IU ice hockey has 3 wins against teams in top 25

With three wins against teams ranked in the top 25 of the American Collegiate Hockey Association, the IU men’s club ice hockey team is off to a strong start, even though the club’s 4-7 record might say otherwise.

The unranked Hoosiers have played eight of their first 11 games of the season against ranked opponents, including two games against the defending ACHA national champions, Lindenwood.  

In these eight games, the Hoosiers have managed to pull upset wins against No. 21 Western Michigan, No. 19 Westchester and No. 6 Illinois in a shootout win, along with a win against DePaul. The Hoosiers say they have started strong in hopes of matching their No. 23 ranking at the end of last season or even surpassing it.

“We’ve made a lot of progress from last year,” senior Chris Benz said. “The win over Illinois opened the door for more wins against top-ranked opponents. We know we can be successful.”

The 3-2 shootout win against Illinois on Oct. 16 avenged the Hoosiers’ previous losses to the Fighting Illini at the end of last season and from the previous night. It might have shown that they could compete with the nation’s best.   

The following weekend, IU lost twice to No. 1 Lindenwood, getting outscored by a combined 15-1.

“We’ve got to work on putting all the things we do well sometimes together,” senior KC Madock said. “But until we do that for a full 60 minutes, it won’t matter.”

New head coach Jan Jas is trying to do just that. During his first season as the Hoosiers’ head coach, Jas has focused on one simple message for his new players: hard work.

“He’s challenged us to work as hard as we can and brought a lot of intensity and professionalism to our program,” junior Mack Shaughnessy said. “He tells us to work hard every moment of every game and every single practice.”

And along with Jas being a first-year coach at IU, several of his players come from different schools and different hockey backgrounds, so the first few weeks have provided a learning curve for both himself and his team.

“We’ve really had to focus on organization on the ice,” Jas said. “With me and all our new players, we need to all get on the same page, and with different backgrounds and coaches, that takes some time.”

To improve on their organization and team chemistry, Jas has been stressing their one-on-one battles in practice and focusing on their defensive techniques, two areas where Jas said Lindenwood really outplayed the Hoosiers in both their games against the top-ranked opponent.

“Lindenwood was really ready in every aspect,” Jas said. “They compete on a very high level and prepare on a very high level.”

But sophomore Brian Bieschke said when it comes down to it, “we all practice the same amount of time, it’s just about who wants it more.”