Men's club hockey team cracks top-25

When head coach Tom Orr looked at the schedule he made for his hockey team’s first D-I season, he wondered if he made the right decision.

“I looked at it and I said, ‘It is one of the more difficult schedules, but it is going to make us better right away and make us rise to it,’” he said.

It seems that his choice was right, as IU (3-7) got its first ranking in school history as an American Collegiate Hockey Association D-I program.

The strength of the Hoosiers’ schedule was a key component in the ACHA’s computer rankings that placed IU at No. 22.

This past weekend the team had a big win against back-to-back D-II Champion Davenport University. After losing the first game 2-10, IU came out and dominated the second game, winning 9-5.

Junior forward KC Madock knows the tough competition in the early half of the season helped to prepare the team for the level of play from top-tier teams.

As a whole, the Hoosiers had to up their level of play.

“The upgraded effort finally manifested itself in a win on Saturday,” he said. “It showed all the work we had put in.”

Junior forward Chris Benz led the team in their victory over Davenport with three goals and four assists.

Benz saw the tough schedule as an advantage going into the rest of the year. He is optimistic that the team’s current ranking will only get higher.

“I think we can beat both teams we are playing the next two weeks,” he said. “That should easily put us in the top 15.”

This weekend, the team travels to No. 6 Central Oklahoma in a two-game series that will allow the team to prove it can not only play with the top teams in the country, but beat them.

Senior defenseman Casey Christensen points out that to many people the team’s record may not look that impressive, but he knows it will continue winning games.

“We’ve already seen some of the best teams in the country,” he said. “If we can play with them, that will give us the confidence to play with anyone.”

IU still has several games against ranked opponents that will again give the team the chance to prove it belongs at the D-I level.

“The beginning was a learning process,” Benz said. “Now we know what the other teams can do against us, and we have a definite advantage going into the rest of the year from this weekend on.”