It was a weekend of bitter disappointment for Bow Valley Timberwolves Bantam AA hockey team as they lost two games in two days.
T-wolves (4-5, 3rd in North Div.) hosted Okotoks Oilers (6-2-1, 3rd in South Div.) on Oct. 30 at Cochrane Arena. The visitors took the lead in the first period, and the score remained 1-0 going into the third, as both teams nullified each other.
In the third period, Timberwolves equalized through a power-play goal from Ty Parker, before Oilers stole the game with a short-handed goal, with only 48 second left on the clock.
Bow Valley lost again on Oct. 31 as they fell at home to Central AB Selects (6-1-1, 1st in North Div.) 9-5.
Forward Caleb Willms put T-wolves on the scoreboard early, before Central responded with three goals in eight minutes. Only some stellar crease-work from T-wolves goalie Jay Thomson kept the gap from widening. Morgan Wulff pulled one back for the home team, but Centrals added a short-handed fourth right before the end of the period.
The second period started poorly for T-wolves as Central managed to soak up the Cochrane team’s pressure and added another three to make the score 7-2.
Wulff scored two goals in two minutes to complete his hat-trick, but T-wolves weren’t able to create much else going into the third.
Willms scored his second on the game, giving T-wolves some hope with the score at 7-5, but Central added two more before the end of the game, as they outshot the home side 48-25.
“I thought we played pretty decently,” said Tyson Soloski, Timberwolves head coach. “The problem was that we only played for 40 of the 60 minutes.”
In the Central game, T-wolves had a bad habit of scoring or coming close, only for the opposition to streak down to their end and capitalize on their mental mistakes. It’s something that Soloski says the team has addressed.
“We’ve said it’s something that we need to work on,” Soloski said. “A lot of times we don’t start games or end games well, but we’re getting more confident.
“One thing we really need to do is prepare better.”
Bow Valley next hosts Foothills Bisons (2-7-1, 6th in South Div.) on Nov. 7 at Cochrane Arena (5:15 p.m. puck-drop). They then travel to Airdrie to play Lightning (4-7, 4th in North Div.) on Nov. 8 (puck-drop is 11:45 a.m.).
Soloski feels that his team is going to have to play at their maximum level if they want to take any points.
“(Timberwolves) need to bring our A game,” Soloski said. “Foothills will be good, and so will Airdrie.
“We can beat them, but we’ll have to be at our very best.”
