Coming off a disappointing season-opening road trip, the UNM Ice Wolves (0-2) return to home ice this weekend looking to avenge last week's losses to Northern Arizona University.
The Ice Jacks handed UNM a pair of losses last weekend in Flagstaff, Ariz., 9-4 and 6-3.
Ice Wolves head coach Otley Smith said that despite the losses, his team was upbeat.
"We've made a few changes," he said. "We're not going to succumb to their instigating and hacking to get us out of our game plan. We played over 60 minutes short-handed over the two games in Flagstaff. If we can stay out of the penalty box we'll definitely win these games."
Smith said that the key to his team's success is the discipline of its play.
"Lack of discipline is one of our weaknesses," he said. "We lose focus throughout the games and get caught for needless penalties."
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Defenseman Sean McAfee echoed Otley's statements and said that it was up to the team not to commit unnecessary penalties.
"They (the Ice Jacks) played smart hockey and we knew to expect that," McAfee said, referring to the Ice Jacks' tactics of baiting UNM into penalties. "Last week we were just so excited to play that we let our enthusiasm get the better of us. As a hockey team we know better. We need to temper that and play disciplined hockey."
McAfee also said that his team was looking to exact a little revenge from last week's losses.
"I think we embarrassed ourselves over there," he said. "We need to return the favor. We took way too many penalties and that's kind of why we lost."
Smith said that along with keeping focus, the Ice Wolves need to play to their strengths.
"Our strength is certainly in our offensive play," he said. "When we're playing as a team and working our systems, we're very strong."
The Ice Wolves are a club team at UNM and are members of the American National Hockey Association and play in the Rocky Mountain Hockey Association Division.
Smith said that the schedule is not fully set, but that the team should play about 30 games this year.
"Our goal is to have a winning record," he said. "We've got a fairly young team with a few older guys. We should certainly break .500 and I think we can qualify for the playoff this year."
Smith said that his team is made up of a nice sampling of the student body population, with players ranging from undergrads to graduate students to law students.
"We have a really good mix," he said. "I'd say about 50 percent of our kids grew up locally and played through the clubs. Other kids, like the Solis brothers, grew up in Alaska or grew up back East and have been playing since they were young. And then we have some guys that just picked up the sport and this is their first taste of competitive hockey."
Game time for the home opener is 9:15 p.m. Friday at the Outpost Ice Arena, 9530 Tramway Blvd. Saturday's game begins at 10:15 p.m. and is also at the Outpost
