The Eastern hockey club will take on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at 7 p.m. Friday at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville.

The teams were originally supposed to play a two-game series with one game in Danville and another in Champaign on Saturday, but the second game will be rescheduled, according to the team.

“Due to events that happened last year, the rink manager in Champaign will not allow us to play there,” senior Chris Gallagher said. “We could not find any other ice for that day, so the game will be rescheduled.”

The Panthers and the Illini squared off last November in Champaign where a rowdy crowd of more than 200 people from Ike’s was brought to the Illinois Ice Arena, where the Panthers won 6-4.

The Panthers, currently 1-0, have had problems at their own rink, with the second game last weekend against Bradley being canceled after problems with the ice. The head official deemed the ice unplayable and the game will be rescheduled.

Gallagher said the problem has been resolved.

“There was a valve that was broken under the ice that keeps the ice at a constant temperature,” he said. “We practiced on Monday and Wednesday and there is no question it will be ready to go for Fridays game.”

Eastern is coming off a 6-5 win over Bradley in which two new additions to the team, Glenn Oskvarek and Sam Turk each had two goals.

Gallagher said he saw some areas of improvement that inexperienced team could work on.

“We did a lot of things right last game, and also made some wrong decisions,” he said. “We have to break out of the zone cleaner and minimize the turnovers and we will be just fine against U of I.”

Gallagher said the team is excited to get the chance to take down a Big Ten opponent, especially a rival school like Illinois.

Illinois enters at 0-3, losing twice to Northern Michigan and to Michigan Tech.

“The feeling the team had last year after beating a big 10 school like U of I in front of all of our fans was awesome,” he said. “We’re going to show up to play Friday night and bring the W back to Charleston.”

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.