With the season winding down, the men’s club hockey team traveled to Minnesota for a three game road trip, winning two and losing one.

The ’Cats club hockey team has won 30 games while tallying one tie and two losses against Iowa and St. Norbert’s College Junior Varsity.

The three game road trip to Minnesota to play St. Cloud State and the University of St. Thomas started on Friday, Jan. 25 and ended on Sunday, Jan. 27. Head coach Carl Troisen said the team battled hard this weekend as the three game road trip made the guys really put forth all their talent for the wins.

“We did not play our best hockey,” Trosien said. “We did, however, sweep the three game weekend so things are good.”

Sophomore goaltender Jeffrey Ryan said the team was not at its best over the weekend.

“We just need to keep in mind that we can’t just show up and expect to win,” Ryan said. “We have to work hard for it which I thought was one of our problems this weekend.”

Sophomore forward Wolff Belanger said, although they were able to sweep this weekend with three wins, they didn’t play their best hockey.

“This weekend was probably our worst weekend of hockey,” Belanger said. “We just didn’t play to our potential and made bad mistakes.”

In the first two games of the road trip, the ’Cats faced off against St. Cloud State and were able to win in both of their games.

In their final game of the road trip against the University of St. Thomas, the ’Cats won by one goal and were able to pull out a win. The offense lead the ’Cats this weekend in all three of their victories with scores of 5-2, 5-3 and 5-4 in their only game against St. Thomas.

“I feel like we have the best offense in the league,” Belanger said. “We score around five goals a game which is very helpful.”

Coach Trosien said, although it was not the team’s best weekend of hockey, they still played well.

“It was a productive three game weekend,” Trosien said. “We managed to beat a good St. Cloud team twice. We beat St. Thomas on Sunday even without two of our top five scorers in the lineup.”

The ’Cats have a great amount of talent on their team which has helped them this past weekend.

“We were just that much more talented than the teams we played this weekend,” Trosien said. “You combine that with hard work and I think that was a big part of our weekend.”

The ’Cats hold a 30-2 record so far this season. Belanger said the defensive core of the team has helped to maintain that record.

“Our defense is just as good,” Belanger said. “We have a lot of young defensemen who are learning from our veterans. All around we are a team that is very tough to beat.”

With the final games of the season upon the ’Cats, they will continue to prepare to finish the season strong.

“We are going to prepare the same way we have all season,” Trosien said. “It’s worked so far.”

The ’Cats will play their last home game of the season against Northern Illinois and then go on the road for their final games, including a trip to the WCCHA Tournament.

“We have areas we still need to improve on,” Trosien said. “I think we are very close off the ice and that has helped.”

While just getting back early Monday morning, the ’Cats will have to prepare for their game against Northern Illinois who is ranked higher than the ’Cats.

“NIU will be a great test,” said Troisen. “They are a team ranked above us and we want to make a statement.”

The ’Cats will take on Northern Illinois 9 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2 at the Berry Events Center.

On Sunday, Feb. 3 the ’Cats will take on Finlandia University in Hancock, Mich.