The last time the Eastern hockey club played Bradley, the Panthers left with a bad taste in their mouth.

Eastern was handed two losses when the two teams met in January. Injuries to key players Michael Sorrentino and Loren Jacobs, both with MCL injuries, had the Panthers at a disadvantage and the team lost 7-6 and 9-5.

“Bradley, we played them last year at the end of the season,” senior forward Chris Gallagher said. “We had a lot of key players missing due to injuries and stuff like that, so we have a bad taste in our mouth right now about Bradley.”

Gallagher is one of only a handful of players still on the team from last season, with many of the team’s seniors graduating.

“There’s more rookies than there is vets right now,” Gallagher said. “ They’ll be very involved.”

Despite the inexperience, Gallagher said he likes what he’s seen out of the new members.

“We have a good rookie class coming in this year,” he said.

The Panthers had new members compete in a preseason game on Aug. 31 against the St. Louis Frontenacs of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. The Panthers lost 7-3, but Gallagher said it was a good experience for the team.

“It was good to have that preseason game just to see how they were in game-like situations,” he said. “They’re looking very good this year and I’m happy with the rookie class.”

Sophomore Ryan Howard and freshmen Steve Kinnison and Sam Turk each had goals in the team’s preseason game. 

Sophomore Zach Peifer and senior Andrew Teske split time in goal. Teske played the entire season in goal last season for the Panthers.

Bradley enters with a record of 2-0 following a pair of blowout wins over Augustana. 

Bradley scored early and often in both games, winning 22-0 in the first game and 21-2 in the second.

Bradley has two players, junior forward Jonathan Boerger of Decatur and freshman forward Bailey Barsich of Peoria, who each have five goals so far this season.

Junior Daniel Smith of Gurnee made 27 saves in goal during the team’s first two games.

“We really want to beat Bradley,” Gallagher said. “We’ll have a full team this year and the boys will all have their buddies next to them. Hopefully we can go out there and come out with two ‘W’s.”

Eastern and Bradley will square off at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville.

The games will be shown through the team’s Ustream account, which is accessible through the team’s website, www.eiuhockey.org.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].