Bisons announce roster

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

That gusty breeze you felt Saturday night was actually CFR Chemical Bisons coaching staff sighing as they finished their preseason schedule and final round of cuts.
“We are ready to go now. That was mentally tiring and not fun for us. It’s tough disappointing over 130 kids as we tried to make this team,” said head coach Sandy Henry. “We are ready to get this thing going now.”
The Bisons landed on their final roster following a pair of exhibition games.
The Bisons brushed back the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Sept. 22 at the Father David Bauer Arena, but were blanked 3-0 by the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs on Sept. 24 at Red Deer Arena.
16-year-old Hunter Young was between the pipes for the Flames game as the Bisons began to develop as a unit on both ends of the ice.
“We came out of the gate a little bit slower than I was hoping for, but we installed a few new offensive plays and trusted our guys to go out and perform,” said Henry. “There were signs that we were getting closer to figuring things out, but we still need to work on our coverage in our defensive zone.
“Hunter played well though. He tracked the puck really well and he was able to recover well on poor rebound control. He is a quick goalie on the ice and he is able to see the puck and move around greatly back there.”
Following the Flames game, the coaching staff made their final three releases. Unfortunately, the grind of camp appeared to be too much for the final exhibition game in Red Deer.
“We didn’t look as hungry as we did at the start of camp. It was a long, hard mental process on these kids and they looked like they sagged a little. Red Deer came at us hard on the forecheck and we couldn’t keep up,” said Henry. “We had some bite missing from our game.”
The good news for the 20 skaters who made the cut is that it’s all over and now the fun begins.
“The kids are excited to get on with it, meet their billets, move in and go to school,” he said. “Hopefully now we can get into a routine and things will start to feel normal again.”
Henry stated the coaching staff hasn’t made any decisions on captains yet, but have had their eyes on a few players during camp. He also added there will be a captain for the Oct. 1 home opener, but it might take a little longer to nail down the assistant captains.
Of the 20 Bisons, there are only five returnees from last year’s team that got swept in the Alberta Midget Hockey League finals to the Lloydminster Bandit Pipeline Bobcats 3-0.
Cole Clayton, Brett Trentham, Tyson Scott, Kaden Hanas and Tyler Petrie are back for red and black. Clayton recorded six goals and 15 points, Trentham tallied seven goals and 14 points, Scott sniped eight goals and 19 points, Hanas was second on the team with 43 penalty minutes while contributing five goals and eight points, and Petrie plugged in five goals and 11 assists.
One of the new faces is 15-year-old Peyton Krebs. He is one of two 15-year-olds on the roster and the Kootenay Ice selected Krebs as the No. 1 overall pick at the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft.
The Okotoks product lit up the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League (AMBHL) in 2015-16, tallying 46 goals and 102 points in only 27 games as a member of the Rocky Mountain Raiders.
“We really like our team. We think we got the right parts. The question now is can we create chemistry in our locker room to have these guys wanting to go through walls for each other? It’ll take time, but the potential is there,” said Henry. “This is as skilled of a team that we’ve put on the ice since I’ve been here.”
The Bisons will christen the new season with a pair of home games. First, the Lethbridge Hurricanes roll into town Oct. 1. Puck drop is slated for 5:15 p.m. at the Strathmore Family Centre. Next, the Bisons host the South East Athletic Club Tigers at 2 p.m. on Oct. 2.
The Bisons went 2-0 against the Tigers last season and 1-0-1 with the Hurricanes.