The Nelson Junior Leafs are back out on the road this weekend after playing back-to-back home games last weekend.
Friday night they take on the Creston Valley Thunder Cats and Saturday they face off against their Fruitvale Neil Murdoch Division rivals the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
“Creston will be a good team. They came into Nelson and played us hard,” said Leafs head coach Frank Maida.
The Leafs played the Thunder Cats earlier this month and snuck out with a 6-5 win.
“It was a good game and a good fought game. I think they’ll be a good test for us,” said Maida.
The Thunder Cats are known for their aggressive and physical play and Maida said they like to see Nelson’s response to that.
“We’re just working hard this week to prepare for both games,” he said. “Both will be similar games in smaller rinks. It’ll be tight checking and we’re doing a lot of battle drills this week.”
On Saturday night the Leafs will take on their longtime rivals in Beaver Valley and it’s a game Maida is really looking forward to.
“Going into Beaver Valley will be a good test for us in their barn,” he said.
“We’ve played them twice and it’s 1-and-1 and it should be 2-and-0. I’m looking for a big game from our guys.”
Even though players like James Sorey, Patrick Martens, Dallon Stoddart, Matti Jmaeff and Nik Newman have proven to be important for putting points on the board, Maida will be looking to the whole team in the upcoming games.
“We’re going to be looking to get back to our system game and playing a complete 60 minute game in each contest, taking each period at a time,” he said.
Last weekend, the Leafs played the Columbia Valley Rockies and the Summerland Steam.
They were able to come out with a win against the Rockies, but weren’t able to seal the deal with the Steam.
“We learned from last weekend that you can’t take anything for granted,” said Maida.
“I think we went into Sunday’s game thinking they were just going to give us the game and they caught us off guard. That’s what we’re focusing on this week.”
The Leafs will be back on home ice on Saturday, November 12 against the Grand Forks Border Bruins.
“I think it’s good,” said Maida about the team’s time on the road.
“We’ve played a few at home and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play away and to play some good road games and come home with victories.”
For coverage of the weekend’s games go to nelsonstar.com