Okanagan Conference: River Rush’s Fron a physical force
“I like our game,” said the Storm head coach. “I think we were trending in the right direction before I even started, but I was pretty happy with how we played for the most part.”
Fisher has made small changes to what they do, some focused on defensive structure, and how they want to play once they get the puck in transition. The Storm are 7-2-0 under Fisher.
“He’s been a big add and a part of our dressing room already, a team guy and a big voice,” said Wranglers head coach Levi Stuart, who coached Endall with the Nipawin Hawks in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League last season. “The boys bonded with him really quickly. His calm demeanour in goal has been huge for us and helped the boys trust him and stay calm. He’s definitely helped us solidify our goaltending.”
Endall came to the Wranglers having played 31 games combined in the SJHL and Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“I love getting in it, I love chirping guys, getting in their grills, and off their game and then burying the puck,” said the Spruce Grove, Alta., native. “It’s just always been my jam. I’ve always been a smaller guy, so I had to adapt to be effective. I can’t outmuscle guys, but I can hit him lower in their centre of gravity and have a good impact.”
Fron has learned he doesn’t need to chirp as much to be effective.
“I can just throw hits in the corner and bump them and quietly chirp them,” he said.
“We need to get back to doing things the way we were at the beginning of the season, which starts with our guys putting in hard work during practice,” said Evans. “It’s making sure that translates into the game and making sure we’re not cheating. Breaking the puck out efficiently and moving up ice with speed is something we were doing at the start.”
The Williams Lake Mustangs have had five games lost in overtime and a shootout.
“It’s like those could be going either way right? We’re in every game, we’re playing good,” said Mustangs head coach-general manager Tyrel Lucas. “It’s just kind of a bounce away from having a drastically different record. It’s not like we’re playing bad hockey.”
There have been three games in which teams have secured victories with an empty net goal while leading by one.
“We need to keep more pucks out of our net,” added Lucas. “It’s tightening up our defensive zone to win those tight games. We can do a better job of blocking shots, and making sure we have our guys in the defensive zone, and getting pucks out.”
For the first time this season, the Posse are dealing with adversity as they had lost three straight prior to their win over the Chiefs. They are facing teams for the third and fourth time now.
“Our game against Sicamous the other night, we’ve had two games against Sicamous where we did very well, so you have teams that have a little fire under them and they’re motivated to show up and do well,” said head coach-general manager Torrin White, who is on this week’s Top Shelf podcast episode. “That’s something that’s good for us to deal with. That’s good adversity. Having that target on your back is something we’re working on and dealing with.”
“It takes a couple of shifts to get the right pace and then it probably shows more in the second period,” said Novak.
The Grizzlies are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games and ranked No. 1 in the Power Rankings.
“It can take us a little bit to get into games at times where we are figuring out our forecheck and remembering we have to play a certain way to be successful,” said McOnie. “It’s just constant reminders of what we need to do.”
“You’re trying to put guys together that you know have a little bit of chemistry and then compliment them with something else that will help drive the line,” said McLeod.
“He gets in on the forecheck quick and does a lot of disrupting and then when he gets the puck, he’s got a heck of a shot,” said Coyotes head coach-general manager Ken Law, who is looking for Whitelaw to chip in a bit offensively. “He’s just getting his feet wet, he’s played with a couple of different lines and he’s brought the tempo up on both.”
“I think some of them haven’t played any of those systems prior so the coaching staff has been working on it every day,” said Whistle, who is 3-2 with Kelowna. “We are trying to do a specific type of forecheck, our own zone coverage, along with the power-play (7-for-23).”
Whistle likes his teams to be aggressive on both sides of the puck and play with pace.