At the half-way point of the OUA season it's not looking that good for the Lakehead University Thunderwolves hockey team.
There is a real possibility the team could miss the post-season for the first time. Eight of the 10 teams in the West division qualify for the playoffs.
Granted, they have had a very challenging first half with two road trips to top Eastern teams such as Trois Rivieres and McGill. The schedule has also included road trips to perennial power-house Western and the tough Windsor Lancers.
Both the Thunderwolves president and Lakehead athletic director say they knew there would be growing pains in a re-building year. There are 17 first- or second-year players on coach Bill McDonald's roster.
The top brass of the team believes the veteran coach is still the right person to guide this ship, and that there will be better days ahead.
The problem is getting the fans to buy into this. Attendance has dropped quite a bit since the earlier days of the program. The question is whether fans will stick this out and still support, in hopes of those better days ahead.
There are a dozen regular-season games left after Christmas and eight are at the Fort William Gardens, so there is still time for Lakehead to turn things around and secure a playoff spot although it's going to be a tough battle to do that.
But, remember back to the first season in 2001-2002.
They didn't have a great season, but managed to win an opening playoff series and was close to pulling off an upset of Western for a chance to compete for the Provincial Queen's Cup championship.
The next season after was much stronger, and ended with a trip to Nationals.
Growing pains are necessary at this level, and you don't know what the end result could be.
