Lethbridge – The Lethbridge Pronghorn men's hockey team (1-12-1) will close out the first semester of conference action this weekend hosting the UBC Thunderbirds (3-10-1) in a pair of games at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
Puck drops both Friday and Saturday night at 7:00pm and both games will be streamed live on
http://canadawest.tv.
For the 'Horns, the first half of the season has been a difficult one and they enter the weekend winless in their last seven games. The Horns are hoping to build off of Saturday night's shootout loss to the Mount Royal Cougars, a game that saw the Pronghorns battle back from a 5-2 deficit to force overtime before falling in the shootout.
The lowest scoring team in the conference, the 'Horns do not have a player ranking amoung the top 20 in conference scoring but are led by freshmen Ryon Moser who has three goals and seven assists in 12 games.
One area of improvement for the 'Horns over the past couple of weeks, has been the play of their power play unit. After going three-for-six last Saturday night with the extra man, the 'Horns power play improved to 11.3% on the season and moved up to sixth in the conference.
Like the 'Horns, the UBC Thunderbirds are mired in an extended losing streak, dropping their last five games, including being swept by the Manitoba Bisons last weekend at home.
The T-Birds rank sixth out of eight teams in goals for with 39 goals scored and are ranked seventh in goals against (61) with the 'Horns as the only team that has allowed more goals against this season.
It looks like former Regina Pat Matt Hewitt has taken over the starting role in the T-Birds crease, starting six of the last eight T-Bird games. In 11 appearances this season, Hewitt has a 4.03 goals-against-average and a 0.871 save percentage.
Earlier this season, the 'Horns and T-Birds split their weekend series in Vancouver with the 'Horns winning the first game 4-3 in overtime, before the T-Birds rebounded to win 7-4 the next night.
The 'Horns will return to conference action in the New Year hosting the Regina Cougars January 3
rd and 4
th.
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