Sometimes you need to find the silver lining in a loss and
the Waterloo Wolves can find one in their 3 to 2 lose to the Hamilton Huskies.
For starters, riding a 10-game unbeaten streak you are
eventually going to lose a game and it’s better to lose when it’s not playoffs.
The result still guaranteed home ice in round one. And, the Wolves were the
better team most the game.
Cole Hunsberger capped his final regular season game in fashion
with a pair of assists that helped him finish the year as the team’s top point scorer.
His first assist was to set up Evan Wallace with Cole Ledgister getting a
helper on that goal as well. Hunsberger then set up Ben Morton on the power
play with Matthew Ball also getting an assist.
Several Wolve players were missing once again, and the team
played hard without them, but you could see the fatigue grow as the game went along.
Jodan Abbott had a spirited fight against the Huskies and was removed from the
game making the Wolves defenders even more thin. Jackson McNichol, Jake
Patterson, Evan Walsh and Jack Smith all saw big minutes gain die to this.
Jack Mayne returned to the line up and played with Hunter
McMurdo and Jack Thompson but due to a plethora of penalty calls towards the
Wolves the line didn’t see regular reps despite looking good. The Wolves had a
good forechecking game with Declan Uniac leading the charge.
In net Drew Cribbin deserved better in the loss but was sold
and looks ready to for the playoffs. Cribbin has played some of his most consistent
and solid hockey down the stretch run. The team will need this to continue
should they hope for a deep run.
The Wolves had to scoreboard watch to see who they would
face in round one and the Kitchener Rangers tied the Stratford Warriors to earn
the right to face the Wolves. The Rangers lost the head-to-head series against
Stratford so lost the tie breaker point in the standings finishing in 6th
place. The season series between the Rangers and Wolves was won by the Wolves
but playoffs are a different beast, and anything can happen so the Wolves can’t
take the Rangers lighting.
Let’s go Wolves!