Braves continue to pick up points in stretch run

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Wheatland Braves head coach Carl Knudsen felt good about his team rewarding their goaltender Daniel Hauser with a 2-0 shutout win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes White on Jan. 8 in a game where the confidence was high.
“It was great to see,” said Knudsen. “He was pretty happy. I think that was his first shutout ever. We played pretty darn good in Hussar, had a full a 60-minute effort. We were moving the puck real well, playing with some confidence, taking care of the defensive end and it resulted in a 2-0 win.”
Tristan Zandee and Matthew Quebec scored in the win.
The next night in Olds, the Braves found themselves down 3-1 going into the third, but Knudsen credits his club for battling back, scoring four unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead and hang on for a 6-4 win.
“After the second period I had to get down to a brass tacks and get everyone motivated there to give me some hard work basically,” said Knudsen. “We weren’t skating hard enough and a little bit of a let down from the night before … just kind of typical to have a let down the next day.”
Adam Kirkpatrick led the charge with two goals, while Zandee, Zach Nicholls, Kobe Gosling and Ray Warrack rounded out the offense in the win.
The local double-A peewee team plays in Medicine Hat on Jan. 15 (7:45 p.m.) before hosting Lethbridge Hurricanes Red in Hussar on Jan. 16 (5 p.m.).
Meanwhile, the Wheatland Warriors split their weekend games, starting off with a 5-2 home win over Red Deer before losing a tightly contested match to the Bow Valley Timberwolves 4-3 in Cochrane.
Head Coach Cody Brown thought the team had a great start against a physical Red Deer team and were able to shut them down in the third period when they tried to gain any momentum.
“When we got everybody on our squad firing, we’re a team to be reckoned with,” said Brown. “We had a good start, lots of jump, hitting them with everything we had right off the bat and they just couldn’t contain us. Everybody was working well together playing a good team game for a better part of 40 minutes.”
Kevin Schrock, Brandon Kasdorf, Stran Backfat Redcrow, Kyle Bray and Ben Kruse scored in the win.
The game in Bow Valley was a tight one all the way through. Unfortunately the team ran into some penalty trouble and they had their work cut out for them at that point in time in the game, while dealing with injuries.
“We finished with a skeleton crew,” said Brown. “I don’t know, just didn’t have the gas to quite finish it, had lots of chances but couldn’t find that goal towards the end of the game.”
Ben Slemp notched two goals, while Kevin Schrock added one in the loss.
The Warriors will take on the Red Deer Ramada on Jan. 16 at 3 p.m. before hosting the Central AB Selects on Jan. 17 (1:30 p.m.), at the Strathmore Family Centre.
Meanwhile, Olds defeated the Wheatland Chiefs 5-1 in Olds on Sunday afternoon.
Brad Hendricks scored the lone goal in the loss.
The local double-A midget team will be in Lethbridge on Jan. 15 with puck drop at 8:30 p.m., before hosting the Okotoks Oilers at the Strathmore Family Centre on Jan. 17 (4:15 p.m.).