Kings head coach optimistic about start to competitive season

Posted on: Staff Writer

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings opened the season with a pair of road wins Sept. 19-20 at the Strathmore Family Centre. The local Junior B team took care of Ponoka 6-2 before earning a 5-3 win over the High River Flyers. The Kings will now host Red Deer on Sept. 26 (7:45 p.m.) before traveling to Cochrane the following day.

Photo Courtesy of Carter Lawrence

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings took the new season by storm, securing pair of wins on home ice to open the new Heritage Junior Hockey League season.

Squaring off against Ponoka for their debut on home ice, Sept. 19, the Kings ended the game with a score of 6-2. The Kings followed that up with a 5-3 win over the High River Flyers.

“Anytime you can start off with a couple wins is great. Our first game was Ponoka, typically they are at the bottom of the league standings, but it was a pretty good game for the most part,” said head coach Doug Raycroft. “It wasn’t a runaway like sometimes has happened with that team in the past. It was a good weekend for us to start. We have got a lot of things to work on … it’s hard to work on everything at once when you can only get a few practices a week.”

Raycroft explained he felt his team was fairly disciplined on the ice, particularly being the start of the new season. 

Maintaining the style of play common to the Kings, Raycroft said his boys were able to score goals when the team needed them.

“There has been a lot of improvement, even though we (still) have a long way to go and we have got some issues we have to work on. We are just pretty happy to be going again and get a couple wins under the belt,” he said. “It also looks like there is a little bit more parity in the league. Okotoks lost both games this weekend, so it might be a little bit more of a competitive league this year.”

The Kings are among three teams who won both of their opening games over the course of the opening weekend. 

Currently tied for the top spot in the league alongside the Kings are Coaldale, and Sylvan Lake. 

“The foundation of any successful team is playing really good defensively. We are going to keep working on our defensive zone. In the exhibition games, we were really aggressive, which is great, but we don’t want to get caught up ice and give them odd man rushes against us,” added Raycroft. “We are going to work on a lot of little things, and work on our team systems. That is going to be our real focus over the next couple weeks.”

Week 2 of the season will see the Kings squaring off against Red Deer on home ice, Sept. 26, followed by a trip to Cochrane, Sept. 27.