After spending two weekends on the road, the Selkirk College Saints hockey team return home to the Castlegar Rec Centre this weekend for a pair of critical games against the University of Victoria Vikes.
The pivotal two-game set against UVic is clearly a fork in the road in the young British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) season for the Saints.
The Saints spent most of October on the road where the results were less than stellar, losing all four games. After the opening six games of the regular season, the Saints find themselves in the unusual position of holding a 1-3-0-2 record and looking up in the league standings.
Former Castlegar Rebels sniper and first-year Saints forward Edward Lindsey has been one of the bright spots for the Selkirk College team, currently sitting tenth in league scoring with six points.
“It’s not the start that we wanted and it’s frustrating,” says Saints’ head coach Brent Heaven. “At the same time we are making progress, but it’s just not coming through at the end of the games.”
This past weekend in the Lower Mainland, the Saints headed into Langley for a Friday night contest against defending champion Trinity Western University. Though the Saints jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Josh Shatford goal, the home side skated away with a 4-1 victory where they registered 42 shots on Saints starter and former Beaver Valley Nitehawks goalie Tallon Kramer.
On Saturday night, the Saints opened the first period against Simon Fraser University with a 2-0 lead on goals by Parker Wakaruk and Dylan Heppler, another former Nitehawk. In the end, the Saints lost 5-4 in overtime in a game that featured 44 shots on starter Patrick Zubick.
A trademark for the Saints over the last few seasons has been determined work ethic and an offence that peppers opposition goaltenders with shots. So far this season, the Saints have been on the opposite side of that equation with Kramer and Zubick having to face the majority of the rubber in games.
“It’s a culmination of factors at this point,” Heaven says of his team’s struggles. “We are not competing on every puck battle, it seems like we are happy to simply compete but we are not really willing.”
In the first ten games of the 2017-2018 regular season, the Saints blazed out to a perfect 10-0 start on the way to a berth in the championship final this past March. Though Heaven is concerned about this season’s start, the veteran coach is not hitting the panic button.
“I believe we can get to the point where we are winning these games,” said Heaven. “Ultimately that has to come from the desire within the players. They need to understand what the difference is between a winning team and a losing team, it’s about doing the little things. As a coaching staff, we will continue to work with them and allow them the opportunities to do the job.”
The return to the familiar surroundings of the Castlegar Rec Centre where support from student peers and the community is tops in the league will provide an important boost.
“We need to get that confidence back and a good place to do that is home,” says Heaven. “We need to take the doubt of our minds and start believing in each other so that we can have success.”
The puck drops both Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m.