Six weeks after last playing at the Queenstown Ice Arena, the table-topping SkyCity Stampede ice hockey side’s delighted to be back home this weekend.
They’re playing Auckland’s Botany Swarm, who are five points behind in second place, tomorrow and on Saturday, before rounding out round robin play with a home double-header against Dunedin’s Phoenix Thunder on August 16 and 17.
If they win two or three of these games, they’ll be assured of playing home finals next month, with the prospect of winning the Birgel Cup for the fourth time in a row.
"We’ve maybe been a bit slow on those first days, but we’ve adjusted quite well," Stampede coach Cam Frear says.
"Just a few technical and line-up changes have kind of helped us play more specific to the team we’ve had in front of us — it’s been really good to see the team can bounce back after a loss."
Frear says they’ve struggled in their first games on the road — they were even 4-1 down to Thunder after the first period before recovering to win — "so being at home and not travelling is going to be huge for us".
He’s expecting this weekend’s Swarm games to be exciting, because of their offensive style of play, and close.
"We’re going to treat it just like finals play-off hockey."
In terms of stand-outs this season, he says they include ex-Admirals’ Jordan Challis, Colin McIntosh, imports Jeff McCullum and Nolan Ross, Dylan Devlin, Axel Ruski-Jones, Josh Hurley and his own brother, Lachlan.
Meanwhile, Frear, who was assistant coach of the Ice Blacks at their worlds in Bulgaria this year, will be head coach when they play the Division 2 Group B world champs in Dunedin next April/May.
"It’s a huge honour, and you have the chance for your family and friends to come watch, which doesn’t happen every year.
"It’s going to be great, though it adds maybe a little more pressure [being at home]."
The team should also be able to field their best players because the costs of going overseas, and the time commitment, mean not everyone’s been available in past tournaments.
Frear says it’ll also be good to have his two fellow assistants from this year on board again.
