By Graham Perkins /
In a season where so many teams at the Burnaby Winter Club are enjoying on-ice success, you’d think that there would be some spare bounces that the Midget A1 team
could find.
Unfortunately, for this team, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Halfway through December, with the calendar year winding to an end, the club was mired in a four-game losing streak and stuck hovering near the bottom of Tier 3.
Truthfully, it’s more of a seven-game losing streak, with a tie against Cloverdale thrown in as a respite. The team hasn’t walked out of an arena victorious in over a month, which is made all the more frustrating by the fact that, game in and game out, the team seems like it’s almost there. Just a few breaks and it’s a whole different situation.
“Tonight, the bounces just kept going their way,” said head coach Terry Lawrence following a 4-1 loss to Langley on Monday night. “We hit two posts tonight on the powerplay and their goalie was really solid. When you’re playing against good teams, you just need to keep clawing and scraping.”
Penalties have been the team’s bane this season, which sounds ironic because they’re one of the least penalized teams in the tier and have even managed to pick up 11 of a possible 14 sportsmanship points. But they’re still averaging roughly four minors per game, and those minors have cost them at least a few goals on most nights.
The penalty kill has been less-than-stellar recently partly because two of the team’s most physical players are out of the lineup. Taylor Lawrence broke his wrist a month ago and is slated to be out until the New Year, while Matt Sharafi has been sick. Those two players add an element of sandpaper and energy that the group has been sorely lacking lately.
“We’re missing our physical force right now. If you’re not banging bodies, they’re banging you, and it allows them to have a bit of an edge,” Lawrence said.
“This is a very physical league. You’ve got to be able to react. It’s not that we’re intimidated, but sometimes guys aren’t as confident when you don’t have those kind of players in the lineup.”
Indeed, the team is made up of 70 per cent first-year players, and those players have shown a tremendous amount of grit and fortitude this season to keep the games close and fight through to the final buzzer. But it seems like an uphill battle when the players they’re lining up against are a few years older, a few inches taller and a few dozen pounds heavier.
“I was talking with the Langley coach after the game, and most of his kids are second or third year guys,” Lawrence said. “It’s a tough drill right now, but we’re not going to give up.”
The boys play a few more games before the Christmas break, and playoffs start shortly after.
If they can get healthy and build some momentum, it’s possible they can catch a couple teams by surprise. But they’ll need some bounces. They’re due. |