Huskies remain unbeaten after pair of tight games

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The hustlin’ Huskies howled their way to a couple of one-goal wins on the weekend, continuing to leave the loss category blank.

On Friday, the dogs travelled to the Fairview Arena to take on the Flyers. While both teams were getting into good shooting areas, pucks seemed to find ways not to hit the target. On the penalty kill, Huskies captain Cayden Frenette pounced on a bouncing puck at the blueline and sprung himself for a shorthanded breakaway. Showing off his speed and hands, he calmly put the puck behind the Flyers goalie to go up 1 – 0.

In the second period, the Huskies were able to build on the momentum of the first period, despite the aggressive Flyers finishing every check they could. Frenette picked up the rebound on a well-designed powerplay opportunity with less than seven minutes left in the period to put his team up 2 – 0. The Flyers didn’t give up though, and miscommunication between McArthur and his defenseman led to a turnover and an open net goal.

Coach Todd Alexander must have had a treat in his hand because the Huskies were much more disciplined, taking just three penalties on Friday. And it’s not just penalty discipline that has improved.

“That’s a big part of our game. We want to play five-on-five because we can push the pace and wear teams out better when we’re five-on-five. Not only for penalties, but our discipline to be in the right support position, or discipline to be executing the play or sticking with the systems that we’re supposed to play.”

The score didn’t change in the third period, and the Huskies skated away with a 2 – 1 win. Tyler McArthur got his second win of the season, stopping 13 of 14 shots. The Huskies finished with 38 shots.

Alexander says the discipline that shows up on the ice starts in the dressing rooms and on practise days, not just 10 minutes before a game starts.

“Discipline for us starts in practise, the guys have to be a certain way in the dressing room, and when practise is over, the discipline to mop the floor, sweep the floor, wipe the walls, wipe the sink, that’s discipline too and that’s part of being on this hockey club. We don’t just say words around here, when we say something we mean it.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Huskies took on the Sundown Oilfield Sexsmith Vipers. Cole Cowan got the dogs on the board early in the first period, assisted by Conrad Wiebe and Alex Nimmo. With just three penalties called in the game, all against the Vipers, all four lines were able to roll. The Vipers scored less than three minutes into the second, but Kurtis Lee put the Huskies ahead 2 – 1 with help from Jared Winkel and Chase London. Nothing changed in the third, and the Huskies skated to a 2 – 1 victory.

Adding to the positive news, the Huskies took zero penalties on Sunday, which meant they could use their mobility and puck possession to take control of the game.

Tyler McArthur got his league-leading third win, stopping 21 of 22 shots. Coach says he chose to start McArthur twice since it wasn’t a back-to-back weekend.

“We just had the opportunity where we played Friday and Sunday, and it wasn’t back-to-back,” said Alexander, who added that he’s got no problem starting any goalie twice in a row. “I think it’s important to be able to have two goalies because we do have a lot of back-to-back games. Generally speaking, I like to have a fresh goalie in those games.”

While the Huskies’ powerplay hasn’t given them the results they want in the form of goals, Alexander isn’t worried about the lack of special teams scoring yet.

“I’m pretty comfortable with where our units are right now. We’d like to see a little bit more finish, but it’s that time of year. Just the overall zone time and the momentum that it can create for us, even if they do kill the penalty off, when we’re able to send both units and have substantial zone time on the powerplay, it helps us and it wears down some of the players on the other team.”

Having every player in the lineup play a role on special teams is a bit of a luxury, but it’s by design, says Alexander.

“Not everybody has the depth that we do. Every single guy on my bench has some kind of role on special teams; there’s not a single passenger.”

The Huskies finally get to unpack their bags at the North Peace Arena this week. Coach knows he’s going to have some very excited players at practise on Tuesday night.

“It sounds silly, but just for practise on Tuesday, I know where our energy level is going to be, so I better be ready to go myself. They’re going to be excited to be home and get back into their dressing room.”

After three good days of practise, they’ll try to create space between themselves and the 2nd place North Peace Navigators on Saturday night.