Gamblers begin to hit their stride

GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Gamblers had arguably the most dominate team in USHL history last season as they captured their fourth Clark Cup. That success didn't carry over to the start of this season. The Gamblers began the season just 1-7-2 as the players struggled to repeat last season's dominance.

“It was a combination of our veterans didn't remember how hard we had worked last year and our new guys didn't have any idea how tough this league could be,” said assistant coach Pat Mikesch.

Defenseman Brandon Kirk agrees.

"I came in and I was expecting it to be exactly how we left off last year."

Since that slow start, Green Bay has gone 21-5-1, and has scored the second most goals in the league. 

Forward Sheldon Dries has been one of the key veterans offensively and told me, “We really believe in each other and that's what led to our success. We've just been having fun out there moving the puck laughing just tic-tac-toing other teams and it ends up in the back of the net."

Mikesch added that getting back to basics was part of the solution.

"We just had to get back to the fundamentals of the game,” Mikesch said. “We started to do everything I little bit harder a little bit cleaner and once we started to accomplish those things we saw the results."

The Gamblers were the best team in league history last year at winning on the road, going 25-3-2. This year they are just a couple of games above .500 at 9-7-2. So how do you take the success that you had at the Resch and take in on the road?

"We just can't let the crowd get to us, just stick to our game plan and we'll come out successful,” Dries said.

Kirk added, "You've got to simplize the game. You've got to get pucks deep, get pucks out of the zone, play just simple hockey. That's how you win on the road."

To repeat as USHL champions winning on the road is a must. They’ll get a chance to improve that road record Saturday night in Cedar Rapids.