Wolves face high-stakes weekend

It’s a make-or-break weekend for the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s hockey team.

Trailing front-running Western by four points in the OUA Western Conference, with just six games to go, the Wolves are essentially in a sweep-or-settle-for-second – or worse – scenario when the Mustangs arrive in town for a pair of weekend contests starting Friday night at Fort William Gardens.

Star forward Scott Dobben said the position they’re in isn’t new, given how hotly contested the battle for top spot in the conference is every season.

"Every game we play in the stretch here is going to be huge for us. We’re on a bit of a roll. We’ve got four straight going for us. (Western) gave it to us pretty good when we were down there and I think we want to try to come back and show them that we’re a better team than we showcased down there," Dobben said.

"Definitely these two games are going to be huge and dictate probably the final standings."

The Wolves (15-5-2) and Mustangs (18-4-0) met twice this season, opening the second half in London, and it wasn’t a pretty affair for the visiting side. Western won the Jan. 8 opener 7-2 and completed the sweep with an 8-3 win the following night.

Dobben, second on the team with 25 points, said the Wolves simply weren’t ready for the defending national finalists, but have made a commitment to team defence in the ensuing weeks, evidenced by road victories in Brock (2-1) and Laurier (4-0) last weekend.

"I think they did catch us off guard. They’re a good team, there’s no doubt about it, but as you’ve seen, any team can win on any given night in this league and I think that was the first road trip after we took Manitoba for two games and I think we were a little above ourselves and when we got down there they stepped on us," Dobben said.

LU captain Jordan Smith said no team likes to be embarrassed and the Wolves will be looking for revenge.

"It was one of those (weekends) where everything went right for them and everything went wrong for us. It was a good wake-up call for us, being the first weekend back in the OUA after Christmas. We’re going to hope to get some revenge this weekend, but we’re going to take it one game at a time and hopefully come out with a win Friday night to start things off."

Smith, in his fourth and final season with the Thunderwolves, said the team has turned things around and regained the confidence it might have lost in their earlier meetings with the Mustangs.

"We’ve worked on our team defence pretty much every day since the start of the year. We had a big weekend from Kyle (Moir) in net," Smith said. "Our defence played well and our forwards are making the right decisions with the puck. When you get everybody on the same page and everybody knows what each other is doing, it makes life a lot easier out there."