Hoosiers prep for season with intersquad match

The Frank Southern Ice Arena saw its first action of the season this weekend when the IU club hockey team hosted its annual Red-White intersquad matchup Saturday.\nThe Red-White game is a team scrimmage with half of the squad's players in red jerseys and half in white, with a few alumni filling in the empty spots. On Saturday, the Red team scored first and never looked back -- winning the intersqaud matchup 5-3. \nThe game provided a chance for the squad to get acclimated to the Frank Southern Ice Arena's facilities, said IU junior Dan Karlander.\n"We wanted to make sure we have everything operationally ready to go," said Karlander, whose father, Al Karlander, took over as head coach of the team this season. "We got here early and our trainer wasn't here and our scoreboard guy wasn't here. We had to set up the merchandise and get the scoreboard working. Before warm ups, we had to figure out how to turn on the lights since the rink workers didn't even know how to do it. We just have to make sure we have everything prepared for a real game."\nThe exhibition got the team into game speed, Karlander said. He said the first period was identical to normal game speed, but the teams wore down during the second two periods because of the low number of players on each team.\nAl Karlander said the scrimmage also provided an opportunity to try out different combinations of players in a match-like setting.\n"We are trying to get line combinations,"coach Karlander said. "We want to see who works best with who. We want to find some good defensive pairings and forward combinations who complement each other and have a good balance of offense and defense on each line. I wanted to get to know the players a little better to see where they fit in."\nThe Hoosiers start their regular season at 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Frank Southern Ice Arena against the University of Kentucky, a team that boasts a record of 4-0-1. IU then travels to Lexington, Ky., Saturday night for a matchup with the Wildcats at midnight.\nCoach Karlander knows the game against Kentucky won't be an easy one.\n"Kentucky is off to a good start," he said. "They will already have five games under their belt when we play them Friday. It looks like they will be very competitive."\nThe younger Karlander said he doesn't know what to expect from his team.\n"We haven't played any games yet, so they don't know anything about us," said the younger Karlander. "They are looking a little stronger this year than they have in the past. We just need to come out and be ready to play and be pumped for our first game of the season"