Warriors make statement in win

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Wheatland Warriors head coach Cody Brown thought his team had a slow start to the game versus Airdrie Dec. 6; however, the team was able to pick it up and never looked back in an 8-3 home ice win.
“I thought we had a decent effort all around,” said Brown. “There’s always stuff to work on but we’re finding the back of the net and points are getting spread around, which is good to see. I think everyone was getting a taste which was good to see.”
Airdrie got the first goal of the game but Brown said the boys woke up in the last half of the first and into the second and played like they actually could and took control and credits the defense for keeping the visitors in check.
“Definitely had a lot of help from our goaltender, he played well,” said Brown. “Other than that, I thought towards the end of the game we might’ve got a little too comfortable in the defensive zone, giving things up a little too easy but stuff that needs to be worked on going forward.”
Cole Berg and call up Tristan Zandee led the way with two goals each, while Ben Kruse, Chase Clayton, Ben Slemp and Mo Hakim scored in the win.
The local bantam double-A team will host the Taber Golden Suns at the Strathmore Family Centre on Dec. 13 at 5 p.m.

Chiefs settle for draw
Meanwhile, the Wheatland Chiefs got out to an early 2-0 lead and unfortunately let up to settle for a 4-4 tie with the Bow Valley Timberwolves in Hussar on Dec. 6.
Head coach Shadoe Stoodley thought his team took too many shifts off.
“They came back and scored four unanswered, we had a couple of penalties and had some crappy turnovers,” said Stoodley. “We had to regroup over the intermission but I still wasn’t very happy with the tie. They got to realize that the game is 60 minutes; it’s not 30 minutes. They can’t go out and play good for thirty minutes and expect to win over every team.”
He added that they were losing a lot of one-on-one battles, the awareness in the defensive zone and that’s where Bow Valley was able to capitalize.
Robert Butterwick sniped two goals, while Kody Hammond and Ryan Skytt tallied singles in the tie.
The double-A midget team will play a home and home with Taber this weekend starting in Taber at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 11, before returning to Hussar on Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Braves flater
The Wheatland Braves were out-competed by the bigger Medicine Hat Hounds en route to a 4-3 loss on Dec. 5 in Hussar.
“We just learned we can’t get by on skill and talent alone,” said Braves head coach Carl Knudsen. “There’s other good teams in the league that are working harder than we are. It was good period and a half of hockey and after that it wasn’t good enough to win.”
He added the game was pretty even as it could have gone either way.
Medicine Hat won more puck battles than they did and were able to get the extra bounce because of it.
“We hit a few crossbars, a few posts that could’ve dropped too,” he said. “They’re a good team, we’re a good team, it was just tight game.”
There were some positives to take out of the game in that Knudsen liked the secondary scoring and pressure that worked effectively on the ice.
Zandee, Kobe Gosling and Bryce Benfield scored in the loss.
The local peewee double-A team will host the Cranbrook in Hussar on Dec.11 at 7:30 p.m. and will play in Lethbridge on Dec. 13 at 12:30 p.m.