By Jeff Bromley /
If you’re a hockey team in search of an identity – rebuilding, middle of the pack, or real contender – one thing will go a long way in determining just where you fit in—winning.
The Kootenay Ice have done just that – nine straight before Wednesday’s rare morning game in Edmonton against the Oil Kings – and are on a two-month long roll that now sees the club pushing the top clubs for contention in the Eastern Conference standings following a 2-1 home-ice win over the Red Deer Rebels Saturday night.
“We challenged our group—good teams find ways to win, and they found a way,” said Ice head coach Mark Holick. “Maybe earlier in the year, they don’t win that game. Maybe Red Deer scores and we pack up shop. We were a pretty resilient group; we made a lot of strides here.”
Down a goal in the third period of a goaltender’s dual between Kootenay’s Todd Mathews and Red Deer’s Darcy Kuemper on Saturday, North Vancouver’s Max Reinhart scored two goals less than three minutes apart in the late stages of the game to give Kootenay their ninth straight win.
“We really did show that we can come from behind, and that’s playoff hockey right there,” said Reinhart, whose name appeared on the NHL Central Scouting mid-term rankings Monday in the number 157 spot among North American skaters eligible for the 2010 NHL Draft.
“We have to keep playing like that if we want to keep going far.”
Exactly how far they’ll go this spring is anybody’s guess.
Sporting a 20-4-1-2 record since Oct. 30, the Ice have climbed from the conference cellar to sole possession of fifth, seven points out of first place in the Central Division with four games in hand over the division-leading Medicine Hat Tigers. It was with that premise in mind that GM Jeff Chynoweth went shopping at the trade deadline Jan. 10 looking for an upgrade, specifically an impact 20-year-old that would bring the club’s total to the league-mandated limit of three, joining LW Dustin Sylvester and D Ryan Molle.
“You’re always wanting to tinker and if the right deal comes along, we’ll do that,” said Chynoweth. “Ideally, we’d like to add another 20-year-old. But it has to be the right 20-year-old. We don’t want it to affect our chemistry.”
Chynoweth couldn’t find the right deal, opting instead to pare his roster down to 22 players at the deadline, dealing import defenceman Petr Senkerik, 18, to the Prince George Cougars in exchange for a fifth round Bantam Draft pick in 2011.
“We made some significant offers for some older forwards that just came up a little bit short,” Chyoweth told the Cranbrook Daily Townsman. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done, but as an organization, we did whatever we could to make our team better. When you make a trade, you have to have two sides agree and we just couldn’t get both sides on the same page.”
“This trade allows us the opportunity to give (defencemen) Luke Paulsen and Jagger Dirk more ice time. By getting down to seven defenceman, it allows both of them to continue their development playing their regular positions.” |