Ice Left In The Cold

Novice Hockey Players Stand Up With The Icemen During Pregame Ceremony. 
Picture by Byron Weaver

    Superbowl weekend was not very kind to the Wetaskiwin Icemen. As playoffs approach the team has let some points in the standings slip away. The Icemen lost a close one on Friday night 5-4 to the North Edmonton Red Wings followed by a Sunday afternoon 7-2 loss to the Sherwood Park Knights.
    Going into the weekend the Icemen had only lost once in the last 12 games. Now they have lost three of the last 14. All of this still leaves them with a pretty good overall record. If you ignore the little glitch of late you have to be excited about the possibilities playoffs bring. The Icemen are a balanced scoring team with good goalies and a number of gunslingers that can put the puck in the net. However a bit more winning consistency will be needed for the last two regular season games. Things get a bit more intense in the playoffs. If the Icemen can get it going again they could go far in the post season.
    Friday night’s game featured a penalty meltdown by the Icemen against the North Edmonton Red Wings. All three periods were penalty filled particularily the third. With penalty totals like this you better hope your special teams are firing on all cylinders. The Icemen were close with two powerplay goals and one shorthanded. Not close enough however. With Icemen Chris Sharkey in net. Luc Recknagle scored the only goal of the first making it 1-0 Icemen going into the second. Dylan Weaver scored a shorthanded goal in the second followed by Luc Recknagle’s second, a powerplay marker making it 3-1 Icemen. With 1:13 left in the period the Red Wings scored to make 3-2 Icemen after the second. The third period had the Red wings score two power play goals and another one making it 5-3 Red Wings. Icemen Jordan Howe finished off the scoring at 1:16 with another power play goal. Too little too late as the Icemen take it on the chin 5-4. Lesson learnt on this one. 
    Game two of the weekend on Superbowl Sunday was not much better for the Icemen. With their main combatant the Sherwood Park Knights in town, the Icemen didn’t live up to their end of the rivalry losing 7-2.
    For the Icemen this means a probable 2nd place finish in the East Division unless the Knights blow their last three games. The Icemen have two games remaining. For the Icemen to make up the five points to catch the Knights would require some luck. After losing a few the Icemen are probably going to be a little leaner and hungrier as they finish the season. This could benefit them as playoffs are right around the corner. The Icemen need to win their final two regular games for themselves. Away games on Wednesday Feb. 6th in Stony Plain and Sunday Feb. 10th in Edmonton facing the Royals wind up the schedule. Let’s get ready for the real season after this. Good luck Icemen.