Brawled out, IU club hockey zones on games

With the tumult of last Friday’s brawl at the Frank Southern Ice Arena behind them, the IU club hockey team will get back three of their four players who were suspended last week.

Tyler Bohman, Sal Calace and Travis Montembeault will be back after sitting out last Saturday’s game against Wright State. Junior Adam Logue was suspended three games for excessive roughness and still has to sit out both of the team’s home games this weekend.

Defenseman Casey Christensen is confident as his team hosts Ferris State, despite the fact the Hoosiers are still looking for their first Great Midwest Hockey League win this season.

“We’re going to be pretty  confident playing here at home,” he said. “We’ve got a good win streak carrying over to last year, and I think we’ll have some revenge. They beat us pretty bad last year.”

The team is working this week at practice to dent the twine more against opponents.

“Scoring goals is definitely a big thing we’re working on this week,” Christensen said. “We’ve got some new lines, and it’s only our second week playing with new lines, so we’re trying to build some chemistry.”

Bohman, a defenseman, is glad to be back after his suspension for fighting last Friday.

“The brawl last week, that doesn’t happen very often,” Bohman said. “We all kind of boiled over because of their cheap play, but we look to put that behind us.”

Bohman, like Christensen, said he feels the team will be out for revenge against the Bulldogs, who beat and tied them last year.

“We felt like we had bus legs coming off the road trip last year, and just never got awake,” he said. “If we come out and play 100 percent both nights, we can definitely sweep them.”

Sophomore forward Chris Gordon is also ready to take on the Bulldogs.

“I’m really excited to get out there and play against them again,” he said. “It’s going to be big for our morale to get out there and get a couple of wins this weekend.”

Gordon knows how important home games are, considering the Hoosiers are undefeated at home this season and don’t often lose home games.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “We don’t lose much here at the Frank.”

He said he feels that part of the reason for the Hoosiers’ home success is the luxury they have by not traveling.

“We have a lot of time to get pumped,” he said. “We don’t have a long bus trip, and we come in with warm legs ready to play.”

While he wants his team to put the brawl behind them, that doesn’t mean Gordon regrets it.

“I’m not going to lie, it was fun,” he said. “We’re definitely glad to put that behind us. We need all our players back, so it’s going to be good to get our players back and move forward.”

IU coach Tom Orr said he will make sure his team has their sights set on Ferris State.

“The big thing is they’re a GMHL team,” Orr said. “We are so locked in to get that first GMHL win. We’re really keying in on them.”

He said he’s happy with the way his team battled back on Saturday, just a little more than 12 hours removed from Friday’s brawl that resulted in eight suspensions between the two teams.

“The team responded well,” he said. “Any time that happens, there’s a great deal of adversity. The guys really got tested last week and fought through it. I was really happy with that.”

IU men’s basketball coach Tom Crean will drop the ceremonial first puck Friday night.
Orr said he thinks Crean’s presence will draw a big crowd.

“If you’re going to go to one hockey game a year,” Orr said, “this would be the one to go to.”