GREAT FALLS, Mont. – It's been six weeks since the University of Providence men's hockey team last took the ice, but that doesn't concern head coach Jeff Heimel.

The time off allowed his Argos team to get some much-needed rest as the Argos prepare for a critical weekend, as they take on the top-ranked team in the region, University of Mary.

"It's a big matchup," Heimel said. "We try to set the expectation when they got back of the magnitude of these games. But they know that. That's the good thing, you can tell they've got a little bit of chip on their shoulder and that they've been wanting to play these games for a while."

In the latest American College Hockey Associations Poll, Providence sits at the #2 spot in the West Region behind Mary. The Marauders have accumulated 13,136 points, while the Argos are at 10,800. The top two seeds in each region get a bye at the National Tournament, so Heimel hopes a good showing this weekend would ensure the Argos could distance themselves from the remainder of the field.

"With the amount of points that Mary has accumulated rankings wise, a good showing against them or a couple of wins would be big," he said. "Hopefully we distance ourselves along with them, however the rankings would work out after that. It's a big weekend."

The Argos had a successful showing the last time they took the ice, which was all the way back on November 24^th. They went 3-1 at the Beehive Showcase in Salt Lake City against nationally-ranked competition, impressive considering they were battling the injury bug on the road.

"We beat ranked teams that have been playing some good hockey," Heimel said. "We were a little injured heading into that weekend but we just played so well and ended the break really well. We lost the last game, that one was disappointing. I think that's a game that we win more times than we lose but it was a good lesson. There were a lot of things that we took out of that loss. But overall it was just a really good experience. We spent four days together so there was a lot of team-building, which gave us a chance to get to know each other better and build that unity. It was a good experience; Salt Lake was a lot of fun."

Heimel didn't hold any practices before the end of the semester, instead allowing his athletes a chance to prepare for finals, get some treatment and use the weight room. The time off allowed the team to collectively get healthy and take a breather before the team reunites with the goal of making a long postseason run.

"They got a decent break," Heimel said. "We had some expectations of what they would do over break, but we really just wanted them to rest. If we have a deep playoff run, we could play into mid-March. I'd rather have them get too much rest and have them be focused and ready to go rather than bringing them back a little early and burn them out a little bit. We definitely have not played hockey in a while, but I'm not really concerned about it. We have a lot of energy and I think that rest was important to get some guys healthy. I'm just happy that we have some guys who are coming off some pretty decent injuries from the first half of the year that are completely healthy."

The Argos will need every guy this weekend as they prepare to topple the top seed. The Marauders currently sit at 26-5, while boasting a home record of 15-2. They last suffered a loss at the hands of Minot State on Dec. 7, a team who also defeated the Argos.

"Mary has a good power play and they have good special teams in general," Heimel said. "They have depth, so that's a good thing for them. They have multiple lines that can compete. They're disciplined and they have good structure. We want to make sure that we're managing special teams well and trying to take them off of power play and turn it into a 5 on 5 hockey game. If we do that, we'll be in good shape. If we're undisciplined and give up a few power play goals, which we've done against teams like Minot State where we dig ourselves a hole early on, well, we don't want to start like that."

Immediately after the two games against Mary, the team will travel north to face #8 Dakota College of Bottineau, whom the Argos defeated twice earlier in the year by one goal each game.  

"We can't forget about Bottineau on Sunday," Heimel said. "They're a good team. They played us very well at home in two one-goal games. They're ranked and have played well against ranked teams. While we're not going to think about Bottineau until we get there on Sunday because Mary is on the plate at the moment, we can't forget about them either."

The Argos will face off against the Marauders on Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. They will take on Dakota College of Bottineau on Sunday at 1 p.m.

"I'm just excited," he said. "We've been looking forward to this weekend for a while. It's been a long break and we've had an itch to get back out there. The excitement is there from the guys too and it's nice when you don't have to drag that out of them. It's a big weekend and we all can't wait."