November 4, 2007 - It was a successful trip to Ann Arbor for the Illini as they dropped the Eagles of Eastern Michigan with a pair of wins, 7-0 and 6-2, and picked up 8 league points in doing so. Four Illini picked up four or more points in the weekend series including Captain Drew Heredia with 4 goals and an assist and junior Jason Nemeth netted 3 goals and a pair of assists. The Illini's Mike Burda earned another shutout for the season as he kept the Eagles off the board during Friday nights game.

The Illini came out strong on Friday night putting three times as many shot on goal as the Eagles in the first period, but it took them 25 minutes before figuring out how to score on Eastern Michigan's goaltender Erik Shardt. But once they did, the goals seemed to come easily as the Illini piled up six goals in the second period alone. Illini senior Drew Heredia started the scoring, and Nick Fabbrini and Jason Nemeth each tallied two goals in the game. Goals from Matt Jennings and Mark Ergun rounded out the scoring for the Illini in the 7-0 romp. The Illini out shot the Eagle 36 to 21 over all, and the Illini's Mike Burda rejected all 21 of the EMU shots for his second shutout of the season.

On Saturday evening the Eagles proved to be a little tougher to tame than first thought. Both teams swapped goals within the first five minutes of play, but the Illini power play added a go ahead goal before the period would end. Eastern Michigan would net an early power play goal in the second to tie the game once more, but Drew Heredia would get his second goal of the game to give the Illini the lead once again to top off the second period scoring. In the third period the Illini defense would keep the Eagle from getting a shot on net, while the Illini front men would find the back of the Eagles net three more times to give the Illini the 6-2 win. Drew Heredia would put in the final goal for the Illini and earn the hat trick for the game. Junior Jordan Pringle would end up with two goals on the evening, while the Jason Nemeth added one to his weekend total. The Illini would end up with more than double the number of shots on goal compared the Eagles, 38 to 18, even though Easter Michigan put more shots on net in the second period than did the Illini.

The Illini return to home ice this coming weekend for another pair of league games as the Billikens of St. Louis University come to Champaign.

( Game One Box Score ) ( Game One Recap )
( Game Two Box Score ) ( Game Two Recap )