All three of the AA Bow Valley Timberwolves teams, ranging from Pee Wee to Midget, are at very important stages of their South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL) seasons, with very few games remaining.
Coming off a 4-1 win on Feb. 4 against the Central Alberta Selects, the Midget T-Wolves currently sit second in the North Conference with a 34 points and a 16-6-2 record, which is three points back of the division leading West Central Tigers. The good news for Bow Valley is while they sit three points back, they have played in four fewer games than the opposition, which puts them in a good spot moving forward according to head coach Tyson Soloski.
“I think we have to play hard every game. We can’t rely only on our skill … we are a very skilled team but if we don’t work hard every shift we won’t be successful,” Soloski said.
“We are in a good position (in the standings) and I think we are just starting to play to our potential so I really like our chances of moving into first place. We also need to improve our power play. If we can get one or two goals a game on the man advantage it will make a big difference moving forward.”
When Soloski was asked about chances missed by the Timberwolves’ special teams, the coach said his team needs to focus on the fine details in order to find success.
“It’s honestly very simple things like tape-to-tape passes, moving the puck quicker and hitting the net. The biggest thing is puck retrieval, we want to have sustained pressure which means we need to get the puck back and win battles,” Soloski said.
“We are also trying to work the puck down low more instead of shooting from far out. It’s coming along fairly well. Last game we had two power play goals so hopefully we continue to improve and get to where we need to be.”
Bow Valley has 10 games remaining on their schedule with a six game home stand stationed in the middle of those remaining contests. Soloski said he and the other coaches have been preaching the importance of winning on home ice.
“It’s nice to make it extremely hard for teams to win when they come to our home rinks,” Soloski said.
“If we have a full 60-minute effort, there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to win all six of our home games that are left.”
The Pee Wee Timberwolves are in first place of the North Conference and second place overall in the league with a very impressive 23-3-1 record, which equals to 47 points. The Pee Wee squad is frantically trying to catch the undefeated Medicine Hat Hounds who have a record of 27-0-1. Bow Valley has six games remaining, with their next one coming on Feb. 10 when they host the Airdrie Lightning White at 1pm.
The Bantam team is struggling in their tough division, trying to keep pace in order to lockdown a playoff spot with a record of 10-16-1. They sit nine points back of Central Alberta with seven games to go. Not all hope is lost for Bow Valley though, as six of their remaining games come against teams in their division, with four of them coming against the league’s two worst teams in the Red Deer Steel Kings and the Red Deer Ramada Inn. The T-Wolves will play the Steel Kings on Feb. 10 at the Cochrane Arena with puck drop going at 5:15 p.m.
