MCRHL Championships Spotlight ? Edition 2

Only five days until the MCRHL Championships start and the seasons of 11 teams will be chronicled in that time. Today, the #5 seed in the B Division and the #6 seed in the Active Division. Team: Illinois B Fighting Illini Record: 11-11-0 overall, 4-4-0 league First-round opponent: Michigan State B, Saturday, March 6 at 11:00 AM Illinois B comes into the inaugural MCRHL Championships as the fifth seed in the B Division after a well-deserved .500 record. The Illini started the season 4-0-0 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with wins over Western Michigan B and Michigan State B, their opponent in the first-round this weekend. As the regular season games started, however, the team stumbled, losing four of five. And the regular season rematches of the games against the Spartans and Broncos went to the opponents, 6-5 and 12-1 respectively. After a mid-season three game win streak, the Illini have again fallen into a slump and are 1-6-0 in their last seven games. To be fair, however, the schedule has been close to impossible, with all six of those losses coming against the top 3 B teams, all of whom are ranked nationally in the top 11. The bottom line on Saturday will be whether or not team point leaders Michael Lavaty and Matt Lewandowski can lead the Illini past the Spartans for the second time this season and make their way into the double-elimination portion of the tournament. They will need a heroic performance at the tournament to qualify for the national championships, but this team has already proven they can beat the better teams in the division earlier in the year. It?s now just a matter of whether they can do it again. Team: Illinois State Redbirds Record: 12-12-3 overall, 9-9-2 league First-round opponent: Michigan, Saturday, March 6 at 9:00 AM ISU has tournament experience. Some players still remain from the team that won the 2002 Division II National Championship. They will need to capitalize on some of that experience, and combine it with their ability to do well this weekend in Wixom. Many teams around the league consider ISU to be a sleeper that they don?t want to face in the tournament, but the Wolverines will have to in the first round. The Redbirds? biggest win of the season was probably January 25th, when they defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 3-2 in Homer Glen, IL. That game, however, is the only game that Illinois State won all year against a team seeded higher than them in the tournament. This obviously is a problem ISU will have to overcome to do well this weekend, but they do have the potential to pull it off. Another highlight of the season was the Redbirds? trip to Las Vegas, for their first attempt at NARCh Winternationals. Although they went 0-2-1 in the event, the arguably had the toughest draw and did pull out a tie against Cal Poly SLO. ISU brings one of the most balanced scoring attacks in the MCRHL with Nicholas Winkler, Bryan Davis, and Jason Majchrowaki leading the charge. The national championships are a long-shot for the ?birds right now, but obviously a finals win would do the trick, and this is a team that has that kind of potential. The first game will be key for everyone, and their first at 9:00 will be no exception because digging out of a first-round loss will be nearly impossible to overcome. The MCRHL will be selling Championship t-shirts at the event for $15, so plan on picking up your souvenir on Saturday while supplies last. Stay tuned for more team spotlights and news on the MCRHL Championships at MCRHL.com.