The Princeton Posse slipped into the basement of the Okanagan Division of the Kootenay International Hockey League last week, but coach Mark McNaughton is confident the team is still on track for a play-off berth.
“Definitely. I’ve been doing this long enough to know it’s always a dog fight to the bitter end,” he said in an interview with The Spotlight.
The Posse is now fifth, with 11 wins and 23 losses, just one point behind North Okanagan. The Knights have occupied the bottom rung for the entire season.
“They have always kind of been in that five to seven points behind range. They had five games in hand at one point and they picked it up. They’ve been about a 500 club since Christmas time.”
During that same period since the holiday break, however, The Posse has yet to record a win.
“We went into the break kind of a 500 club with our last bit of hockey there. We’ve had a couple of injuries, some guys who were contributing significantly.” he said.
The Posse lost team Captain Lane French in December, after French requested a trade to Summerland.
There have been other roster changes in the past few weeks but McNaughton said they aren’t big factors in the team’s recent performance.
The departing members “are very good hockey players and guys who were contributing offensively for us. On the same token the guys who have come in their place were doing quite well until they got injured,” he said. “We are feeling the effects of guys out of the line up.”
McNaughton noted the Posse has some stability that is lacking in other teams in the division, as it heads into the last 12 games of the regular season.
“Both Osoyoos and North Okanagan fired their coaches in the last 10 days.”
Princeton has an opportunity to bump ahead of North Okanagan Friday night as the teams face off here at 7 p.m.
“It’s an exciting time of the year but it’s always a wake up call when you end up in that fifth place spot.”
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