Meredith Kerr
Journal Staff
The St. Paul Jr. B Canadiens extended their winning streak to six games after picking up another pair of wins over the weekend.
“Overall we’re just playing better as a team right now . . . we’ve been a lot better lately and the guys are playing for one another,” said Joe Young, the head coach of the team.
On Jan. 12, St. Paul won 5-1 at home against the Vermilion Tigers, with goalie Brenden Williams keeping the Tigers off the scoreboard until 7:45 in the third period when a shot by Jayden Nachtegaele assisted by Carter Myhovich stopped the Tigers from being shut out.
“Defensively, we’re really coming around and we haven’t been giving up many goals lately, which is really nice to see, and it all stems from working hard in practice. You practice the right way and you’re going to play the right way, and that’s what’s been happening,” said Young.
Brayden Goulet earned a hat trick in the game against Vermilion, with goals at 18:09 in the first, 11:34 in the second, and 0:45 in the third. Zach Bendall assisted on four of the Canadiens' five goals.
On Jan. 13, the Canadiens won 4-1 against the Ice in Cold Lake. According to Young, it was a must-win game in order to pull ahead of the Ice in the standings.
“I thought our first period last night set the tone for the rest of the game,” said Young, on Monday. Asked what it was about the first period that set the tone, he said the Canadiens played very physical.
“We went in with a mindset that we wanted to start out physical and soften them up a little bit and throw the body around. We were able to get a goal that period. The mindset going in to it was physicality right off the start, and then try and bury them the next two periods,” said Young.
Goulet opened the scoring for the Canadiens in that game, assisted by Bendall at 5:11 in the first period. Isaac Laroque-Wall scored another goal 21 seconds later. Orrie Wood scored the two other goals for the Canadiens, one each in the second and third periods.
Young said the team is working hard to move up to third place in the standings.
“We’re in a battle right now to move up to a playoff spot that we’d like to be in, and right now we can’t be giving away two points on any given night,” said Young.
St. Paul is now sitting in fourth place in the standings of the NEAJBHL with 31 points, just three points behind Killam.
“We play Killam one more time and we have a game in hand on them. It’s a position we can get to if we win some key games down the stretch here, and obviously we’d like home ice in the first round,” said Young.
According to Young, one thing the team has going for them this year is that they have more veteran players than in previous years, including four who are 21 and in their final year of junior hockey. The four players in their final year of junior hockey are Nicholas Klassen, Bailey Lonsberry, Braydon Burak, and Dyson Roy.
“I want to go as far as we can for those guys. They’ve been with us for quite a few years now and they’ve worked hard for the last few years, and I want them to reap some rewards for all that,” said Young.
