The female U18 AAA Central Plains Capitals are making their home debut tonight at the BDO Centre. The Capitals are coming into this contest with a 1-2 record but now they finally have the opportunity to play in front of their home fans. Head coach Brendan Schaan says it's always nice to play on your own rink.

"Central Plains has a pretty cool establishment at the BDO, where we have our own locker room and training room. It makes it feel more homey for all the players and the coaching staff, as well," Schaan continues. "It's always nice to finally move in there and plant our roots for the season. It makes the girls move their game to the next level."

The Caps will welcome the Winnipeg Ice to Portage tonight as they look to hand them their first loss of the season. The Ice have won their last two games by a combined score of 11-1, while Central Plains have lost their last two, both being competitive contests, according to Schaan.

"We lost to Interlake (Lightning) 2-1. That was a learning curve for our team. We're a younger team, so it reminded us that we have to play a full 60 minutes in order to find success in this league. We just kind of got out-worked in that situation. We're probably the more talented team, we just didn't put it on the ice that day," Schaan explains. "We bounced back when we played the Avros the next day but lost 5-2. We played a very solid 40 minutes but fell apart in the last 20. Once again, it was an eye-opener for a young team that's trying to learn how to play in this league."

The head coach notes their main focus going forward is just to play to the best of their ability for the entire game.

"Ever since the start of the season, myself and the other coaches have really been preaching effort. We need to win those 35-40 second shifts, and then those transpire into winning periods, and those transpire into winning games. You don't win a hockey game in 45 seconds but you sure can lose one."

Tonight's home opener is set for 7:45 at the BDO Centre.

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