Wheatland Athletics Association teams continue domination

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Braves continue to put great offensive numbers so far in this young campaign as they punished Airdrie Black 12-3 on Nov. 9 at the Strathmore Family Centre.
“We were trying some new stuff, (such as) new breakouts, changing the lines a little bit, especially the forwards, sometimes it was working, sometimes it wasn’t. We think the effort was better in Friday’s game than this game,” said Braves assistant coach Slavo Hakovic.
Despite the large margin of victory, the local double-A peewee team worked on some things from practice and implemented them into a game situation.
“We tried some different breakouts and it’s important that we have more options to get out of the zone and that’s what we’re trying to work on. Also working on the fundamentals back checking and pressure,” said Hakovic.
He identified that net presence is improving but still needs work in games.
“Net presence is what we try to emphasize more and it was 50/50 today and still lots of space for improvement,” said Hakovic.
Goal scorers in Sunday’s win were Kyle Crnkovic with four, Kage Yellowfly and Brayden Kapty with two each while Kyle Bray, Mo Hakim, Tristan Zandee and Adam Kirkpatrick supplied singles.
On Friday, it was Bray and Crnkovic with the hat tricks while Kapty and Max Schafer provided two a piece. Kirkpatrick, Bryce Benfield and Anson McMaster alos tallied in the 13-1 win over Airdrie Lightning Red.
The Braves next game is Nov. 22 at the Strathmore Family Centre versus Taber 4:45 p.m.
The Wheatland Chiefs are continuing their undefeated season with a 13-0 dismantling of the Cranbrook Knights on Friday night at the Family Centre.
“I thought we played well all the way around. We didn’t let many shots against which was good to see,” said the midget double-A coach Devin Olson.
“It’s one of those games where everyone wants to rush the puck and try to be the goal scorer. We did let too many 2-on-1, we’re just lucky they couldn’t execute.”
Puck movement was pivotal in the victory.
“We talked to them in between periods about moving the puck, games like this, guys want to score that goal instead of making the easy pass, tap in goals. I thought the second , third periods were good for that,” said Olson.
Goal scorers were Jason Hobson with three, Jayden Smith and Quinton Peplinski with two each, while Matt Halkovic, Kyle Rosolowski, Alec Biletsky, Chris Rebeyka and Kody Hammond had one a piece.
The Chiefs next game will be Nov. 21 in Hussar versus the Foothills Bisons (7:30 p.m.).
The Wheatland Warriors took two out of three on the road as they beat Bow Valley 5-0 on Friday night but lost to them 4-3 the next night, and ended the trip with a 4-2 win in Lacombe.
Their local double-A bantam team will be in Olds for their next game on Nov. 22 (3:30 p.m.).