After a divided start last weekend, the UW hockey team is looking to put two wins under their belt this weekend as they take on the University of Alabama-Huntsville Friday and Saturday.
With little information about UAH, the team is planning on giving their all.
\We could lose to any team in the U.S. any given night,"" junior wing Rene Bourque said. ""We can't take them lightly. That's something the team learned the hard way after falling to RPI last Friday 5-1,"" Borque added.
The team came back, however, and won the next game beating Northern Michigan Saturday. Hoping to begin a winning streak is the team's primary goal for this upcoming weekend.
""This is a big weekend for us to get on track,"" junior defenseman Dan Boesser said. ""We only have four games until league play, each one is really important."" Boesser said.
Getting on track has been the team's theme for this season so far. With new Head Coach Mike Eaves and the new system he brings much is new for the team this year. With added emphasis on conditioning and lots of work on those new systems, the team is trying to ""work on their old habits and still work out the kinks in the systems,"" according to Boesser, who cites these as the prominent team goals heading into the two-game series this weekend.
""We've really only gone over the basics so far because everything is so new,"" Boesser said. Specifically, the team is looking forward to improving on their power-play, break-out, penalty-kill, fore-checking etc.
""We can get a lot better at all that team-oriented stuff,"" Boesser said.
Boesser, however, is still in the process of getting himself ready for play. After playing last Friday and sitting out on Saturday, he clearly is still working to reach the level he'd like to be at before the regular season gets under way. ""It's getting better every day,"" he said. ""I'm still working toward getting back to 100 percent.""
He's anticipating playing in both of this weekend's games.
Bourque also has high hopes for the new system put in place by Eaves.
""It's going to take a few more weeks to get down, but once we do, it'll help us a lot,"" he said.
While there has been nothing but praise for the new system, it has been a little difficult to adjust to.
""The transition for the older guys had been a little bit harder,"" Boesser said, ""But, it's going good. It's going to be good once everyone is on the same page.""
The team's youth is another challenge standing in the way,
""We're really young, that'll show through sometimes,"" Boesser said.
Hopefully these kinks can be worked out this weekend against a lesser-known Alabama-Huntsville team. But Bourque sums it up in saying, ""We need to be ready to play as soon as the puck drops."" Hopefully they will be by this weekend.
