The Eastern hockey club will hit the road again this weekend to take on the Missouri State Ice Bears in Springfield, Mo., for a two-game series starting Friday and ending Saturday.

Eastern is coming off two losses to Arkansas, while Missouri State is coming off two wins over Missouri. Eastern’s previous loss on Saturday saw it give up the most goals it has given up all year, with Arkansas putting 14 goals in the net behind senior Andrew Teske.

The Panthers and Ice Bears have played a number of common opponents so far this season, with both clubs taking on Northern Illinois, Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Arkansas, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Iowa.

Missouri State split with Northern, swept the Illini, swept Arkansas, split with Edwardsville and was swept by Iowa. Eastern was unable to split with Northern, but was swept by all other opponents. The team’s biggest combined loss of the season came against Edwardsville, where it was outscored 23-6.

The Panthers scored four goals in their series last week with Arkansas, with freshman Steve Kinnison scoring two of them. Kinnison had the club’s only goal in the 14-1 loss in game two.

The Ice Bears have scored five or more goals in each of their last seven games. Junior forward Jack Ryan leads the team with 19 goals and 16 assists.

The two clubs played in December 2012, with the Ice Bears sweeping the Panthers by scores of 7-4 and 14-0. Of the four players who scored in the series, the only one remaining on the roster is senior forward Andrew Maronich.

Maronich had one goal in the Panthers’ series against Arkansas last weekend.

The series will be the fifth straight series on the road for Panthers, having not played at their home ice in Danville since the team’s two game sweep of Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 8 and 9.

Eastern will finally return home Tuesday for its rematch with the Illini’s Division-II team. The Panthers and Illini first played on Sept. 20, when the Panthers lost 11-6.

Both games this weekend will start at 7 p.m. at Mediacom Ice Park in Springfield, Mo.

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