With the club鈥檚 future expected to be revealed Friday night at Royal LePage Place, players for the West 琉璃神社 Warriors will have something more immediate to focus on鈥攖he B.C. Hockey League playoffs.

At 7 p.m., the Warriors will open the best-of-seven Interior Division semifinal series against the Merritt Centennials.

The Cents won four of seven meetings during the regular season, while the teams finished in a tie for fourth spot in the division with 56 points apiece.

Warriors head coach Rylan Ferster says those numbers pretty much sum up how the teams stack up against one another.

鈥淚鈥檇 say we鈥檙e pretty evenly matched,鈥� said Ferster, the Warriors head coach and GM. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a very good team, they have a good forward group with size and skill. They play hard and we鈥檙e going have to do the same.鈥�

The Warriors will be missing a key piece of their defensive corps as captain Nicholas Rutligliano continues to be sidelined with concussion symptoms.

Both goaltenders, Cole Demers and Gabriel Morency, have been nursing injuries, so Josh Boulding has been called up from Sicamous of the KIJHL to provide some insurance.

As for one of the keys to the series, Ferster points to the club鈥檚 returning veterans who were part of last year鈥檚 RBC Cup championship team鈥擰uin Foreman, Connor Sodergren, Scott Allan and Jake Harrison among them.

鈥淲e have guys in that dressing room who won a national championship, our veterans and leaders who steer the ship so to speak,鈥� Ferster said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 maybe even more prevalent in the playoffs when they need to step out. At this time of year, it鈥檚 a lot about staying calm regardless of the situation and those guys are familiar with that.鈥�

Meanwhile, an announcement regarding the future of the Warriors鈥� organization is expected to be made on Friday. Owner Mark Cheyne has been looking to sell the team after having lost money every year since taking over the Warriors in 2009. A deal to move the team to North Delta fell apart earlier this week.

Ferster said playing the game remains his team鈥檚 No. 1 task.

鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 been fun but we have no control over that,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have a game to play and business to take care of on the ice. That鈥檚 my job so that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 concerned about.鈥�

A look at the series schedule:

Friday, March 3 @ West 琉璃神社 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 4 @ West 琉璃神社 7 p.m.

Monday, March 6 @ Merritt 7 p.m.

Tuesday, March 7 @ Merritt 7 p.m.

Thursday, March 9 @ West 琉璃神社 7 p.m. *

Friday, March 10 @ Merritt 7 p.m. *

Saturday, March 11 @ West 琉璃神社 7 p.m. *