TRURO - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
A dusty old cliché to be sure, but one that holds especially true for the Truro Bearcats in the early part of the Maritime Junior Hockey League season.
The Bearcats are off to a blazing 4-0 start and look to keep the ball of success rolling tonight in their home opener against the Campbellton Tigers (Colchester Legion Stadium, 7 p.m.)
The Bearcats have had success on the road by keeping it fairly basic. The ability to get the puck deep, win battles and get timely saves has allowed the Hubtown squad to jump out of the gate quickly.
Certainly no need to mess with a good thing, right?
"We're still looking to keep it pretty simple," said fourth-year centre Dylan McGuigan. "We just want to win games right now. We're not worried about the fancy plays or anything at this point. We just want to stay on the winning side."
Tonight's game will be the second between the Bearcats and Tigers. Truro earned a 2-1 win in Campbellton in its season opener on Sept. 14.
"We've just got to take the momentum we have now and keep on rolling," McGuigan said. "We know what they're going to do. They're always a hard-working team and they never give up. So we've just got to take it to them in the first period and then hopefully things keep going our way."
The Bearcats have been their typical stingy selves, allowing just five goals so far this season. Add a well-balanced scoring attack and it's evident Truro has the goods to compete for a championship.
"We have solid D and our goaltending is really good," McGuigan said. "And the good thing about our team is all lines are pretty well even. Any line can pretty well go out in any situation."
And while immediate success is sweet, the Bearcats haven't lost sight of the big picture.
Truro will host the Fred Page Cup Eastern Canadian championship next April and building toward that event throughout the season is key.
"We felt that we played really well in all those (road) games, but we still feel like we can get better in certain areas and we're hoping to keep improving as the year goes on and keep winning games."
jsmith@trurodaily.com
