October 25, 2007 - A special guest, NASA Astronaut, shuttle pilot and former Illini Hockey team member, Col. Lee Archambault will be presenting the Illini with a jersey that he had recently taken into space during a shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Col. Archambault piloted the shuttle Atlantis for mission STS-117 which blasted off from Kennedy Space Center if Florida on June 8th and landed at Edwards Air Force base in California on June 22nd. The space worn jersey will be presented to the team on Friday evening.
The Illini will also be starting league play this weekend with two 4-point games against Lindenwood University, who the Illini narrowly escaped with a win against last Saturday night. The Lion's currently hold sole possession of first place in the league with 16 points and an unblemished 4-0 record in league games. The have been outshooting most of their opponents this season, and out scoring them by an average of almost 2 goals per game. Four freshmen lead the Lions in scoring, Jake Ebner and Carson Hamill, each with 14 points, and Cory Spradling and Steve Balint with 13 points. Both Ebner and Spradling have each lit the lamp 8 times on their opponents so far this season, a group of forwards the Illini are going to have to keep in check.
Both games will take place at the University of Illinois Ice Arena with the puck dropping at 7:00pm on both Friday and Saturday nights. Come out and support the Illini this home coming weekend, and if you can't make it to the games, be sure to catch them on the radio or on the web as they are broadcast live by WPGU-FM 107.1 starting at 6:00pm.
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Col. Lee Archambault dons the Illini jersey aboard the International Space Station holding a tool used by astonauts during space walks nicknamed "the hockey stick". |
| The Illini Hockey club would like to thank NASA, Col. Archambault, and John Peters for providing us with and allowing us to use these photos. |
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