Wheatland Chiefs victorious at Prairie Classic

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

The Wheatland Chiefs have emerged victorious from the Prairie Classic in Caronport, which the team’s head coach said puts them in a good position as they begin to wrap up their regular season.

Colton Grant explained though it was encouraging to see his boys win, he was more pleased by how they won, and their consistency while on the ice.

“We had a good weekend out there in Caronport, it was a good tournament for us all the way through. We played pretty consistent from start to finish, which as a coaching staff was really good to see,” said Grant.

Getting from Wheatland County to Caronport, Sask. the team committed to a six-hour drive one-way to participate.

“We try to get into a couple of tournaments, but with the regular season schedule on top of that, it gets pretty tight,” said Grant. 

The Prairie Classic was the second and final tournament the Chiefs participated in this season. The next time they compete in a similar format will be the U18AA playoffs in March.

“Our playoff format is a tournament, so it’s important to get experience in those tournaments and gain what you can. The fact that we won is a bonus for sure,” added Grant.

The U18AA bracket has held a tournament format for its playoffs for a few years now, according to Grant, which is still relatively unfamiliar to his team. 

“We had a couple pretty good games throughout the whole (Prairie Classic). We started out Thursday (Jan. 13) night, so we were on the bus for six hours getting out there. It’s always a tough game to come off, so that was our closest game,” said Grant.

“The next two, we really showed up with our power play, really got going and we played the host team, Prairie Hockey Academy.”

Grant commended his goaltenders in particular for acting as solid anchors for the rest of the team over the course of the tournament. The Chiefs went undefeated on the ice overall during the four-day tournament.

Just because of their victories, however, does not mean that Grant has ceased looking for ways that the team can continue to get better.

“I think throughout the tournament, you’re always looking for improvement. I think as a coaching staff, and just as a team, we had a goal to keep our consistency at a high level, meaning that we didn’t want to have highs and lows throughout either a shift, throughout a game and certainly throughout the tournament,” he said.

“I think, overall, we did a good job of that and there are certainly areas where we can improve as far as (when) we get scored against are we going to sink down and give in to the adversity or are we going to step up and bounce back.”

As of Jan 20. the Chiefs had 11 games remaining in their regular season prior to the start of playoffs in March. Based on the same date, the Chiefs had held first place on the U18AA regular season leaderboard.