Braves and Warriors sweep

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

Wheatland Braves coach Keith Klemmenson was happy with the opening round series win over the Lacombe, but was not impressed with his player’s effort in the first game.
“We were sloppy in the opening game. I thought we allowed too many chances and I thought our effort level was not consistent,” said Klemmensen.
There was plenty of offence in the 14-3 win, but he would have liked to see more team contributions rather than individual ones.
“(It) was not so much lucky bounces as getting goals on individual efforts, which is not good because you may get away with that in a game or two – but as you get deeper in the playoffs – it’s going to take goals where the whole team is involved,” said Klemmensen.
Kyle Crnkovic led the way with a hat trick, while Mo Hakim and Tristan Zandee had two apiece for the local double-A peewee team. Brayden Kapty, Anson McMaster, Ethan McKibbin, Zach Nicholls, Adam Kirkpatrick, Kage Yellowfly and Max Kathol all had one each.
Klemmensen liked what he saw in the series-clinching 8-1 win in Game 2 as it was full team effort.
“It was a matter of them going out and mixing it up, trying to convert passes on 2-on-1’s early in the rush to make the other team off balanced and create more opportunities,” said Klemmensen.
Crnkovic and Hakim scored a pair each, while Kapty, Matthew Quebec, Kyle Bray, Max Schafer notched one each in the win.
The Braves will more than likely be playing the winner of Red Deer TBS/Sylvan Lake in Round 2 and know that it will not be easy.
“We’ve played both of them, it’s playoff time and anybody can beat anyone. We saw Olds got beat by the ninth place team Saturday and we’ll be playing a team that seeded fourth or fifth, so they can come and bite you anytime,” said Klemmensen. “We’ll have to take it a game at a time and give the same team effort that we gave (in Game 2) if were going to be successful.”

 

Warriors dominate Steel Kings
The Wheatland Warriors may have started the series against the Red Deer Steel Kings off slowly, but were able to find their groove in the latter stages of Game 1 on Feb. 21 and still came out with a 3-1 win on home ice.
“The first game against them, we kind of let them hang around longer than we wanted them to. Once we did start playing our game, we were in the driver’s seat,” said head coach Cody Brown. “I think we took them a little lightly and doing just enough to get by sort of thing. It probably wasn’t our best effort we could’ve brought.”
Hassan Akl had two goals while Jordan Hansen added one in the win for the local double-A bantam team.
They were able to carry the momentum into a full 60 minutes on Feb. 22 in a 7-0 series winning game in Red Deer.
“We answered back in Game 2, everybody was firing, on the body and moving the puck well, just never gave them a chance get into that game and had a lot of good habits going on, “said Brown.
Jayden Hendricks scored two while Conor Bertamini, Majid Kadourra, Justin Crnkovic, Jared Farmer and Tyler Cardamone scored one each.
The Warriors will take on either Sylvan Lake or Bow Valley in the second round.
Meanwhile, after earning a first round bye, the Wheatland Chiefs are still waiting for their second round opponent.
Visit www.scahl.com for the latest scores and second round match-ups.