The Eastern hockey club is coming off a weekend split against the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, and it will now look to keep the momentum going against another in-state rival, Northern Illinois in a two game series this weekend in Geneva at the Fox Valley Ice Arena.

Friday’s game starts at 7:30 p.m., while Saturday’s game will be at 1:30 p.m.

Junior goalie Andrew Teske said despite the big weekend against Illinois, the team needs to stay focused on the task at hand: Northern.

“Its huge to keep this momentum going, we are definitely riding high off of the big win against U of I, but at the same time we have to focus on Northern and stay true to the task at hand,” Teske said. “We have these two games this weekend, then have the weekend off, so we know we got to go out and give it our all against Northern, then we will get a little rest.”

Senior forward Tim Shannon said Northern will not be an easy task for the 6-5-1 Panthers.

“We know that NIU will be one of the toughest opponents we have faced all season,” he said. “It seems like as the weeks go on the opponents get tougher and tougher. The Huskies are 9-4 which is one of the best records in the league.”

Shannon said Northern’s goalie, sophomore Alex Hare, is one of the best in the league.

“We know that they have an outstanding goalie, and one of the best defenses in the league,” he said. “They don’t let in many goals. So we will have to fire a lot of shots on net in order to get them past this goalie.”

The Panthers and the Huskies share just one mutual opponent on their schedules: the Fighting Illini.

The Huskies swept the Illini in Champaign on Oct. 5 and 6, beating them 2-1 in a shootout and 4-3 in the second game.

Junior defenseman Jack McDonnel said the team needs to improve on its defense from the previous game.

“Although we won on Saturday, our defensive play was pretty sloppy,” McDonnel said. “We have to improve on that and buckle down in the defensive zone to limit the shots that the Huskies take. In order to do that, defensive zone faceoffs will be a deciding factor.”

After this series, the Panthers will not be action until Nov. 30 when they take on Louisville University at home.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-281 or [email protected].