NPHL Media

By Garrett Fabris

 

Only three teams will hit the ice this weekend in the Northern Pacific Hockey League. The Wenatchee Wolves will travel to Eugene, Oregon, to take on the Eugene Generals for the third time this season. After this, the Wolves will head back to Washington to battle the Tri-City Outlaws on Friday, December 11th, and Saturday, December 12th.

 

Here’s a breakdown of this weekend’s games:

 

The Wenatchee Wolves (19-0-0-0) versus the Eugene Generals (11-9-0-0)

When: This game will be on Thursday, December 10th. The puck is scheduled to drop at 6:05 pm.

Where: These teams will battle it out on the ice at The Rink Exchange in Eugene, Oregon.

 

The Wolves will enter into Eugene as the only undefeated team left in tier III junior hockey. Throughout the season, the Wolves have soared past the team’s opponents. In the 19 games this team has played so far this season, the Wolves have scored 112 total goals while only allowing 24. The 24 goals allowed by the Wolves is a league low.

 

By comparison, the Generals have scored 81 goals this season while allowing 55. During these teams last match-up, it was a lot closer than the final box score indicates. In both games, the score was tied heading into the final period, but then the Wolves were able to pull away in the final minutes.

 

Throughout the previous series, the Wolves’ goalies have been an absolute rock for the team to lean on. Bronson Moore and Max Flynn have allowed only three goals against the Generals in these teams’ previous, and only, two games.

 

On top of this, the Wolves display the best special team unit within the league. The team takes advantage of power play opportunities, scoring on almost 25 percent of all opportunities. Then, when the Wolves find themselves on the other end of the power play, the team has the highest power play killing percentage. That percentage is currently sitting at 88.31 percent.

 

The odds may seem stacked against the Generals, but this team has one feature that cannot be measured by statistics. That feature is physicality. The Generals are an extremely physical team. When the Generals asserted its physicality against the Wolves, it was evident that it was frustrating the Wolves’ players.

 

Justin Kern, the head coach for the Generals, commented on his team’s game plan heading into Thursday. He said, “the last time we played the Wolves, we had a good couple periods. So, to prepare for this game, we have been working on completing a whole 60-minute game and getting rid of the simple mistakes.”

 

This game will be shown live on both Fast Hockey and the Eugene Generals’ website.

 

The Wenatchee Wolves (19-0-0-0) versus the Tri-City Outlaws (5-13-0-0)

When: This home-and-home, two-game, series will begin on Friday, December 11th, at 7:05 pm. The second game in this series will be on Saturday, December 12th, at 7:35 pm.

Where: The first game in this series will be held at the Toyota Arena in Kennewick, Washington. Then this series will conclude at the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee, Washington.  

 

The Wolves will be busy this weekend, as the team will travel from Washington to Oregon and then back to Washington. When these teams last met, which was over a month ago, the Outlaws played the Wolves down to the wire in a 5 – 4 loss, which was during the first game of a two-game series. But the second game of this series had a different storyline, the Wolves shutout the Outlaws in a 6 – 0 victory.

 

Coming into this series, the Outlaws must see production from the team’s leading scorer in Aaron Questad. In the month of November, there was a brief patch in which Questad went silent in three straight games. Part of this offensive silence was due to an illness.

 

In these three games, the Outlaws were only able to score one goal, which shows how important Questad is to this team. After all, Questad isn’t in the top three for scoring in the NPHL for nothing.

 

The ability to rest will play a huge role for the Wolves this weekend. Since the team will be traveling back-and-forth between Washington and Oregon, there will be some fatigue. On top of this, the Wolves will be playing three games in three days. To keep players’ legs fresh will be a critical component in every game for the Wolves.

 

Ryan McKelvie, the Wolves head coach, commented on this stretch of games over the weekend, and the game plan for both series. He said, “our focus will be on taking another step forward in our performance. This weekend will be a good test for our players to see if they can play with high levels of energy, and effort, to close out the longest stretch of games we will have all year.”

 

For this series, the Outlaws will have to be mindful of the time the team spends in the penalty box. With the third most penalty infraction minutes in the league, the Outlaws will need to limit the Wolves’ power play opportunities.

 

As mentioned above, the Wolves operate the top special team unit in the league. So, keeping these opportunities to minimum will be crucial if the Outlaws want to skate away with the victory.

 

Geno McCue, who is the head coach for the Outlaws, discussed this weekend’s series against the Wolves and said, “coming into this series, we want to focus on developing our skills and our system even further. In terms of play, we will lean on our goalies in this series. When our goalies are on their game, then we will be fine. Aaron is also coming back from being extremely sick these past few weeks, and is now feeling better. When we get offensive production from him, it opens it up for other players to score.”

 

You can catch this series live on Fast Hockey.

 

Tune in to the NPHL’s website after the conclusion of each game for a nightly recap.