By Alissa McArthur /
With a record of 3-5-0 to start this season, the Trinity Western University Titans have already equalled their win total from last year. After finishing second last in the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League with a 3-13 record last season, the Titans appear poised to put together an improved 2009/10 campaign.
Rookie centre Josh Stephenson was excited by the promise his team showed early in the season, when the team won their first three games.
“We asked ourselves, ‘do we want to be a team that just plays, or do we really try to go for it,’” Stephenson said. “We want to challenge for the top place in the standings.”
The Titans have struggled of late however, having been blown out in their last three games, including an 8-0 loss to league-leading Simon Fraser University Nov. 6.
But new coach Dwayne Lowdermilk, a former pro who played two games for the Washington Capitals in the 1980/81 season, has established an exciting, free-wheeling style of play for the Titans. Lowdermilk doesn’t blink at sending four forecheckers into the opposing zone or pulling the goalie in the middle of a period to try and get a goal.
To nail home his emphasis on offence, the coach has even set the lofty target of getting 50 shots on goal per game. Impressively, they’ve come close – averaging around 40 shots per game in their eight games so far.
Stephenson, who played last season with the Aldergrove Kodiaks of the PIJHL, said he wasn’t used to playing such purely offensive hockey.
“It was a lot different from last year and different teams I played for,” he said. “With four guys going full bore ahead, it’s been a bit of an adjustment.”
Stephenson looks to have made the adjustment quite smoothly, tallying seven points in eight games thus far.
The TWU Titans next face off Nov. 14 at Thompson Rivers University, 8:45 p.m. at the Kamloops Memorial Arena. |