Thompson Rivers University hopes that home ice advantage will springboard the team to new heights when they play play back-to-back games this weekend at Kamloops Memorial Arena.
The undefeated Selkirk College Saints will be in town on Friday night for an 8:30 pm faceoff while Eastern Washington University will challenge the WolfPack the following night with puck drop set for 8:00 pm.
Home ice advantage may work in the WolfPack’s favour this weekend as they hope to improve their third place ranking in the BCIHL standings in familiar surroundings and in front of their fans.
"Our home record always tends to be better," said head coach Don Schulz, who is hopeful that the smaller ice size and last change will help the ‘Pack add two wins to their current 3-2-0 record.
Selkirk College Saints head coach Jeff Dubois was quoted in a release on the BCIHL website yesterday saying, "We had some good success against TRU at home [Castlegar Recreation Centre] two weeks ago but everyone in our league knows they’re a team that performs their best at home. They’ve got a tough, rugged team and games on the smaller ice at Kamloops Memorial Arena are never fun or easy."
TRU is hoping to redeem themselves from a disappointing weekend on the road in Castlegar on Oct. 19th and 20th where the team lost 11-0 and 8-1 respectively.
"Friday is a chance for redemption. Hopefully we play better than we did down in Castlegar," said Schulz.
The team has been working on conditioning, work ethic and their willingness to compete. Improvements have been made and consistency in system changes is key for a WolfPack success story. TRU needs to bring a strong defensive game to counteract the strong offence of Selkirk College. Ten of the top 13 league scorers are on Selkirk’s roster.
"They have a high-powered offence and we will need to create a couple wrinkles in their systems in order to be successful," said Schulz.
The WolfPack is in for a busy weekend because it doesn’t end there. Saturday night is another game where they will need to bring their A-game against Eastern Washington.
Schulz said they are going to focus on one night at a time and gauge how things work out and adjust accordingly and play from there.
TRU tends to have close games against Eastern Washington and can’t afford to take them lightly.
"For whatever reason we have always had some trouble with them. They are a quality team and we will have to be ready to compete," said Schulz, who hopes all the time that has went into prepping for a strong showing against the Saints will carry over against the Eagles.
Unfortunately Kevin Lourens is out with a lower body injury while John Bokla is still suffering an upper body injury. Brennan Wright has an upper body injury, but things were looking on the up when he laced up his skates this week and will hopefully return into the lineup.
Starting goalies were unknown at the time of this release. Veteran Shane Mainprize is still not feeling a hundred percent, but Schulz is optimistic he will be back in the rotation this weekend.
The coach's hope for the weekend is to see the ‘Pack "springboard to a whole new level of success" and maintain the momentum for future games on the road and improve their place in the league standings.
VICTORIA
SIMON FRASER
OKANAGAN
LOGAN LAKE
VANCOUVER ISLAN.
