WolfPack prepare for road test in Abbotsford vs. Fraser Valley

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack hockey team will hit the road in search of a victory on Friday when they visit Abbotsford to take on the University of the Fraser Valley in B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League action.

The WolfPack sit in third place in the BCIHL with seven wins and a loss while UFV occupies the basement with nine losses and a tie.

“The guys are looking forward to hitting the road for a game that will allow us to continue to work on some projects that we have going,” says TRU head coach Lorne Cumming. “We’ve had the luxury of playing a lot of games at home and are looking forward to pulling into Abbotsford and playing 60 solid road minutes.”

The WolfPack and UFV have played once already this season with TRU winning 7-2 on October 15th at Memorial Arena. Jassi Sangha had a goal and two assists that night while Darcy Huisman added three assists. Sangha currently sits in sixth spot in league scoring with eight goals and seven assists and Huisman is tied for 15th in scoring along with teammates Tyler Halliday, Lucas Daoust and Zac Rasmussen. All have 11 points.

“We played UFV early in the season and won the game through a strong effort that allowed us to pull away from them in the third period,” says Cumming. “We know they will be stronger when we see them Friday night and have worked hard to be ready for them.”

Cumming will go with Richie Virtanen in net.

“Richie has been very good for us and we look forward to getting back on track this weekend with our goals against. We are happy we won two games last weekend but felt we allowed too many chances on our net.”

Virtanen stands third in the BCIHL with a goals against average of 1.50. He is unbeaten in two starts.

The WolfPack have only two games left before their Christmas break.

“We have clearly identified goals for this game and our final one (Friday Nov. 26th against UFV at Memorial Arena),” says the head coach. “Our guys are a pretty focused group and we look forward to putting two solid games together to finish up. We have 24 regular season games and were 5-1 over our first quarter. We want to be 4-0 after our first four games of our second quarter and are 2-0 right now. We feel we are ready to play well and look forward to Friday night in Abbotsford.”