While it is only early December, perhaps the two best teams in the Illini West squared off Sunday evening at the Willowbrook Ice Arena as Maine Twp. and Hinsdale Central faced off for the right to claim first place.

      Perhaps Hinsdale Central, especially starting goaltender Nate Conway, perhaps deserved a better fate, could have done a bit more on offense. But not being able to find the net would hurt the Red Devils in the end as they fell 1-0.

      Maine Twp. capped off a successful weekend as they defeated Plainfield 3-1 Friday night in Park Rodge and picked up a non-league win over Edina (MN.) 4-3 Saturday evening. The effort propelled them into first place in the Illinois West (13-3, 39 pts.) just ahead of Hinsdale Central (13-2-0-1, 38 pts.).

      “Just knowing that (Gavin) was going to make the first save, we just had to do our jobs correctly and get the puck out of our zone as quickly as we could,” Maine Sr. fwd. Matheson Coney (Maine South) said. “Hinsdale was getting their chances, but a lot of the shots were going wide of our net.”

        Maine Twp. so. goalie, Gavin McGrath stopped all 19 shots he faced on the night. However, that number could have been much higher for him as the Red Devils had a large double-digit number of shots on the Maine Twp. net.

      “Everything I was seeing was either going high over the net of wide to the glove-hand side of me” Maine goalie Gavin McGrath said. “They were really trying to work on my glove-hand side.”

      While McGrath was watching shots go wide of his net, Maine Twp. doing their best to get shots on Hinsdale Central netminder Nate Conway (27 saves). Conway would look solid all night long. His only fault would be Cooney, who was able to beat Conway from a centering pass from Matt Deluca with :38 seconds left in the middle period for the 1-0 lead. The goal would be his ninth on the season.

     Not even either special team units would capitalize while on the man-advantage. Maine Twp. would go 0 for 3 on the powerplay while the Red Devils were 0-1 with the extra skater.

      “Hinsdale (Central) is a fast team,” Cooney said. “But I think we are the fastest skating team in the league this year.”

     “We have another gear which I do not think we have even tapped into,” Cooney said.

      “It was easy for me to make the first save,” McGrath said. Our forwards and defensemen really just did a great job tonight getting the puck out of our zone. It may not have seemed like I was busy tonight, but I was.”

     The Red Devils will try to get back on the winning track as they take on Plainfield Thursday night at 8:10 P.M. back in Willowbrook. The ‘Men from M’ return back to Oakton Ice Arena in Park Ridge Friday night when they take on Lyons Twp.