes up the rink, and the Illini defense did a good job of keeping them to the outside – but when Bethel did find a path to the net, DeGrado was there to knock away any scoring opportunity. Midway through the 2nd after working the puck around in the offensive zone, CJ O’Neil would find Russell Feathers cutting across the upper slot with a crisp pass. Feathers cradled the pass and wristed a shot low and on net, and the puck would deflect off the Bethel defenseman and end up in the back of the net for a 3-2 Illinois lead. However, just a few minutes later the Bethel possessed the puck in the Illini zone with a chance to tie the game. Illinois was keeping the Wildcats to the perimeter, so a Bethel forward decided to put everything he had into a slap shot from the outside top of the circle, and it was an absolute bomb. DeGrado didn’t have a chance as the puck sailed in right off the corner of the crossbar and side post, and it appeared the 2nd period would end in a 3-3 tie. However, with just 10 seconds left in the period, Illinois would find themselves with a golden opportunity to take the lead as O’Neil caused a Bethel turnover which led to a 3 on 1 Illini break in front of the Wildcat cage. Matt DeGroot ended up with the puck in the high slot and found Chris Corazzi with a back door feed to give the Illini a 4-3 lead heading into the 3rd period.
The 4-3 lead to start the period was sharp contrast from the 3-1 hole the Illini remembered from the night prior. As this game was neck-and-neck through two periods, it was only fitting the game would come down to a thrilling third period. Illinois continued to play their game, and the increased time of possession lead to many more scoring opportunities, but the Bethel netminder kept the score 4-3. With 7 minutes left in the 3rd, the Illini were whistled for a high sticking minor, giving Bethel a shot at tying the game on the powerplay. Once again the Illini penalty killers focused on keeping the Wildcats to the outside and preventing the cross-rink pass through the penalty kill triangle. However, after working the puck around and not finding the one-timer, the top man of the Bethel diamond simply fired a shot on net that was beautifully tipped in front, giving Bethel their second powerplay goal of the game and tying the game at 4 with less than half a period to play.
The stage was now set for a memorable championship finale, as the next team to score would most likely skate away as the second annual Illini Invitational Champion. Back and forth action continued, and the Illini established good possession in the Bethel zone that led to a shot on goal but a Wildcat save. The ensuing faceoff was to the left of the Bethel goalkeeper with O’Neil slated to take the draw. He won the face-off forward and to the left towards DeGroot, who quickly grabbed the loose puck and fired a deceptive shot that would never leave the rink surface. The Bethel goalie never saw it coming and was left looking on in shock as DeGroot gave Illinois a 5-4 lead. Unlike their previous game, Bethel was now forced to take chances late in the game in a desperate attempt at a comeback. Illinois played to the same strengths that had gotten them their lead, and the Illini possessed the puck for much of the final minutes of the game, nearly taking a two-goal lead on multiple occasions only to be denied by the Wildcat goaltender. Bethel finally was able to establish control in the final minute with the goalie pulled, but a desperate rally was shut down when DeGrado made a save on a slap shot with 10 seconds left and Zack Wand cleared the rebound toward the corner, allowing time to expire. Plenty of pushing and shoving ensued as both team were still quite heated from such a competitive and even-played game, but things would eventually settle down and the Fighting Illini celebrated a thrilling, well-earned 5-4 victory over an extremely talented Bethel squad. It was a fantastic finish to the second Illini Invitational Tournament, and one can only hope that these two teams will meet again given how exciting and intense the games are each time Bethel and Illinois compete.
Weekend notes:
The Illini are 4-1 on the season as opposed to a 3-2 start last year. However, three of their four wins were against Division II opponents as the Illini are Division I this season…Anthony Lupo and Adam Corazzi racked up hat tricks against ISU but were only a small part of the offense as the Illini are now 4-0 with 40 goals scored and zero goals against in their last four games against ISU…In the finale against Bethel, four of the five goal scorers were new additions to the team as Tommy Short, Anthony Lupo, Russell Feathers, and Matt DeGroot all potted goals, with DeGroot netting the game winner…goaltender Jim DeGrado was 2-1 on the weekend with a stellar 2.67 GAA and was Illinois’ best player down the stretch. Marc Kulbersh went 2-0 with a 1.00 GAA.
