TRU WolfPack are Alberta-bound to compete in SAIT Eye Opener tournament

---

Its off to 'Cowtown' for Thompson Rivers University this weekend as the WolfPack are travelling to Calgary to take in the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's Eye-Opener tournament.

In what represents their final two exhibition games before the start of the 2012-13 B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League regular season, the WolfPack is looking forward to facing off against the host Trojans of the ACAC and the Senior AAA Innisfail Eagles.

The Eagles are coached by former NHLer Brian Sutter. The eldest of the Sutter brothers, Brian has also held head coaching posts with the St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames.

"The last two weeks of preparation since out exhibition game (a 4-3 loss) to Selkirk has seen lots of conditioning," says TRU head coach Don Schulz. "We’ve also worked at defensive zone responsibilities, neutral zone transition, offensive zone cycle and forecheck systems."

The WolfPack have also been working on special teams and introducing a new penalty kill forecheck, power play systems for both five-on-four and five-on-three situations.

Says Schulz: "It was clear after our game against Selkirk that we needed to get more of our skating legs. It was expected though since it was our first game of the season."

The WolfPack will tangle with Innisfail on Friday night before meeting their hosts from SAIT on Saturday.

"We’ll be facing top notch competition, including a very good ACAC team which is probably the best college league in the country. We are anxious to see how we match up."

Thompson Rivers will be missing one player this weekend, as rookie forward Tyler Jackson has a partially separated shoulder.

Training camp and preseason workouts have been spirited affairs thus far. The coach says the work ethic in practice has made it hard for the coaching staff to select not only the starting line up but also which players will see special team ice time.

"Internal competition has been stiff," Schulz says. "I’ve been really encouraged at our attentiveness and work ethic at practice and this bodes well for our game play this season."

The WolfPack open their BCIHL regular season on October 6th in Langley against Trinity Western University. Their first home game is October 12th at Memorial Arena against the University of Victoria.