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Y's Men Hurricanes win |
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Written by Dylan Purcell
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Sunday, January 31 2010, 11:14 PM |
It ain’t easy being a young AAA midget hockey team.
With players as young as 15, even a one-year age gap can sometimes feel like a decade.
The Lethbridge Y’s Men AAA midget Hurricanes beat the Red Deer Rebels 3-1 at Henderson Arena Sunday, a key win against their rivals and the Alberta Midget Hockey League’s South Division leaders.
They did it with just four senior players, up against a team boasting 10 17-year-olds. The Chiefs’ age advantage shows in the standings, where the steady presence of a group of second- and even third-year midgets can weather the storms which hit a team through an entire season.
But after a recent malaise which saw on-ice discipline take a nosedive along with a three-game losing streak, the Hurricanes are back in winning order.
“I’ll tell you what, the past couple of weeks, actually, the last month, we were terrible with our discipline,” said Lethbridge head coach Greg Cowie. “In fact, this weekend, the kids were absolutely amazing.”
The team lost 3-2 to the second-place Calgary Buffaloes Friday, a game in which Cowie said his charges deserved better. They responded to that loss with a very disciplined effort Sunday against the 18-8-4 Chiefs. The win improves the Hurricanes to 16-12-4.
“Maybe because we do have a fair number of young guys, we’re a little up and down, but I think it’s more just that we sometimes get a little selfish,” said Cowie. “When some guy hits you in the chops you want to smack him back.
“But if you just skate away and he gets the penalty, you can score. That’s what they’ve started doing and it is paying off.”
One of the ’Canes 17-year-olds, Jovi Fabbri, said age has nothing to do with it.
“You’ve got to play as a team. We aren’t going to win by scoring a lot of goals, so we’ve got to bare down on defence, take our man out and take advantage of our chances,” said Fabbri, who was enjoying a cupcake courtesy of Keyler Bruce and Max Moline’s birthday celebrations.
The Hurricanes spent much of Sunday turning the other cheek after high hits, leading to a pair of power-play goals. Darren Dietz scored with the man advantage midway through the first period to give Lethbridge the lead, and Alex Elliott added another power play goal to make it 2-0 at 13:19 of the second. It took Houghton just over a minute after that to bury the insurance marker for Lethbridge. A third-period goal from Red Deer did little, except to add a dash of drama to the game’s final minutes.
Despite pulling their goalie, the Chiefs were unable to solve Lethbridge starter Brady Rouleau again. The Hurricanes have the best goals against in the division.
Fabbri’s contributions Sunday weren’t limited to the faceoff circle.
“Positionally, he’s the best player on the team,” said Cowie. “That doesn’t necessarily get noticed on the scoresheet, but guys like that, who are committed to defence and playing the system are the guys who are going to be out there when we’re holding on to a 3-1 lead. He’s very steady, very solid. You can’t win without guys like that, setting that example.”
With Lukas Sutter and linemate Moline, back from injury, Cowie has been able to put those two 16-year-olds together with 17-year-old Dillon Houghton. It’s a lineup he’s been missing since before training camp. They figured in on each goal.
“You get guys back and it just gives us some more depth and some skilled guys who can play together,” said Fabbri. “They’re good. They might need some more time, though. They haven’t been back for long.”
“Definitely,” agreed Cowie. “Once Max and Luke get going with Houghton, it’ll be good. They’ve got a couple of weeks before the playoffs.”
Cowie foolishly allowed himself to dream of a 20-man bench, something he hasn’t had all year.
Rhys Kingston is out with a shoulder injury, and Ashton Macleod is battling a wrist injury. Cowie said both were day to day.
“I thought, maybe, this weekend, it was actually going to happen,” laughed Cowie. “I should’ve known better. I guess if I stop wishing for it, they’ll get healthy.”
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