Both men’s ice hockey teams recorded a victory this weekend after being swept last weekend.

After a coaching change and a new start, the Div. III team picked up its first win of the season. The Huskies (1-9) defeated Illinois State University 5-4 on Friday, but fell 11-3 on Saturday.

“Friday we pretty much played a perfect game,” said head coach Nick Madonia. “We came out strong and played a full 60 minutes. We fought back whenever we went down a goal and played strong throughout the whole game. We were able to win the third period 1-0, and if we are going to keep winning third periods I think the season is going to go well for us.”

Team captain JC Weems was happy to see the team’s hard work finally pay off with the first victory of the season.

“We got the monkey off our back,” Weems said. “It’s exciting to see how the team played. It’s how we knew we could play.”

The Huskies have had trouble keeping games close, let alone recording a victory. Friday night was a different story.

“We came out hard,” Madonia said. “Whenever we gave up goals we fought back that next couple of shifts and either took back momentum or scored a goal to take their lead away. That is the biggest thing because earlier in the season, when we would give up a goal, we would give up for a few minutes and usually they would pile on two or three right away.”

Weems also felt there was something different about the way the team played.

“We just seemed to be more confident out there Friday night,” Weems said. “I think a lot of the time we play scared, and we didn’t seem to play that way Friday night. We were getting a lot of hits and plays we normally aren’t getting.”

The Div. II hockey team split its weekend series against Eastern Illinois University (2-7).

“It was a little bit of a disappointing weekend,” said head coach Chuck Rinaldo. “We were definitely the better team. We proved it on Friday by winning 8-1, but we didn’t come out prepared on Saturday. It was kind of frustrating to not get the sweep.”

Saturday was more difficult for NIU as injuries began to set in for the Huskies.

“We have had some injuries piling up, which left us kind of short on the bench,” Rinaldo said. “So we had [to] struggle a little bit on Saturday, but it is definitely a weekend we should have won both games.”

Some of the key injuries the Huskies are facing are with team point leader and goal scorer Justin Rucinski, senior defenseman Danny Stetzinger and defenseman Brian Pickett. Luckily for the Huskies, they have a bye week and time to rest players.

“It is definitely good timing with an off weekend coming up,” Rinaldo said. “We are hoping guys will be able to recover and be up and ready. We just need some of our new guys and some of our guys that have been on the third and fourth lines to step up and fill the void…”