GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence hockey team will begin their postseason run on Friday at the ACHA Men's Division II West Regional Tournament in Boulder, Colo. Their game will kick off at Friday at 10:00 a.m.

The Argos (12-5) are the #3 seed in the Regional Tournament and received a bye in the first-round. There are four opening round games taking place on Thursday, and the squad will take on the lowest remaining seed of those opening round winners. Should the Argos win on Friday, they will advance to the final round on Saturday. Of the 14 teams heading to Regionals, only two will advance to the ACHA Division II National Tournament. 

The team is coming off nearly two weeks of practice after finishing in third place at the West Region Conference Tournament in Ogden. In the opening round game, the Argos fell to BYU 5-4 in overtime, which served as a wake-up call as they get ready for a win or go-home tournament.

"In a weird way it was wonderful to go to the conference tournament," head coach Jeff Heimel said. "It kind of prepared us for this format. We can't afford a slipup and not be ready to go. They've seen the writing on the wall and understood what can happen. If we do that this weekend our season is over. If that doesn't sink in I don't know what does. We'll be ready to go."

Another asset that the conference tournament prepared the team for is the difficulty of preparing for a big game without knowing the exact opponent that you will play. With four opening round games, the Argos have a plethora of opponents that could end up across from them Friday morning – only two of which the squad has seen so far on the season.

"You can sit there and try to pretend how it's going to go, but it's so rare that what you think will happen happens," Heimel said. "More than likely there is going to be some short of shakeup. To get this far you have to be a good hockey team. All the games are being broadcast and I'm sitting on a bus as we travel down there so I'm just sitting here watching these games all day long. We've played a lot of the same teams over the year so it would be exciting if we played someone different. At the end of the day, you can't prepare you just have to be mentally ready."

Despite the challenges, Heimel feels extremely confident in his team's ability to take care of business and extend their season beyond the weekend.

"We just have to look at one game at a time," Heimel said. "At the end of the day, we have to win one game on Friday to advance. If we do that we have to win another game to advance. The mentality has to be to not look forward. We have to understand that we have to win this hockey game and move on or we lose and we go home. That's going to be the case for both of the games if we get to them. We have to be focused on what's in front of us and nothing else."