Sunday 01/09/11

We came off of a big win against Colorado last Sunday and then a long week ahead of us – we didn’t play again until Friday night. Monday was a day off and then on Tuesday, we were back to work with practice. Wednesday and Thursday was the same thing, in order to get ready for a big weekend set against Odessa.

On Friday night, once again, we didn’t come out the way we wanted to; we had a rough start. We were down a couple of goals after the first period. The way the game went for us came down to our lack of consistent play. In the third period, we came out and put a couple of goals up and we almost had a comeback there, but we fell short. That’s what happens when you give a good team a lead like that early in the game.

We came to the rink on Saturday morning and had a meeting about the game on Friday night. Then we got back to work to prepare for that night’s game.

I’d like to say we played a better game, but we had the same situation as the night before – down a few goals early. Going into the third period, we had a huge effort by everybody and were able to mount a comeback and win in overtime which was a big win for us, getting those two points. Odessa is a hot team, so to beat them and knock them off their streak was a good game for us.

We’ve obviously continued to struggle with consistency. It’s tough and it’s something we’ve been talking about in the locker room a lot. There’s really no answer for it – we as players just need to be ready for these games. For whatever reason, we’re not starting the way we need to. This is something that we as players need to keep our focus on; no matter what it is we need to do. Hopefully we’ll be able to show a change in that pattern next week.

It was announced just before New Year’s that Jason Krischuk made the CHL All-Star team as an alternate and we were all happy for him. He is excited to get to go up there. Meanwhile, the other guys are happy to know they will be able to enjoy three days off for the All-Star break.

Coming up, we’ve got games at Wichita and at home against Rio Grande Valley. But no matter who the opponent is, our biggest thing is we need to play the same way, no matter who we’re playing. On Friday night in Wichita, we need to come out and have a good first period and a good start to the game which will hopefully give us a good start to the weekend, because that’s something we haven’t done lately. We can’t change the way we play; we’ve got to play our style of game no matter who we’re playing. Wichita has a good team and so does Rio Grande, so we’ve got to be sure we’re ready on both nights.