BY JASON
THOMPSON
With only two wins in their past six games, the Wolves are
playing the first of two back-to-back road games versus Western
Conference opponents starting Thursday with the Windsor
Spitfires.
On Friday, the Wolves will travel to Plymouth to take on the Whalers.
"They've made a move to go with a younger group right now but they're also a hard-working group and they've won three games this past weekend after they made some decisions to move out some older players and rebuild," said Wolves head coach and general manager Mike Foligno.
After a rough start to the season, the Spitfires (9-16-1-1) have been one of the OHL's busier teams in terms of moving players. On Dec. 2, the Spitfires acquired centre Josh Bailey, overage goaltender Scott Bowles and a second-round pick in 2009 from the Owen Sound Attack. In exchange, the Spitfires sent overage goaltender Anthony Guadagnolo and forward Anthony Soboczynski to Owen Sound.
Back on Nov. 24, Windsor sent defenceman Ben O'Connor to the Mississauga Ice Dogs for future considerations. On Oct. 28, Windsor acquired defenceman Keith Wynn from the Ice Dogs for a sixth round pick in 2007.
"We're looking to play a solid road game against them. We have to be ready and realize that this is a group of young men vying for jobs," Foligno said.
One of those players is Greater Sudbury native Cory McGillis who has nine goals and ten assists in 24 games this year for the Windsor Spitfires.
On the road, the Wolves have been above average with eight wins and six losses. Their record is 14-12-2-2 this season, good for third place in the Central Division.
Foligno has also given goalie Kevin Beech a vote of confidence and says he'll be in net for the Wolves Thursday.
"I think you'll see Kevin Beech in a lot of hockey games from now on. He's my number one goalie and I'm going to go with him," said Foligno.
Beech has struggled to find consistency in his game this season and has 11 wins and 11 losses in 27 games so far. He has a 3.30 goals against average and a save percentage of .889.
Until the Wolves can reel off a handful of wins in a row, Foligno plans on juggling his line combinations in order to build some more team chemistry.
"We always have a couple of guys that stay together," he said. "Throughout the game, guys are going to be moved on and off a line depending on how well they're skating . . . that's the motivation for them to make sure they're working hard each and every shift."
