MHKY: Thunderwolves up against the playoff wall

Bill McDonald hasn’t given up on this season just yet.

But the odds are stacked against his Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s hockey team, who with four games left trail the University of Toronto Varsity Blues by six points.

That’s not a lot of room for error. Another loss in regulation and they’re done. Another pair of points by Toronto and their playoff hopes are dashed.

But McDonald, the third-year Thunderwolves coach, is a bit of a realist.

He knew his team was young heading into the season and knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road through the OUA.

There were bound to be bumps.

They turned out to be mountains.

The Wolves (6-14-4) dropped their first 11 contests of 2015-16, a stretch of nearly two months.

While they’ve managed to play .500 hockey in the second half, their failure to win the second half of any weekend series since picking up that first win of the season on Nov. 21 in Windsor.

McDonald said worrying about what Toronto may or may not do down the stretch does the team no good at this point.

“I think what we do is we try to win every game that we can. It would have been nice to win that one (last) Saturday, but it didn’t happen,” McDonald said. “I guess you throw it in your backyard and move on and we’ve got two really tough games against Guelph.”

The players know their backs are against the wall and it’s impossible for them not to look at the standings and realize they’re looking up at every team in the OUA West, not an enviable place with just two weekends of play left in the regular season.

“I’ve just got to pound it home to just worry about us,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t win anyway. I just keep reiterating that … So worry about your own shift, your own game and we’ll see what plays out after the game. Then you can look at the standings.”

The good news is the Thunderwolves have seen Guelph twice before this season, and twice came out on top, knocking them off in a pair of non-conference games over the Christmas break.

The Gryphons (14-11-0) still have a shot at first place, trailing York by five points. They’re two points behind second-place Western.

“They’re a really good team,” McDonald said.

“We’ve got our work cut out. We just have to worry about the game that’s in front of us first and hopefully we can win it from whoever Toronto plays. I don’t even know who they play.”

For the record, it’s Western and Ryerson this weekend, both games on home ice. 

The Thunderwolves wrap up regular-season play next weekend at home against the Laurier Golden Hawks.