The last time the Selkirk College Saints hockey team were in action, they saw their league record 13 game winning streaking broken by Trinity Western but bounced back to beat Eastern Washington.
"We just weren't getting any of the bounces and puck luck just wasn't with us," said Saints' captain Jordan Wood. "We still played fairly good, just had a slow start. We had to lose sometime so it's better now than later. It was nice to come back with a big win after that loss and get back in the win column."
After a weekend off, the Saints are back on the ice this weekend as they prepare for the stretch run to the play-offs. The team will have to play strong to hold on the top spot in league standings and home ice advantage through the play-offs.
"Finishing first would be huge, especially with the play-off format this year," said Wood. "Having the home ice advantage for both games in the final would be massive. Hopefully, we can maintain first place."
On Friday, Selkirk travels to Kamloops to take on the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack. The next night, the BCIHL's top team returns to Castlegar to battle Burnaby's Simon Fraser University.
"We want to work on our first periods and starting games better," said Wood. "We're looking for good performance. We've had good success against both teams this year so hopefully we'll be able to continue that success."
The TRU Wolfpack are in third in BCIHL standings and are led by high scoring forwards Alession Tomassetti (26 points in 16 games) and Colten DeFrias (23 points in 14 games).
Saturday's opponents, Simon Fraser, are only three points behind the Saints in the race for first place in the league. The Clan are led by high flying Ben Van Lare, who leads all BCIHL scorers with 31 points. Christopher Hoe (24 points in 13 games) and Jono Ceci (23 points in 12 games) add even more scoring punch to the SFU roster.
"SFU is always a challenging opponent," said Wood, who trails Van Lare by one point in the hunt for the league's scoring title. "They have some of the most skilled players in the league on their team. And we're going to be coming from a road trip to Kamloops the night before. Hopefully, we can put in a good effort and walk out with two points."
The Saints are led by the high scoring line of Wood, Logan Proulx (third in league scoring with 26 points) and Jackson Garrett (13 points in 13 games). On defence, Kam Crawford (18 points) and Dylan Smith (15 points) lead the way.
In goal, Selkirk is in great shape with Alex Sirard leading the league with an undefeated nine and oh record and 2.16 goals against average.