January 2, 2008 - As the second half of the season is about to get underway, the Illini will spend the first two weekends of 2008 on the road. The first leg of the road trip sends them North-Easterly into Michigan to take on the down and and almost out University of Michigan-Dearborn Wolves.
The Wolves have been having a hard time putting wins together and currently have an overall record of 3-17-1, and are winless in league play with a record of 0-11-1. While Michigan-Dearborn is last place in the league, they did pick up 2 points off of the tie with Robert-Morris, they do have a chance to get back into the playoffs with the 28 points that they have remaining. It will be a tough road for the Wolves as they will need to face the #1 Illini and the #3 ranked Lions of Lindenwood in back to back weekend matches to earn 16 of those 28 points.
It's not that the Wolves aren't able to put points on the board, the offense have been putting up an average of just under 4 goals per game, and have lost 3 games even after having scored 5 goals in each bout. The UMD struggles seem to be on the back end of the ice where the defense is allowing over 40 shots per game to get to the Wolves' goaltenders. All three Dearborn netminders have been put to use, and have spent nearly the same amount of time between the pipes, with freshman Rob Cupit getting the slight edge. Incidentally all three UMD goaltenders are sharing like Goals Against Averages, all of which are hovering around the 5.5 mark, leading to the Wolves opponents ability to average almost 6 goals per game.
On the offensive side, Michigan-Dearborn is being led in points and in goals by a pair of their seniors. Leading the team in points is one of last seasons All-CSCHL 1st team defensive players, Matt Chromy, who has put in 9 goals and picked up 19 assists for his 28 points. Senior forward Joshua Thompson leads in goals as he has lit the lamp 12 times for the Wolves, and helped out on 9 others for 21 points. Wedged between Chromy and Thompson in points, and just one off the goal lead, is sophomore Shawn Wilson who has 25 points, 11 coming from goals and 14 from assists.
Both of the 4 point CSCHL games will take place at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Ice Arena in Dearborn, MI, with the puck dropping at 7:30pm Eastern Time.
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