Chiefs and Warriors salvage ties; Braves keep winning

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Chiefs were in unfamiliar territory over the weekend as in both of their games they had to battle back to get a tie.
The local double-A midget team found themselves down 4-0 after two periods to the Okotoks Oilers on Friday night in Hussar, but found a spark in the third period to score four unanswered goals.
Alec Biletsky started the comeback at 16:57 of the third with a power play marker, assisted by Chris Rebeyka and Ryan Skytt.
James Farmer pulled the Chiefs within two just over five minutes later, assists coming from Kaleb Robinson and Jason Hobson.
The game ended up having a thrilling finish as with 90 seconds to go, Jayden Smith sniped one to make it 4-3 with assists coming from Farmer and Kyle Rosolowski.
The comeback was complete when Farmer scored his second of the game with 28 seconds to go assisted by Grady Strath and Jayse Wilson.
Head coach Devin Olson was happy with the outcome against the Oilers because the boys never gave up.
“I thought we played great, (Friday’s) game we got down and the reffing didn’t help in that game, they got pretty excited over some stuff and everyone got off their game. Then we took some unnecessary penalties that they scored on,” said Olson.
“We clawed back in the third and ended up getting a tie out of it. That effort is good, especially against a team like Okotoks.”
The Oilers that played the Chiefs hard in the first period but seemed to run out of energy the rest of the game.
“The thing with Okotoks is they come out so hard in the first period. Once you get into the second and third with them, they seemed to lose gas and we take over,” said Olson.
On Saturday night versus the CBHA Blackhawks, the same scenario played out again as the Chiefs found themselves down 2-0 early in the game.
“We outplayed them, but (it) wasn’t our best effort. We had too many guys that didn’t show up, then they get into (scrums, and) at least they had something to show tonight,” said Olson.
Kody Hammond scored at 13:36 of the third from Strath, while Skytt notched the tying goal a minute and a half later, assisted by Farmer and Brendan Moore.
The local double-A midget team played the NWCAA Stamps in Calgary on Jan. 27, while on Jan. 30 they will travel to Taber to take on the Golden Suns (8:30 p.m.).

 

Warriors need to finish chances
Cody Brown’s Wheatland Warriors team can take a few lessons about defensive zone coverage in two winnable hockey games that resulted in home ice ties.
The local double-A bantam team tied Red Deer 1-1 on Friday at the Strathmore Family Centre, followed by a 4-4 tie with the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon.
“The game on Friday was a weaker opponent in Red Deer but you can’t look at the standings at this point in the year, you can’t take anyone lightly,” said Brown. “We went in there on our heels a bit, thinking it was going to be a walk in the park and they showed up and met us head on.”
He believed that they would have had a win if the boys had buried more of their chances.
“We were generating lots of scoring chances but again guys have to get a stick on them and put them in the net, but the second and third chances off rebounds, (we) couldn’t find a way to bear down and put them in,” said Brown.
Tyler Cardamone scored the lone goal against Red Deer on the power play in the first period from Justin Crnkovic.
In the game against Lethbridge, it was just a case of winning puck battles and getting out of the zone more efficiently.
“We were moving the puck good today, we have to win the 1-on-1 battles in the corners. If we’re not winning those, we’re going down swinging,” said Brown.
Cardomone, Jordan Hansen, Tyler Skehar, Hassan Akl provided the offense versus the Hurricanes.
Next up for the Warriors is on Jan. 30 when they face-off against the Edge School Mountaineers (6:45 p.m.) in Calgary.

 

Braves continue to roll
The Wheatland Braves continued their consistent goal production in their two games over the weekend.
The local double-A peewee team beat the Foothills Bisons 13-2 on Saturday night and the Bow Valley Timberwolves 12-4 on Sunday.
Keith Klemmensen was pleased with what he saw on the ice but knows now with playoffs approaching that there are areas that need to be stronger.
“There’s progress in a lot of areas and there is some regression in others, four goals against isn’t good, I’m not happy with that. I also think our shift lengths was way too long at the end of this game,” said Klemmensen.
He was enthused about how his team is playing the whole area of the ice.
“There was some more commitment playing the 200-feet of the ice at points this weekend, it paid off a little bit,” said Klemmensen. “I think we’re going in the right direction. I have to say I’m reasonably happy with these two weekend games with the way they used each other.”
Kyle Crnkovic and Mo Hakim supplied hat tricks followed by Tristan Zandee and Anson McMaster added two while Brayden Kapty, Kage Yellow Fly and Bryce Benfield notched one each against the Bisons.
Crnkovic scored seven; Hakim added three, while Max Schafer and Max Kathol rounded out the offence versus the Timberwolves.
The local peewee double-A team hit the road for a pair of games this weekend on Jan. 31 in Crowsnest Pass (6:15 p.m.) and on Feb. 1 in Cranbrook (3:30 p.m.).