By Jasmine Franklin
Defeat is not in the vocabulary of Ponoka’s midget A Wolves now winning their way to the top.
It has been a season of domination for the 18-player Ponoka Fountain Tire midget A Wolves hockey team who will soon represent Zone 4 at the provincial tournament March 25 to 28.
“They’re a good, even and talented team,” coach Shane Norn said. “They play well together (and put in a lot of) effort.”
Out of 24 regular season games, they have 18 wins, three losses and three ties, good for second place with a .750 winning per centage. In playoffs, they beat Red Deer in the first round, and beat Rimbey 6-4 and 7-3 March 13 and 14. With only one home game left in their regular season, the boys will enter the gold medal series playing against Sundre at 7:30 p.m. March 18 in Ponoka.
When Norn was asked about the team’s strength and why they seem to be accomplishing so much, the answer was simple.
“They follow the systems we set out for them,” he said. “They’re gonna win this.”
Undefeated in playoffs
The Wolves are pushing the envelope for surrounding area teams, becoming the group that cannot be beat.
In provincial playdowns, their first round was against Devon in a two-game series. They took the series with scores of 6-2 and 11-1 pushing them to the second round versus Red Deer. The Wolves crushed Red Deer 11-1, automatically qualifying for the third and final round against Beaumont where they won the series with scores of 7-1 and 14-2.
The next step for the boys is the provincial tournament in Coaldale.
Dave Simanton, manager of the Ponoka midget A team, said one sure factor can be credited to the team’s success.
“It must be great coaching,” Simanton said in an email.