NIU’s hockey club skated to a 4-4 tie with Purdue last Saturday at the Riverview Ice House in Rockford.

Kevin Flynn led the way for the Huskies with two goals. Kevin Meadows and Rolf Pike each added one goal. Craig Boledovich and captain Len Edling each had two assists.

The club’s record now stands at 6-5-3; good enough for third place in the Illinois-Wisconsin Hockey Association. The IWHA represents clubs from Purdue, Wisconsin-Platteville, Wheaton College, Dubuque College, Illinois Institute of Technology, Marquette, Bradley, DePaul and NIU.

The top four teams of the IWHA will advance to the playoffs, to be held in late February. This season the Huskies will try to repeat as champions when the playoffs are held in Rockford.

Defenseman Craig Boledovich pointed out some of the keys that have helped the Huskies along this season.

“We’ve added some transfers to our roster,” Boledovich said. “Another key is that we’ve had some strong goaltending. Our goalie made four breakaway saves against Purdue on Saturday. We should have a strong showing in the playoffs.”

This Saturday the club will once again be in Rockford to host Illinois State in a non-conference match. The game is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m.

The NIU Alpine Racing Club will be in action today and again this weekend at Americana in Lake Geneva, Wis. According to club president Christina Jarosewich, the competitions are open to any school with a club that wishes to participate. Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, NIU and DePaul are some of the teams that regularly compete.

“It all comes down to who can make it that particular weekend,” Jarosewich said.

NIU’s rugby club begins recruiting for its spring season soon.

“We’ll put up some flyers to let people know (about the club) and hopefully get some people interested,” said team president Dave Regan. “Right now, we’ll start running and conditioning with the guys we’ve got.”