Brock Press

Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Erika Hughes

Coming into the weekend, the Badgers were looking to gain four points and steady ground in the standings, and hosting a pair of teams below them in the standings, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
But, as with all well laid plans, things didn't exactly work out as expected.
Playing Windsor on Nov. 14, the Badgers were able to weather the storm, relying largely on the stellar play of all-star goalie Beth Clause, who turned away 33 shots for the shutout.
The Badgers were the recipient of Amber Wilson's first goal of the season on the power play, as they skated away with a 1-0 victory.
Heading into their matchup with Western the following afternoon, the Badgers were looking to capitalize on their momentum and knock off the Mustangs.
However, it was Western who came out flying, taking it to the Badgers early and often, and handing the home side a 2-0 defeat.
Plaguing the Badgers Sunday afternoon was their lack of rubber directed at the Western goal. With only 10 shots on net after two periods of play, Brock knows that they simply won't win games with so few shots.
"I don't care who we're playing, 10 shots in two periods isn't going to get it done," said head coach Todd Erskine. "That sense of urgency didn't kick in until the third period."
The sense of urgency Erskine refers to is that of the play demonstrated in the final 20 minutes, where the Badgers looked like a team that was hungry for a win, but were just unable to find the mesh.
Accumulating 12 shots in the final period, Brock was not able to beat the Western goalie, and after a late penalty, they weren't able to pull Clause in time to create any type of pressure.
"We need to work on realizing that 15 bad shots on net, even from outside, [are still] shots on net," said Erskine. "We don't have the luxury of setting up the pretty play all the time."
Heading into practice this week, the focus will be on directing pucks to the net and reacting from there, in the hopes of creating some bounces and taking that into gameplay.
"Good practice habits carry over to the game and we had good practices this week," said Erskine. "As a coach, it's a good sign that we've practiced well, but getting pucks on net will be the focus."
While two points out of a possible four isn't terrible, with the standings as tight as they are, the Badgers need to find wins when playing teams trying to catch them.
"Give Western credit - they struggled out of the gate but have gotten back on track," said Erskine. "It's such a logjam in the standings that we can't afford not to get these points, especially at home."
Up next, the Badgers will host Waterloo Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Seymour-Hannah Centre before travelling to Laurier the following evening.

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