SUNDRE – The Sundre U18 Huskies’ new netminder has his work cut out for him this season.
And so far, he seems to be holding his own.
At the start of the season, the Sundre Minor Hockey Association’s highest-level squad found itself scrambling to secure a goaltender when the player who was initially expected to fill the spot suffered an injury that prevented him from joining the team.
“We didn’t have a goalie for the start of the season,” said head coach Jason Martyn, candidly confessing there at first was a level of uncertainty.
“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Martyn told the Albertan during a phone interview.
But word got around that the Huskies were without a goaltender, and eventually reached the ears of Carter Nielsen, who didn’t want to leave the team hanging and decided to switch over from Sundre Rec Hockey.
To date, Nielsen has being doing well, the head coach said.
When Martyn first spoke with the Albertan on Friday, Nov. 1 before the Huskies’ scheduled match against Innisfail on home ice that night, he said the team had already played four tiering games with a record of 2-1-1.
They had defeated Olds and Blindman Valley Minor Hockey Association’s squad from Rimbey, lost a contest against Caroline and tied another match to Red Deer, he said.
Friday’s match against Innisfail ended up in a draw tied at 5, while Sylvan Lake seemed to make the most of home ice advantage to secure a 6-3 victory over the visiting Huskies.
Tiering will soon be wrapping up with a break starting Nov. 15 before the regular season play in the Central Alberta Hockey League begins.
The Huskies ended up with a roster of 14 skaters – of whom six were second years with the rest largely coming up from the U15s – and their new goalie. As to whether Nielsen might eventually find a level of relief remains a question as there was yet to be any alternatives lined up to take a spot on the bench as a backup.
“We’re just going with what we have right now,” the coach said.
Although still early in the season with the squad striving to find its momentum, Martyn said the Huskies are coming together and anticipates being placed in tier 3.
“Every time the kids hit the ice, they seem to be advancing quite a bit right now,” he said.
“A lot of kids haven’t played with each other, so they’re still getting used to each other. It’s always a bit of a transition. The start of the year is always hard when you’ve got so many new players together and you’re trying to figure out where everybody fits and who fits with who,” he said.
“But it seems to be going really well.”
With a strong defensive and offensive core, he said the focus during practices for now is on honing strategies to make the most of powerplay advantages as well as killing the clock for penalties.
