The UPEI Panthers may have a different look when they hit the ice tonight in Antigonish, N.S.
The Panthers (2-1-1) play the St. FX X-Men (3-1-0) at 7 p.m. in the team’s first matchup of the season.
While UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson said he is not disappointed with the team’s play he might make some adjustments to see if there is chemistry with players matched with different guys.
“We’re kind of flirting with making some changes,” he said Thursday. “It’s more or less (about) maximizing the combinations.”
Adding 10 new players to the roster this season makes the idea of altering line combinations and defence pairings more of a possibility.
MacPherson said he knows the area he is most looking for improvement from his team early in the Atlantic University Sport season.
“I think it’s just that magic word that pretty well every coach uses and that’s just consistency,” he said. “We feel like we've been playing pretty well for the most part but there’s been some times where I felt like our compete level could have been more consistent.”
A goalie for tonight’s game had not been determined Thursday morning. Matt Mahalak has played all four of the regular season games, but MacPherson noted he would like to get Connor Wilkinson some work early in the semester.
“The reality is Matty is playing pretty well to this point, so it’s hard to get a hot goalie out of the net,” MacPherson said.
The Panthers are in Halifax on Saturday to play Dalhousie (2-1-1) at 7 p.m.
The three teams will see a lot of each other. The Panthers play the X-Men and Tigers three times in the next month.
