After a promising start and an early lead, the Stampeders lost their 11th straight game of the season.
The team lost 10-3 to the High River Flyers, after accomplishing its first two goals before the first period was even half over.
“I think today, our first 10 minutes, we stuck to the game plan that we had and it was effective. And then it seems that right after that we decided we didn’t want to play that way anymore,” said head coach Mark Dobler.
He feels straying from the game plan left the Stampeders with loose ends and confusion, making it easy for the other team to push their way up the ice and dominate the game.
The Stampeders were hoping to use their smaller players to their advantage against the more solid High River boys. “Bigger guys are sometimes a little slower. So we wanted to use our speed, get pucks deep, be physical early, you know because they (Flyers) had played yesterday and hopefully it worked in our favour,” said Dobler.
However, the Stampeders motivation and energy didn’t last long and the game plan fell apart. “And sadly, after that, it looked after itself,” Dobler explained.
He says the Stamps may not be the biggest team out there but in order to have the ability to hold up their end of the game, they need to realize the benefits of hard work. “We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve had way too many goals scored on us but a lot of that is because we’re not working hard enough.”
The hard work can’t come in spurts. Dobler says for the Stampeders to win a game they have to remain motivated and put in the effort for every minute of all three periods. “Right now we’re having a tough time finding that way.”
Dobler believes the boys need to return to the basics, go back to simple plays and quit trying to handle more everybody else’s job on top of their own and the results would turn themselves around.
As of Nov. 9 the Stampeders had 27 games left in the regular season, with their next home game on Nov. 20.