The Richardson Pioneer Weyburn Red Wings will be looking to bounce back tonight after a rough stretch in the past week. The Wings have picked up just two of a possible eight points in their last four games, and haven’t won since October October 3rd, when they topped the Notre Dame Hounds 5-1 at Crescent Point Place.
With the Hounds again coming to town, they will be looking to get back into the win column, and keeping a hold on first place in the Viterra Division.
“Obviously we laid an egg in Humboldt, but the other three games have been all one-goal games and had a chance to win all of them,” said head coach Cody Mapes. “I mean, a couple of things happen a little differently, we’re definitely walking away with two or three wins out of those four games, so it's good to know where we measure up, that we still got some growth to happen and need to continue to get better.”
The game Saturday night against the Flin Flon Bombers, while a loss, wasn’t seen as a bad game by Mapes, or the fans. The Bombers had come into Crescent Point Place Saturday on a tear, having outscored their opponents 33-4 in the month of October. Saturday night, the high-octane offence of Flin Flon was kept in check by the Red Wings, as Flin Flon barely escaped town with a 2-1 win in a shootout.
“We were looking forward to this stretch in the schedule, knowing where those teams were going to be and where we matched up,” Mapes said of the run in October so far. Their games have come against Melfort, Humboldt and Flin Flon, all three of whom are ahead of Weyburn in the overall standings. Humboldt was the only team to beat Weyburn by more than a goal in that stretch. “Obviously we would love to get a win out of it, but I think we know that we can hand with those guys, and especially once we get healthy here again.”
With the Hounds coming in tonight, the Red Wings will be facing an opponent who has struggled in the early part of the season. Notre Dame is currently sitting in last place overall without a win on the year. They have also been outscored 56-11 over that span, giving up over six goals a game.
“I think we’re ready to capitalize on the opportunity against Notre Dame,” captain Max Monette said. “I think looking forward, these next few games are going to be huge for us to gain more confidence as a team, and especially just grow our game to the net level and put ourselves in that position to be in the top three in the league.”
“We’ve had a few real good practices, good effort against Flin Flon, real good practice on Monday – I think that we’re trending the right way here,” added Mapes. “It doesn’t matter who we play, we have to worry about ourselves and make sure that we’re doing things the right way for us; it doesn’t really matter who our opponent is, we got to make sure that we show up and practice well and play well.”
The game tonight starts at 7:00 p.m. at Crescent Point Place.