Before the first puck even dropped this season, the Waterloo
Wolves have seen roster change after roster change. Some were to have players
move up a level after an early tryout. Others have been due to injury.
The constant changes and reduced line-ups have not been used
as an excuse by the players. Not once. They just keep working hard.
And, this past weekend, they had to dig extra deep. There were
no available AP players to help, and the bodies continued to hit the injured
reserve list. Christopher Ding and Logan Landry remained out. Reed Rozema and
Ben Sawyer were unavailable.
The final regular season game against the Sarnia Sting was
the Wolves first test of the weekend. After a pair of big lopsided wins by the Wolves,
the coaches warned the players to be ready. And the Sting came to fight and
earned a 2 to 2 tie.
Rozema opened the scoring for the Wolves after streaking
down the wing and firing a shot. Rozema earned an assist on the second goal as
well when he fed Allan Wang for a goal. The Wolves defenders, Owen Ottens, Ben
Sawyer, Jackson Hunter and Logan Murtha played lights out. They were asked to
do a lot and eat up a lot of minutes and didn’t even look fatigued. Ciaran
Guitton-Quayle earned the point for the Wolves. GQ’s rebound control and poise
were huge in the game.
And off to London we go……the Wolves marched into Nichols
arena to face the London Knights White with an open mind and no preconceived
hatred for London refereeing.
Ya, right.
In this game the Wolves played with 4 defenders (one who has
played all season as a forward) and 7 forwards (one that until this season
played as a defender) and if you weren’t counting, you’d have thought it was a
full team winning the game 5 to 1.
Huge Kudos to every single player but some highlights
include:
Ben Schofield, the forward turned defender, scored two goals
in the game and played solid reliable defense. His first was set up by Hiatt
Rich and second by Ottens.
Wang, A played across two lines for his team and played each
forward position. He went through the lines left to right and even played
center. Somehow Wang, A stayed focused and positionally sound.
Murtha, Ottens and Hunter were once again asked to play an
unrealistic amount of ice time and thrived. Hunter was a force in both ends, as
was Ottens. And Murtha was a general on that blueline patrolling the Dzone and keeping
play on the outside. Murtha added a goal in the game and Ottens had a slick
assist.
Rich not only set up a Schofield goal but scored one
himself. His production is not the highlight, however. It is how he covers for
the D, forechecks and backchecks and is always on the right side of the puck.
He is always team first and just a driven winner.
All the forwards were buzzing. We had Carter Talboom showing
a textbook way to earn the respect of your coaches and players. All effort. All heart. He is the perfect pest
and a scoring threat. Cam Murray is not fun to play against. He plays with an
edge and creates space for his linemates. He also has a nose for the net and
has made a point of playing positionally sound and winning his battles. Dell
Wang is a true sniper and scoring threat. You need to pay attention when he is
on the ice. He had a few good looks in dangerous spots, and you can see he is
hungry and ready to break out. Grayson Seiling was the guy who got the team on
the board first with an early goal. His speed and reach make him hard to contain.
Then, you have Casey Ross who was giving his best 200-foot game of the season. Ross
made the change to center seamlessly and was a big reason the defenders were not
as tired as they could have been in the game.
And another highlight was the play of Jake Howard. The
goaltender followed up a strong showing with an even stronger appearance.
Howard was self-critical in the early stages but must see he has played fantastically
and is getting hot when his team needs him most.
There is still so much work ahead and the players will be
facing highs and lows as they battle to have a complete line up. But the will to
win and the comradery of the team is starting to show. The pride and the hunger
to win is coming out. The Wolves need to play a blue-collar game to be successful
and not take a single shift off. From the start to now you can see a shift and
that shift is starting to become contagious.
Keep clawing away Wolves!