It's all about compete levels for the St. Thomas University Tommies women's hockey team.

The Tommies will host the St. Francis Xavier X-Women on Friday and the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday at the Grant-Harvey Centre—a re-match of the opening weekend of the regular season. The Tommies dropped both those games, falling 5-2 to StFX and 5-4 to DAL.

"Our compete levels weren't as strong last weekend as the two teams we faced, so we've been working on that this week," Tommies head coach Peter Murphy said.

"X came at us pretty hard. They're a strong team and we'll have to do well against them. Against DAL I thought we played pretty well."

The Tommies are coming off another strong season in the Atlantic University Sport conference that saw them finish second in the regular season before suffering an early exit from playoffs.

This year's team will be without Kelty Apperson, Eliza Snider, Myfanwy Thomson, Rahel Michielin, and Jessie McCann, but Murphy has brought in a strong recruiting class.

Joining the Tommies in their debut season are Kaylee Vader, a forward from Sherwood, AB, Olivia Reid, a forward from Aurora, ON, Leah Galati, a defender from Mississauga, ON, Rita Dorofeeva, a forward from Moscow, RUS, and Mariah Carey, a forward from Avonport, NS.

"Kaylee came in with great size and a big shot, so we're looking for her to be more of an offensive threat for us. Olivia is a smaller stature forward, but she is incredibly fast and strong," Murphy said.

"Rita has high-end skill and I think we'll see some great things out of her before the end of the year. Mariah is very strong and has pretty good hands, and Leah makes a good first pass, likes to join the rush, and likes to get in the offense."

Last season, the Tommies boasted the best power play in the country which is something they hope to achieve again. Their offensive output in general will be a focus throughout the year.

"Last year we scored 88 goals. I'd like to see us not fall off," Murphy said. "I don't think there's a reason to. Many of the lines from last year, or at least parts of them, are still here."

With a rookie on every line, Murphy recognized there would likely be some growing pains early. The team's greatest strength, though, has actually been fostered off the ice.

"They have a real sense of team, which has kind of always been our strength," he said. "'Family Forever' is a motto we have in our dressing room, and lots of people put those things up but we actually live that. We'll win some games on that just because people are all pulling together."

The Tommies begin their weekend home stand Friday at 7:00 pm when they welcome the StFX X-Women to the Grant-Harvey Centre.