SUNDRE – A difficult and uncertain start to the early 2022-23 season nearly had the U15 Huskies teetering on playing in the Central Alberta Hockey League’s no-contact tier 4.
“We had a pretty tough tiering season,” said head coach Dallas Rosevear, who following a two-year hiatus from coaching decided to return to the helm.
“We had nine skaters, then one of our top players broke his wrist, so we were down to eight,” Rosevear told the Albertan early last week, adding that playing hockey with such a sparse roster “isn’t really reflective of what your team is going to be.”
And as much as the coach wanted to accommodate both the players’ and their parents’ hopes to play up a tier – “the cut off for either hit or no hit” – he at the time didn’t see that option as realistically feasible.
“You can’t play hit hockey with eight skaters; it’s impossible,” he asserted, adding one of the tier 3 games with so few players was “pretty rough . . . the kids were gasped right at the end; they were just wiped.”
So, the coach said he approached the Sundre Minor Hockey Association’s board with a request to transfer a couple of skaters from the U13s that he felt had the drive and skill to play with the U15s.
“But that didn’t get approved for a while,” said Rosevear, adding he then turned to the league asking his team be placed in tier 4.
The league agreed and approved that request, putting the team in tier 4, he said.
And before the situation started to improve, he said the team lost another player who “got kicked out” after hitting a skater from another team from behind.
With barely more than half a dozen Huskies left, the writing seemed all but inscripted on the wall.
“The board recognized it, the team recognized it,” he said. “You just can’t play hit hockey with seven or eight skaters.”
But his initial request to bring up the two players from the U13s was finally approved, and fortunes began to change the following game.
“One got a hat trick, the other a couple of assists,” said the coach, referring to Jaxon Church and Carson Nault respectively. “They fit perfectly right in the picture.”
Further boosting the team’s ranks shortly afterward was the return of a skater who hadn’t played for a while but who Rosevear had previously coached.
“Allie Blackhurst came back this year after being off for a couple of years. It’s great to have her back,” he said. “She fit right in again; she picked right up where she’d left off.”
With their numbers and morale substantially bolstered, the tables had finally turned.
“When we ended up playing the last couple games in tiering, we really dominated,” he said, adding the U15 Huskies had by then clearly become a tier 3 team.
And the player who broke a wrist – Brady Smith – was expected to be able to return to the ice before very long, said Rosevear.
Having previously coached more than half a dozen of the players, he is confident about the core group’s ability to support the less experienced players.
“It’s a real array of players. But they’re all a really tight-knit group outside of hockey and in school and whatnot, which I think really, really helps,” he said. “They’re able to get each other pumped up and really form a team.”
Anything the U15s lack in terms of weight and height, they make up for in heart and teamwork.
“It’s not a big team as far as size,” he said. “But they are battle axes.”
So despite the rocky start to the early season, the team played this past Saturday night on home ice at the Sundre Arena its first regular season game in the more physically demanding tier 3 against the Battle River Knights.
It was a good start to the season.
“The boys and girls came out a little bit slow in the first period for the first half, but turned it around right after that and had a really good, strong game,” he said on Monday morning during a follow-up interview, adding the Huskies defeated the Knights 7-4.
“They did well; I think we’re going to fit in good in that tier 3.”
When practising, the coach said the focus primarily revolves around drills to help the players become more comfortable cycling the puck around the boards to keep up the pressure and create scoring opportunities.
“Their buy-in is 100 per cent,” he said.
During a recent practice, the coach said he told the Huskies, “We are a beat ’em on the boards team.”
A strategy reminiscent of the Calgary Flames’ style, he said.
“They dump and they chase and they cycle that puck around the boards until they can get it either to their defencemen or a lane opens up to where they know their winger is in front of that net.”
And describing goalies as “the most important person on your team,” he added the netminder doesn’t always get enough specialized training during practice. So Rick Liwczak, a goaltending coach, has been working with Huskies goaltender Tylan Mahan.
“Tylan has just been amazing in these last two years. This year, he’s really going to be the backstop of the team I think,” said Rosevear.
“If there was somebody that was going to go far in hockey, Tylan would really be one on our team that could (go to that next level),” the coach said. “He does have that skill and desire.”
The U15s will on Dec. 9-11 be hosting seven teams during the Huskies’ annual home tournament fundraiser.
“It’s going to be an exciting year; I’m looking forward to coaching this group.”
