“We’re through the opening jitters, I always call it,” Jason Martyn said last week.
“All of the boys are starting to pick it up, improve their game, and come together as a team,” said Martyn.
That growth, he said, was highlighted by their performance at the home tournament hosted at the Sundre Arena on Jan. 10-12.
“It should have been a tier 4 tournament,” he said.
Due to the nature of needing to make arrangements for the tournament well in advance, teams had already committed to participating before Central Alberta Hockey League tiering rounds were even over. Since then, two of the teams that came to Sundre were moved up to tier 3, while the bantam Huskies are in tier 4, he said.
“We knew we had quite the challenge in front of us.”
While there are generally eight teams, including the hosts, at the home tournaments, “we only ended up with seven this year,” he said.
That meant having a slightly different format from usual to ensure all of the teams were able to play three games, with four squads ending up in one division, and three teams in another. Teams got two points for a win, one point for a tie, and none for a loss, he said.
Visitors came from Fort McMurray, Plamondon, Cold Lake, Airdrie, Rocky Mountain Athletic Association (RMA), and Duchess.
“We elected to have Duchess in our side,” he said, adding that team is ranked at the top of its league in tier 3.
The Huskies faced off against Airdrie in Game 1, winning handily with a score of 6-2. In Game 2, they went up against Duchess, and managed to hold their own to tie the match at 2.
“For us to pull off a good competitive game and tie them, it shows how much our players have developed,” he said.
“We were all super proud of the boys for them to compete at that level.”
Although essentially neck and neck, Duchess had technically accrued just one more tournament point than the Huskies, and so went on to play in the A final against RMA, who narrowly emerged champions after winning 3-2 with less than a minute to go. In the B final, the Huskies were up against Fort McMurray, who they beat 8-2, he said.
Overall, he said the tournament was well organized and ran very smoothly courtesy of volunteers who pitched in to put it all together.
Meanwhile, the regular season to date has been coming along well, with the Huskies as of last week currently ranked roughly in the middle of the pack among eight teams.
Over the weekend, they played Friday on home ice against Caroline, which is currently ranked in second place in the league’s division, followed on Sunday by a game against Drumheller, he said.
A strong performance in those games could have brought the Huskies into second place, he said.
The game against Caroline ended up tied at nil, something the coach said he has never in his minor hockey coaching experience witnessed.
“I’ve never seen a game that went zero-zero, ever!”
The Huskies then went on to beat Drumheller on home ice with a significant lead of 7-3, he said.
“It’s put us into a tie with Rimbey for third spot in the league division.”
This weekend, the bantams will be busy with three, back-to-back games, including a match against Rimbey. They play at home on Friday and Saturday, and will be in Innisfail on Sunday, he said.
“We have a very large team, both in numbers of players and size of bodies,” he said.
“They’re very intimidating just with their size alone.”
But that doesn’t mean leaning on brute force alone, and the assistant coach said the players are primarily being taught to use their size appropriately to make clean plays without taking penalties.
“Being as large as they are, if they use their bodies too aggressively, they can end up in the box,” he said, adding the Huskies have nevertheless managed to maintain the lowest number of penalty minutes in their league's division.
Their numbers also provided an advantage in their game against Duchess, whose bench was short during the tournament, he said.
“We were able to skate them into the ground. With our large squad, we could keep skating and they couldn’t keep up.”
They’ve also grown in terms of better understanding positioning, as well as moving and shooting the puck, so he said coaches have during recent practices been prioritizing skill development and team play.
The squad, he added, has come together really well, and will be representing the community as hosts later in March for a Hockey Alberta provincial championship.
“We can’t wait for provincials,” he said, adding the event, which will require a huge organizational volunteer effort, is a big deal not just for the team, but also for the whole town.
“The community support has been great for all teams in Sundre; it’s nice to see.”
