Storm regroup midseason to take league title

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Going from worst to first over two seasons is hard enough to do these days in a hockey landscape that has been more talented than it’s ever been.
The Strathmore Storm Novice A team shocked the Central Alberta Hockey League and went from worst to first in one season.
When the Christmas break rolled around, the Storm owned the basement of their division with a 2-13 record and an unflattering minus 93 goal differential.
Then, something changed.
With a little Christmas magic, the Storm started to play together as a team and put individual performances aside.
“We don’t have a team of star players. We realized that if we were to go anywhere, we needed to get it done by committee,” said Storm Head Coach Paul Kautz. “We needed to play as an entire team in order to knock off those teams with star players on them.”
The Storm closed out the regular season by going 7-0-2 with a plus-33 goal differential, a complete turnaround.
The Storm clinched a first-round bye in the NT2SE playoffs and cooked Brooks 2-1 in the best-of-three CAHL semifinals.
Matched up against the Indus Lightning in the finals, the Storm took Game 1 5-1 March 22 at the Strathmore Family Centre. Grady Hanson netted a pair, while Connor Riou supplied a goal and one assist.
The Lightning stormed back to take Game 2 3-2 March 24 at the Indus Recreation Centre.
With all the marbles on the table, the Storm’s defensive unit locked down the Lightning and captured the Division 2 championship banner with a 2-1 victory March 25 on home ice.
Carter Radford got the Storm going in the second, as the winner was scored on a rebound opportunity by Hanson. Keaton Labelle picked up both assists in the banner-clinching game.
““They really played as a group and it showed,” said Kautz. “The commitment to defence turned our season around.”