TRU's commitment to excellence paying off as season reaches 3/4 pole

After the first 18 regular season games of the 2010/11 BCIHL campaign the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s hockey team is on course to achieving their goals.

Sitting on top of the BCIHL standings with a 15 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie record, head coach Lorne Cumming knows his players' commitment is being rewarded.

“Immediately following training camp we identified our goals for the season, and how we would approach achieving them. Our guys are a committed group that has bought in from day one to working hard and challenging each other in our “in house” environment at practice. That has been the key to their success to this point.”

Internal competition, Cumming says, is what has to exist in order for players to understand they need to make their team better through their example every day.

“We are not a team that wants to pretend what it will take to have success against the teams in our league; we are very honest about what is going well and what our challenges are. With a fairly limited number of games, you have to build a very competitive atmosphere into your practices which will test the players and make them push each other from within. Between our players’ eagerness to compete and our excellent leadership within the player group we have been able to accomplish a lot at practice.”

Coming into the final eight games of the team’s 24-game BCIHL schedule the coach knows that his team will have to be at their best to accomplish their goals.

“Every team is ramping up their game right now and they are showing the results of their hard work over the season. We knew the final stretch of regular season games would mean a lot to the final standings, and we’re looking forward to playing these last six games. Our guys are good at staying focused on their next challenge and will take each game as they come. We have a lot of respect for SFU, OC and UVIC and know our final run will be the greatest challenge of the season.”

 The Wolfpack will play OC, SFU, and UVIC twice each to round out their regular season, which will be a preview for all the teams of what they will face at the league championship tournament in late March. With OC and SFU over the next two weekends, and wrapping up the season with a double-header at UVIC, Cumming knows his team will have to be at its best.

“These are exciting times for our players as they are able to test themselves down the home stretch. Our players have a lot of respect for their internal goals and believe they can have success if they are committed to them.”

Schedule Notes: Okanagan College (OC) is in Kamloops for an 8:30 p.m. game this Friday, February 18th at Memorial Arena for the first of the Wolfpack’s two final regular season games. SFU will come to Memorial Arena for TRU’s final home game of the season on Saturday, February 26th for the last meeting of the two top clubs in the league. Game time is 8:00 p.m.