The UPEI Panthers men’s hockey team opens a new season at a different venue tonight.
The Panthers host the perennial conference powerhouse UNB Varsity Reds at 7 p.m.
Head coach Forbes MacPherson said it is an experiment with the Charlottetown Islanders on the road and the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) season beginning on Thanksgiving weekend.
The team held its first practice there on Friday, but first-year Panther forward Brent Andrews doesn’t expect the location will make much of a difference.
“At the end of the day it’s still ice and boards, so it’s not going to affect us too much,” he said. “We just want to go out and play the game we know we can and start the year off the right way.”
The Reds had won three straight conference titles before losing to Saint Mary’s in last year’s semifinal.
“The reality is UNB, no question, is one of the top-end programs in Canada,” MacPherson said Friday. “We have to be prepared to play every single game the exact same way. It really doesn’t matter the colour of the (opposition’s) uniform.”
The Panthers lost to Saint Mary’s in the third game of the best-of-three quarter-final to end the 2013-14 season.
MacPherson said it is always a long time between games in the university
setting, even if you get to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) final.
The team has been on the ice for about a month preparing for the season.
“It’s just an exciting time of year,” MacPherson said. “The temperature is changing outside and it feels like hockey season again.”
The Panthers enter the regular season following a pre-season that saw them go 0-2-1 during a trip to Ottawa and 0-2 against NCAA Division One teams, including the defending national champs.
MacPherson said there were long stretches where the team played extremely well. He told the players after the final game in the United States to not get too caught up in the winless pre-season.
“I can promise you one thing, we will win a game this year,” MacPherson told The Guardian on Friday.
The team has added nine new faces during the off-season and some will be asked to carry larger roles than rookies in past seasons.
“As proud of who we are, and what we’ve done as a program, we still haven’t won,” MacPherson said.
The new players were recruited to be impact players in the league. The coach said they will be afforded ice time early in the season, but must prove they deserve it.
Andrews, a 21-year-old Hunter River, said he is looking forward to pulling on the Panthers jersey tonight.
“It’s been five years since being a rookie again and getting my feet wet for the first time in a new league,” said Andrews, who spent five seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads. “I’m obviously just going to try and play my best, get used to the game and not try to do too much.”
Mavric Parks gets the start in the Panthers crease.
