Tigers coach Tom Watkins believes the upcoming sequence of three successive away games could have an effect on the end-of-season shake-up in the English Premier League.
Image courtesy of Steve Brodie
Telford currently lead the EPL standings by three points from Milton Keynes Lightning, following their midweek win over Guildford, with Hull Pirates a further four points adrift in third spot.
Saturday night sees the Tigers make the trip north to face Hull in their first competitive encounter of the season, while on Sunday they travel south to take on Guildford.
Those games are followed by next Saturday’s journey to Milton Keynes, before they return to home ice 24 hours later – against the Lightning.
Watkins, who has steered his side to an unbeaten start to the season at home, said: “These are a key couple of weeks for us and I think it’s great fun for everybody. I would much rather be involved in these games, as it brings out the best in us.
“Every game is worth two points, so they’re all important, but when you’re playing your rivals, it does mean a bit more. In terms of head-to-head records at the end of the season, they are very important.
“We haven’t played Hull yet in the league and you can’t really take anything from the pre-season games. They’ve made a very impressive start, having recruited well over the summer.
“We’ll have to be at our best to get anything from either game this weekend.”
Wednesday night’s win over Guildford also saw Telford qualify for the semi-finals of the EPL Cup, a competition they won alongside the league title two years ago.
Watkins added: “The guys deserve to be in the semi-final of the cup. We’ve got a great bunch this season and they’ve all bought into what we’re doing.
“They compete hard for each other and during the second period on Wednesday night, there was a huge collective effort from everyone.
“The guys all went the extra stride, keeping pucks in, knocking pucks off sticks and doing whatever it took for each other.
Image courtesy of Steve Brodie
“It was excellent to watch and I think that period was probably the best we have played all season.”
Telford will again be without forward Joe Miller this weekend, after he suffered a concussion against Milton Keynes earlier this month.
Miller missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury, but Watkins is in no hurry to bring him back early.
“Joe has been very unlucky with injuries this season,” he said.
“The concussion happened during the Milton Keynes game, when Joe was blindsided by an elbow to the head, in front of the official, but no call was made.
“We just need to manage things well now, or it could hurt him all season. He’ll take a few weeks to let the symptoms settle and then slowly return.”
Both of this weekend’s games – in Hull on Saturday, then Guildford on Sunday – face off at 6pm.
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