The first game for the peewee B Stampeders hockey team showed a strong team ready for the season.
The team won a respectable 4-1 pre-season game against the Daysland West County Thunderstars Oct. 12 at the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Complex. Players appeared confident in their skating and were working on their puck handling skills, says coach Curtis Huchkowski. “We’re trying to implement a new system.”
With three more classification games to play, he feels the team would do well as a tier three. His goal is to show players the importance of passing and staying in formation.
“We have a lot of kids that love to score…It’s a learning that we have to do,” says Huchkowski.
For now, he wants players working on those skills so they can compete with the same goal in mind.
The atom B Stampeders lost 6-4 against Daysland Oct. 13 but coach Geoff Tatlow was impressed with players’ performance. The team was down by a large margin in the third period until some key plays brought them tied up the game in the third.
However, the atom Thunderstars fought back to earn them a win in this first classification game. Tatlow intends to work on strengthening core hockey skills. “We’re looking at positioning, defense, handling the puck and footwork.”
Despite the loss, he looks forward to training his players. “We’ve got kids that can move up to forward and defense.”
His main focus though is for kids to enjoy while they learn.