Wolves fall short to the Rangers, News, Major Atom, 2018-2019, Select (Waterloo Minor Hockey)

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This Team is part of the 2018-2019 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Dec 17, 2018 | Jeff Voll | 759 views
Wolves fall short to the Rangers
The Atom Select Wolves faced their cross town rivals from Kitchener on Sunday afternoon. The Wolves coming off a rather dismal performance from a Cambridge Hawks loss a week prior. Were the Wolves going to be ready for the team from Kitchener who were coming into our rink on a 9 game winning streak..........................

The only loss of the season for Kitchener was from our very own Wolves, you know they had redemption in their minds. We on the other hand wanted to win the home and home series against them. 
The game started with the Rangers attacking right from the drop of the puck, this team had a message they wanted to give and this was clear. The first period was quite exciting and there were some chances but not enough, the wolves were starting to get frustrated. The rangers scored one with 2:42 left in the first to get the early lead in the game.

Message between the periods was simple - stop playing like individuals and play as a team, pass the puck sooner and hard. There is lots of hockey left in this game.
Second period saw the Wolves have a little better clearing plays out of the zone - but most of the time the Rangers forecheck was too strong for our Wolves. The Rangers attack on our players was strong and at times was frustrating our boys they were getting discouraged. Adam Keith was able to get a beauty goal from an assist from Alton great job guys, the Rangers however potted 2 more in the middle period to go into the 3rd with a 3-1 lead. 

Message from the bench going into the 3rd - do not quit on a shift, skater harder than the Rangers and do not let them get into your heads. A tall order since the Rangers were clearly not backing down.
The Rangers kept coming hard at us and did score one more on, even with the Rangers collecting a couple penalties we could not get one past their goalies, they were pressuring our defence and taking away many good opportunities from the point we could've had.  Final score  4-1 Rangers game over.

The coaching staff did inform the boys they did have better compete than our last outing, however it was very clear that when the players do things on their own the success does not happen. This mindset must change NOW and the coaches will remind the players until they get back on track. A special thanks to AP Brodin Vance who stepped into big shoes with Johannes away and played a strong game. Also to Cameron who did try and play with a pulled groin but in the end could not compete at a high enough level.

So we are on a mini slump - it happens to many teams, keep your heads up boys and dont get down on yourselves. You know how to win as a TEAM - we have all seen it together. 

See you at practice in Wellesley Saturday and then our Holiday Party back at Albert right afterwards.....................

Coach Jeff