At 3 this afternoon the Huskies will be kicking off against the Northwestern Wildcats at Evanston.

he Wildcats are always welcome foes of NIU as the Huskies own a 6-3-2 lifetime advantage.

NIU coach Willy Roy is cautious not to get too confident, even

though he personally owns a 5-0 lifetime record against the Big Ten school, saying, “(Today) is a new game, it does not matter what you did yesterday.”

The 2-8-1 Huskies will be shooting for their third victory of the season against a team they not only beat but beat up on. Not only has Northwestern lost to NIU each of the last five seasons, the Wildcats also have not scored a goal in the last 321 minutes against NIU.

That streak dates back four years, including three shutouts by a combined score of 5-0. Of course, that was when Chicago Power first-round draft pick Markus Roy was in his heyday in the net for NIU, but current netminders Dan Green and Jeff McCall aren’t so bad themselves.

Tri-captain Todd Moore is anxious to play the Wildcats and is well aware of the success NIU has had. “It will be nice to start putting some wins on the board,” he said. But Moore, like Roy, is wary of overconfidence—pointing out that nobody can be overlooked.

Another tri-captain, Dave Weichman, will also be anxious to take the field if his ankle holds up—as he missed the Marquette match last Saturday.

NIU will be watching out for scoring threats Jason Alexander and Curt Evans. Alexander has five goals for 10 points as the Wildcats’ leading scorer and Evans is a close second with nine.

“They are a hard fighting team,” said Willy Roy, “and they have lost some close matches.”

Roy is happy with the play of late as he said, “We are not playing badly.” They need to play more “cohesive defense.” They are “doing a good job individually but need to play more as a team.”

While the team is playing better, the wins are still not coming. Roy has asked his team how they all can improve 5 to 10 percent to help the team. That may be all that is needed to spark the team into a winning streak.

After the NU match, the Huskies head to Valparaiso to continue in the Mid-Continent Conference race, followed by a home match against Wright State.