Warriors led by balanced attack

Times Editor

 

The Wheatland Warriors don’t have one player ranked in the top 30 scorers in the South Central Alberta Hockey League.

And that suits head coach Russell Koester just fine.

The bench boss of the local AA bantam team believes that the strength of his club is its balanced attack.

“Our biggest strength would be that we don’t have one stand-out line or nothing like that,” said Koester. “We can just roll the lines through, which is very, very consistent. They all work hard – we don’t have any really flashy (players). We have a couple of offensive guys, but everyone buys in and works hard.”

The Warriors, who are 3-2-1 on the season, won a tournament in Wainwright a few weeks back and are now eyeing similar success in league play.

According to Koester, if the Warriors push the pace of the game, they will be successful more often than not.

“I want to be hard on the forecheck –that’s for sure,” said the coach. “That’s the best defence – when you have the puck on your stick. 

“We don’t want to be giving the three on two rushes … so you need to be aware what is going on.”

Taylor Donner scored twice and goaltender Reid Muenchrath made 30 saves to lead the Warriors to a 3-1 win over Airdrie on Oct. 31 at the Strathmore Family Centre.

Ben Huculak also tallied for Wheatland, while Matthew Rideout and Shane Fraser each added an assist in the victory.

“It was a really solid, solid 60-minute effort,” said Koester. “We pretty much carried the play for the whole game, so it was nice to see. You know, in the past we’ve had a few games where we played for 40 minutes or 45 minutes. Today was a full 60 (minute effort).”

The Warriors will now hit the road for a pair of weekend games, when they travel to Taber on Nov. 5 to take on the Golden Suns, before taking on the Bow Valley Timberwolves the following day.

Chiefs split home games

After hammering the Airdrie Lightning 7-3 on Oct. 29, the Wheatland Chiefs ran into a brick wall Oct. 31 versus the Red Deer ProStitch.

Make that a steel wall – as ProStitch goaltender Taylor Steele made 53 saves, handing the Chiefs a 1-0 loss.

Despite being stymied by Red Deer, the local double-A midget team had no problems filling the net versus Airdrie.

James Price and Rylan Muenchrath each added a goal and an assist to lead the way for the Chiefs. Jordan Jarvis, Justin Fraser, Scott Butters, Abe Jensen and Alex Bechtold each scored once for the Chiefs, while Zach Wittenburg, Devon Westby and Aaron Durant each added a pair of helpers.

Wheatland is back in action this coming weekend, when they host the CBHA Rangers Nov. 5 (7:30 p.m.) and the Okotoks Oilers on Nov. 7 (7 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.

Busy weekend for Braves

After a weekend away from league play, the Wheatland Braves are back in action this coming weekend.

The local peewee double-A team will host the Foothills Bisons Nov. 5 (7:30 p.m.) at the Hussar Arena, before traveling to Airdrie (Nov. 6, 2:15 p.m.) and Red Deer (Nov. 7, 12:45 p.m.).