The St. Paul Jr. B Canadiens had a successful streak of games over the past two weeks, defeating the Lloydminster Bandits twice and losing a close game against the Cold Lake Ice.
On Oct. 11, the Canadiens invited the Lloydminster Bandits to town. St. Paul opened the scoring with a Jordyn Wozniak goal 6:41 into the contest. Ryley Wozniak and Jalel Abougouche were each credited with an assist on the play.
Lloydminster answered with back-to-back goals in the first, but the home team was able to strike back with two more goals of their own in the frame. Pierre Beaudoin netted a power play goal with 2:36 to play in the first, and Ryland Fisher added another score that hit the back of the net with only six seconds left in the opening period.
It was 3-2 for St. Paul at the first break in the action.
Lloydminster scored 6:37 into the second to tie things up at three goals apiece. St. Paul’s Tanner Hellquist was then credited with a goal on a deflected puck with 12:04 to go in the second. The home team’s Jordyn Wozniak later scored on another strange shot that seemed to glance off a defender. Lloydminster would answer late in the frame with another goal, but the Canadiens were still up 5-4 heading into the third.
“At that point, we really wanted to sure up defensively a little bit, because we don’t like giving up that many goals,” commented head coach Joe Young.
Sure up they did, as the two teams would skate scoreless for most of the third. The visiting Bandits, however, were able to steal a goal with under a minute left to play, forcing the game into overtime.
The extra period was short-lived, as St. Paul netted the winning goal a mere 1:50 into overtime. Ryley Wozniak was credited with the score, assisted by Jordyn Wozniak and Abougouche. The final tally read 6-5 for the Canadiens.
“Our league is so close this year. All the teams seem to be fairy evenly matched,” Young said. “Everybody seems to be bunched together, so any time you can get two points on the board, that’s huge. Not only for now, but two or three months down the road.”
The Canadiens hit the road on Oct. 17 for a matchup with the Cold Lake Ice. The two teams skated scoreless for the first 40 minutes of play, leaving the scoreboard empty heading into the third period.
“We really wanted to focus defensively on shutting them down, and we did that,” Young said. “We kind of slowed the game down a little more and didn’t open it up.”
It was the team from St. Paul that found the back of the net first with a quick Wes Thompson goal only 36 seconds into the third. Cold Lake answered right away with a counterpunch goal a mere 20 seconds later, tying things up at one.
“It’s kind of funny how that happens,” Young said. “You go 40 minutes with zeros on the board, and all of a sudden there’s two quick goals.”
Cold Lake scored again halfway through the third, netting the goal that proved to be the game winner. Cold Lake won the defensive battle by a score of 2-1.
“It was a close game. Every game we’ve played with them this year has been tight,” Young said.
On Oct. 18, the team travelled to Lloydminster for a rematch with the Bandits.
The Canadiens came out of the gates slowly, and found themselves down 0-2 after the first period of play.
“In the first period we got outhit, and we got outplayed terribly,” Young said. “We just had to go back in the room and regroup a little bit.”
Whatever they said in there must have worked, because the rest of the game was all St. Paul.
“We started getting our noses a little dirtier, and finishing our checks,” Young said. “Guys were going to the net a lot harder in the second and third period.”
All told the Canadiens netted five unanswered goals throughout the rest of the contest. Ryley Wozniak had two, and Bryton Beattie, Tyler Bunce, and Jordan Wozniak each added one apiece. The Canadiens won the game 5-2.
A few weeks into the season, the Canadiens find themselves with a 4-2-0-1 record, good enough for third place in the NEAJBHL.
“It’s been nothing but positive,” Young said of the season so far. “I just like the compete level on this team, and their composure . . . This year was a year that we really wanted to make some noise in this league, and we’re doing that.”