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The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team enters this weekend's home doubleheader against the 3A Su Valley Rams with a four-game winning streak in their pockets, their always-rowdy fans cheering them on and more wins against 4A competition (2) than they had all of last season.

What the Crimson Bears (5-1 overall) don't have is daily outdoor practices to toughen their minds and the memories of two blowout losses to motivate a vengeful effort - those belong to the Rams.

"It's easy for us to be over-confident in these games, but any given year these tough small-school teams can catch us off guard," head coach Dave McKenna said. "They come down to this nice arena with people packed in and music playing - they're just as fired up if not more than we are."

JDHS hopes to get continued inspired efforts from right wing Andreas Keller, a Swiss exchange student, and junior center Nick Mow over the two-game set. The two have stepped into roles as leaders with their play thus far in the season, and McKenna believes they've put in the work to stay on top of their games.

"Andreas is probably the hardest working guy on the team day in and day out. The physical nature of the game here has been an adjustment for him, but his efforts are really paying off now," the coach said. "Nick's stepped up his play to a whole new level recently. He's willing to take big hits, make the little adjustments and stick his nose in there to fulfill his responsibilities on defense. He's just very coachable, and it's paid off for him, as well."

Juneau-Douglas also has received stellar play thus far from a pair of sophomore goalies who will continue to split time in the net. Garrett Cheesman shouldered the workload at the Homer tournament last weekend that produced four Bears wins. His classmate, Matt Noreen, has been equally impressive in his time on the ice, though, and McKenna said they will continue to split time. Each will man the goal for one game this weekend.

"It's a tough situation for those guys because they're pretty comparable talent-wise. We're pretty lucky to have two guys who can push each other to work harder like they do," McKenna said.

Overall, the team has been working on simply sharpening their execution in practice this week. McKenna said that he was proud of the effort and puck movement that the team displayed in Homer and hopes they can show their hometown fans just how well they have played of late.

"We've always had more than enough support from our fans, and hopefully we can play some good, exciting hockey to keep them riled up," he added. "We've got two games coming up against one of the best team's in the state in Lathrop, and we need to keep it headed in the right direction."

Tonight's action will kick off at 8 p.m. in Treadwell Arena, with Saturday's match starting at 7 p.m. to cap the weekend.