November 27, 2007 - It's back to the ice for the Illini this weekend after a much needed break. The Illini will be returning at almost full strength as they welcome in the charging Stallions of Western Michigan. The Stallions are coming off of a successful showing at the Michigan-Dearborn Holiday Classic tournament, winning all three games, which included knocking off a pair of higher ranked teams, #11 West Virginia and #9 West Chester, as well as topping Youngstown State.

The Stallions are having one of their better seasons in a while, currently ranked 20th in the latest ACHA poll, and sporting a 12-7-0 record. Western Michigan is sitting in the sixth spot in the CSCHL standings with 18 points, just 6 points away from the second place Illini. The Stallions have been averaging 4.5 goals per game this season, a whole goal better than they have been allowing their competitors. Leading the team in the points category is sophomore Sean McWhorter with 26 (17 goals, 9 assists) 7 of which come from power play goals, and senior Michael Podelnyk with 24 (9 goals, 15 assists) and who leads the team with 3 short handed goals this season. Special teams have come up big for the Stallions netting 23 power play goals and turning the tables on their opponents with 7 short handed goals. On the back side of the ice, most of the goaltending duties have been split fairly equally between the three Stallion netminders, but with sophomore Garrett LaPak getting the majority of the starts lately, he has put in the most minutes, and is holding a more favorable Goals Against Average of 2.57 over Chris Serra and Trevor Heffernan who both have GAA's over 4.

As the race to name league champion and to determine playoff seedings is halfway over for some teams, all CSCHL points are of great value, and there are 8 of them up for grabs this in this weekends games. The action will take place at the University of Illinois Ice Arena both Friday and Saturday nights, with the puck dropping at 7:00pm. All home games this season can be heard on the radio and online thanks to 107.1 WPGU-FM