Bring on Beljo

Jadran Beljo’s recapturing of his CIS hockey eligibility couldn’t have come at a better time.

With Kris Hogg out of the lineup indefinitely nursing a knee injury, and Matt Caria playing one last game Friday night before joining Team Canada for the World University Games in Turkey – along with defenceman Jordan Smith – the Lakehead Thunderewolves are going to find themselves missing about 20 per cent of their offense for the foreseeable future.

Beljo, who had to sit out a year because of a 16-game stint with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies last season, arrives in the lineup with a pretty good goal-scorer’s pedigree.

Though he failed to score last weekend as the No. 10 Wolves (13-6-1) scored but twice in a pair of crucial losses to Western, the Sudbury native is a former two-time 30-goal scorer in the Ontario Hockey League, popping 36 in 2006-07 and 33 in his overage season a year later.

“It’s nice to finally play some games,” said Beljo, who will help lead the Wolves charge against the always pesky Brock Badgers (8-7-6), invaders of Fort William Gardens on Friday and Saturday night.

“It’s been a long first half of the year, so it’s definitely nice to get into the lineup and play a few games.”

There’s quite a difference between practicing hard against your teammates and doing battle with the opposition, he added.

“You don’t get into those one-on-one battles and that definitely takes experience. That’s something you can’t really practice on,” he said.

The expectations are high for Beljo, who turns 23 next month. LU coach Joel Scherban brought him in to play him, and not knowing if there would be a place in the lineup, knew it had the potential to cause disruption on a team that still has second place in its sights.

Injuries and Caria’s temporary departure have made that a moot point right, but regardless, Scherban was happy with the way his sole Christmas addition played against Western, a series that all but ended any designs the Wolves had on first place in the OUA West.
In fact, Scherban said he was a little surprised.

“I really expected it would take a month or so for him to get his legs back and his timing back. It’s really tough when you’re out a full year. You look at players who miss a few weeks with injury and it takes them awhile to get back into the game,” Scherban said.

“He’s been out a full year. He worked hard. He went down and blocked shots (last week). He’s a pretty complete player and for his first weekend, we’re happy with what he did.”
The best is yet to come, Sherban added.

“I still think it’s going to take three or four weeks for him to get to the level he’s capable of playing at, but it’s a good start.”

Beljo said it was a little rough out their against a top team like the Mustangs, but he thinks he did OK and hopes he can hit the standard Scherban expects him to reach at both ends of the ice.

“Hopefully I can hit those and hopefully I can put up some numbers and not be a liability out there defensively.”

Beljo said it was Scherban’s persistence that convinced him to put his professional hockey career on hold and join the Thunderwolves, a team that has made four trips to nationals in nine previous seasons.

“I thought I’d come give it a shot and it’s been really good so far.”

Being around the team since training camp, Beljo has felt every jolt along the bumpy ride that’s been the Thunderwolves season so far. A slow start to the first half was all but wiped from memory with a seven-game winning streak entering the Christmas break.

However the Wolves have lost four of six, including a pair of non-conference defeats at the hands of Manitoba, and need to find that winning formula with just eight games left in OUA play.

The wins are there for the taking, Beljo said.

“We’ve just got to play our game. We have to play for 60 minutes hard and we’ll be OK from that,” he said, echoing a line from the company quote book. 
   
Claw marks: Scherban confirmed that forward Arron Alphonso and Pierre-Marc Guilbault are done for the season. Both suffer from post-concussion symptoms and Scherban said at this point in the season it’s not worth the risk bringing them back … Hogg won’t play this week and is doubtful for next weekend too ... Caria and Smith will play Friday night, but depart for Turkey on Saturday.