Peaking at the right time of the season is crucial in any sport, and the Bow Valley Bantam AA Timberwolves are doing just that, as they recorded an 8-3 victory over the Red Deer Steel Kings (5-18-3, 7th North Division) on Jan. 24 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
T-wolves (13-8-3, 2nd North Division) went into the game having gone undefeated in their previous four games (two wins, two ties) looking to make some headway in their pursuit of Central AB Selects (15-4-5, 1st North Division) for this year’s division title.
The first period was all about the home side.
They opened their account through Dean Olenyk, who scored a rocket of a goal (assisted by Ty Parker), which sailed over the Steel Kings goalie’s shoulder to make it 1-0.
From there, Curtis Scott (Eric Wozniewicz assisting) and Ethan Noble (Connor Stephenson and Nicholas Dobson with helpers) added two power-play goals to give T-wolves a commanding 3-0 lead going into the second period.
T-wolves continued to rack up the goals in the second, through a short-handed goal from Noble (his second of the game, assisted by Ty Mueller), before Steel Kings grabbed two back through Aidan Gehring and Braeden Cook to make it 4-2.
Caleb Willms (Dobson with his second assist of the night) scored for T-wolves with 1:07 left in the period to make it 5-2 going into the third.
Willms went on a tear in the third, grabbing his second (unassisted) and third (Nicholas Drennan assisting) goals of the game to complete his hat-trick, to make it 7-2 T-wolves, before Steel Kings grabbed their third through Kade Kahlert.
Any chance of a late game comeback for the visitors was put to rest, as Olenyk scored his second of the game (Willms assisting) to end the night.
The victory means that T-wolves have now scored 16 goals in their last two games, while only conceding five.
“We’ve played really well in our last two games,” said T-wolves head coach Tyson Soloski.
“We’ve put up a lot of goals, so it was really nice to see.”
Did Soloski expect his team to put up that many goals against the worst team in their division considering the way his team’s been on fire of late?
“No, I wouldn’t say we expected it,” he said.
“But, we believe we can score a lot of goals against any team, so it was good to see.”
T-wolves are going into crunch time now, as there are only 10 games left in regular-season action, and they are six points behind Central AB Selects in the race for first in the division.
They next travel away on Jan. 30 to Okotoks Oilers (15-8-3, 4th South Division), and Olds Grizzlys (9-11-6, 3rd North Division) on Jan. 31, for a tough weekend that could go far to deciding where the team ends up in the final standings.
“We always expect to win games, but it’s going to be tough,” Soloski said. “Okotoks are one of the best teams in the other division, and Olds are just behind us in ours. We’re going to have to stick to our game plan and do extremely well in order to get four points.
“Our goal is still to try and catch Central. If we win most of our remaining games, we definitely have a chance.”
T-wolves next home game is on Feb. 7 against Lethbridge Hurricanes at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre. Puck-drop is 2:15 p.m.
