Staying perfect: Hoosiers move to 6-0 after sweep

The IU club hockey team routed the Dayton Flyers 8-2 on Friday. The team then continued its dominance of the Flyers with a 4-1 victory Saturday in Ohio.

The team is now 6-0 and will begin Great Midwest Hockey League play this weekend against Davenport.

In Friday’s commanding victory, the Hoosiers jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Dayton got on board.

Hoosier forward Wes Suskind helped lead his team to victory by scoring two goals and assisting on another.

“I think we played an awesome game,” Suskind said. “We’re starting to really gel together as a team, and we’re getting everyone involved.”

Suskind said the team is where it needs to be at this point in the season, but center Chris Benz wasn’t satisfied.

“I think we definitely have a lot of room for improvement,” he said. “Next week’s going to be our big test against Davenport to see where we stand.”

Benz had a goal and two assists in the contest.

Coach Tom Orr said he thinks the week of hard practice leading up to Dayton paid off.
“We really worked a lot on goal scoring this week, and that’s what I saw,” Orr said. “(Dayton is) a decent team; we were just able to get more goals.”

Despite their winning record, Friday was the first time Orr was satisfied with the team’s level of offense.

“Overall, that was exactly what we talked about going into tonight’s game, to find a way to score some more goals,” he said. “This is the first game where it actually looked like it should on the scoreboard.”

Orr said he is happy with where his team stands as it prepares for its first GMHL game.

“I think we’re right where we want to be right now,” he said. “This is exactly where I wanted us to be.”

After Justin Lincoln started at goalie Friday night, Dan Ivory tended net in Saturday’s 4-1 win.

Orr was pleased with his goalie’s performance during the first time he saw action this season.

“We have four goalies we can win with,” he said. “That was proven this weekend.”

Forward Alex Cook scored two goals in Saturday’s victory against Dayton, helping the Hoosiers outscore the Flyers by a combined total of 12-3 in the weekend’s matches.
The number of goals might have surprised some coaches, but Orr said he has been waiting for a game like this all season.

“We’ve certainly been playing good enough to put up scores like this, but we just hadn’t been getting the goals,” he said.

Orr said the team will be ready for Davenport next week in a rematch of the Division II national title game.

“It’s really gone well, the way we keep improving every week,” he said. “As a coach, that’s exactly what you want to see.”