COCHRANE—The U18 AA Bow Valley Timberwolves hosted their season opener against the Airdrie Lightning at the Cochrane Arena on Saturday (Nov. 7).
Unfortunately, despite putting tremendous pressure on the Airdrie goaltender, the Timberwolves were unable to pull off a victory.
Even with the 40 shots on net that the Timberwolves took, only one shot translated into a goal, while Airdrie was able to score four— All on powerplay opportunities.
“The key point for that game was powerplays,” said head coach Tyler Reid. “That’s something that the coaching staff has to look at, the structure that we’ve implemented because clearly, it didn’t work in game one. We have to go back and we have to be better on that front for sure. It starts with reviewing the structure that we put in place and how we can improve it.”
Besides the powerplay, Reid said that the team did well, and he plans on “fine-tuning” the game plan moving ahead this season.
“I thought it looked like the first game of the season. I thought we did a lot of things well and I think there’s definitely room for improvement,” he said. “there were some takeaways for our team and some things that we’ll work on in practice going into next week.”
The Timberwolves played back-to-back games over the weekend and suffered another defeat to the Airdrie Lighting on Sunday (Nov. 8) in Airdrie.
Now the team has a week to practice before playing two more games against Airdrie on Nov. 14 and 15.
After Nov. 15, the Timberwolves take a two-week break before moving on to face the West Central Tigers on Dec. 5.
The long breaks between games and series are both a blessing and a curse, Reid said.
“If we have a long break it gives us time to hone specific aspects of our game like when we raise the point of powerplays, we can focus on that for a two-week period and really hammer down a few things,” he said. “But, it’s not a game-like atmosphere. We just have to ensure we mimic our practices to game situations I think ... We have to try to simulate what it’s going to be like when we step on the ice.”
Next weekend's games take place on Saturday (Nov. 14) at 1:30 p.m. in Airdrie, and the Timberwolves will be back on home ice at the Cochrane Arena on Sunday (Nov. 15) at 5:30 p.m.
Spectators for games are limited to 100 people, and masks are mandatory inside the arena.
