This isn’t going to be easy.

The Kenora Thistles have quite the test ahead of them when they begin their best 3-of-5 Manitoba Midget AAA Hockey League first round playoff series against the Winnipeg Wild on the road Friday, Feb. 26.

Kenora (21-21-2-0) has lost all four meetings with the Wild (36-5-2-1) this season by a combined score of 23-7.

In the team’s last meeting the Wild won 8-2 in Kenora on Jan. 10.

The Thistles do come into the series riding some momentum after clinching the seventh seed with back-to-back wins over Brandon (22-21-0-1) at the Kenora Recreation Centre on Feb. 20-21.

Unfortunately, the Wild have been even hotter winning seven of their last eight.

To pull off the upset the Thistles will need to bring their ‘A’ game and have some of their key players put on signature performances.

Goaltender Brock Aiken finished fifth in the league in wins this year with an 18-12 record to go along with a 3.50 goals-against average and .907 save percentage.

Adam Withers finished fifth in scoring (21 goals, 35 assists) with linemate Brendan Martin (22 goals, 30 assists) coming in right behind tied for sixth.

The Thistles defence will certainly be zeroing in on Winnipeg’s Riley Stotts who came in third with 31 goals and 27 assists but was the lone Wild player in the top-25 of league scoring.

On the contrary, Kenora’s Trey Palermo (23 goals, 23 assists), Ryan Mignault (24 goals, 21 assists) and Matthew Pitchenese (25 goals, 19 assists) were all in the top 20.

Game 2 is scheduled to take place at the Kenora Recreation Centre on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m.

It’s back to Winnipeg for Game 3 on Tuesday, March 1 before returning to Kenora for Game 4 if necessary on Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Game 5 would take place March 5 in Winnipeg.