Panthers at Home, February 5 to 9
It’s the last week of the regular season for varsity basketball and hockey, and all four UPEI teams have games at home. It’s also Seniors’ Week at UPEI, as each team salutes its graduating players. Here is your Panthers at Home schedule for February 5 to 9.
Wednesday
The UPEI men’s hockey team clinched a playoff spot, but they’re still hungry to put a few more wins in the bank. The Panthers play a mid-week game at home at 7 pm in the MacLauchlan Arena against the Université de Moncton.
“As we head into our final week of regular season play, it is important that we continue to push forward and build consistency,” said coach Forbes MacPherson. “We have a big game against Moncton that still has play-off seeding implications. We will be looking for another good effort from our group.”
Wednesday is Seniors’ Night for the men’s hockey team as the Panthers salute student-athletes who are nearing or have applied for graduation or are in their final year of eligibility for AUS varsity play. The men’s hockey team is recognizing Riley Whittingham, Nathan Yetman, Bobby Zinkan, Kam Kielly, Chad Labelle, and Simon Hofley.
Thursday
Thursday is another busy night at home as the Panther basketball teams defend the home court. The evening begins at 6 pm in the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre as the women’s basketball team hosts the University of New Brunswick.
“Thursday is Seniors’ Night as we celebrate graduating athletes Annabelle Charron, Kimeshia Henry, and Karla Yepez,” said coach Matt Gamblin. “We hope to fill the stands for our last home game of the season.”
The UPEI men’s basketball team is also playing UNB on Thursday. Tip-off is 8 pm.
“This is the biggest weekend of the season, and if we hope to be in a playoff position, we will need to win at least one game, ideally both,” said coach Darrell Glenn. “We have shown throughout the season we can compete with anyone on any given day. We now need to be able to execute and compete at a high level for 40 minutes.”
The men’s basketball team has just one player in his final year for Seniors’ Night and will be saluting Jack MacAulay.
Both of Thursday’s games were originally scheduled for Friday, but were moved due to the forecasted weather.
Saturday
The next game action this weekend is in the MacLauchlan Arena as the UPEI women’s hockey team battles Saint Mary’s University. Game time is 3:15 pm.
“Saturday will be full of emotion as we celebrate our six graduating senior players,” said coach Bruce Donaldson. “To add to the afternoon, we have the number two team in Canada coming to play. It will be a playoff atmosphere for sure. We have had three very entertaining, hard-fought, fast-paced games against SMU, and we are both looking for a first-round bye, so this game is significant.”
UPEI women’s hockey’s senior players are Kaylee Dufresne, Carolina Daoust, Kristen MacIntyre, Rachel Colle, Jenna Pellerin, and Gabrielle Gray.
This game was originally scheduled for Friday evening but was rescheduled due to the forecasted weather.
Sunday
The women’s hockey team is back on home ice for one more game before the regular season wraps. The Panthers take on St. Thomas University at 3 pm.
“This will be a great game,” said Donaldson. “STU is coming in with a very balanced line-up. They are very hard to score against and typically look to win the specialty-team situations. STU has six players with ten-plus points, which makes their line-up that much harder to play against.”
Go Panthers Go!
