Fort St. John Huskies aim to regain momentum in final stretch

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — With the holiday season behind them, the Fort St. John Huskies get back on the ice with back-to-back games this weekend.

With just ten regular season games remaining, head coach Todd Alexander knows the importance of getting “back in the swing of things” with the STRIKE GROUP North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) playoffs looming.

The games to round out the regular season will give the team its identity heading into the postseason.

“We’re really coming down to the nitty gritty here,” said Alexander. “We’ve got to buckle down and get everything in order.”

“There’s not a lot of time left to make those adjustments anymore.  By the time you get to playoffs, you are who you are.”

Friday’s opponent, the North Peace Navigators is a foe familiar to Fort St. John.  

Alexander says the team will come in with a “chip on its shoulder” for this weekend’s contests.

In their last game against the Navigators, Fort St. John fell four goals behind in the second, en route to a 5-2 loss on December 21st.

The Huskies gave up 18 penalty minutes in losing to the Navigators for the first time this year.

“We flat-out played poor,” said Alexander. “Our discipline and bench mannerisms were poor.”

“I don’t think that’s a type of game that we want to play on a nightly basis. There’s not a lot that we could take away from that game.”

Saturday’s opponent,  the Grande Prairie Wheat Kings, snatched a victory from the Huskies in overtime by a score of 4-3, back on November 16th in a game Fort St. John led late in the third.

Currently in second place in the NWJHL’s North/South Division, Grande Prairie has won eight of their last ten games.

“They nipped us in overtime, but I thought we played very well,” said Alexander. “We had eight regulars out of the lineup, but no excuses.”

“At the end of the day, the other team still executed and scored goals on us to get it to overtime.”

Friday’s game will be at the North Peace Arena, while Saturday’s game will be at the Crosslink City Complex in Grande Prairie.

Game time for both games is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.  

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