SUNDRE – Both the Sundre and Innisfail U15 squads faced off undefeated at the Sundre Arena on Friday night in their regular Central Alberta Hockey League season run.
But only one could come away maintaining their winning streak. That turned out to be the home team, with the Huskies holding onto a solid start to their season so far as local fans cheered on.
“The boys have been playing super well,” said coach Austin Fyten, adding they finished tiering rounds in tier 3 silver.
“I don’t know how much competition we’re going to have this year. Innisfail and Standard have been or toughest game so far and we’ve done pretty good against them,” Fyten said.
“We played them both this past weekend and won both of our games,” he said on Monday morning in response to follow-up questions.
After defeating Innisfail 4-1, the Sundre team was back on home ice the following day hosting Standard, who they handily shut out 4-0.
“We had some good crowds come out and watch and good community support,” the coach said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Winning two games back-to-back on home ice was a bonus that boosted morale.
“I think the boys were pretty excited about it,” he said.
The week prior, the Huskies swept their way to a huge 12-2 victory against Stettler in what the coach described as a “blowout game.”
Overall, the squad has come a long way since the start of the season and has been playing well, he said.
“We had a couple of kids come over from (the recreational league) that have already made leaps and bounds improvements,” he said.
The Huskies had as of Saturday’s game against Standard played – and won – five games in the regular season.
Asked where the team’s strengths lay, the coach said their “goaltending has been outstanding” and also heaped praise on the team’s captain.
“Brady Smith has been our top guy,” said Fyten, adding the centre has already racked up 20 points in just five games.
“He’s got a lot of skill but he works really hard. He’s played really, really well for us.”
But generally speaking, the Huskies have developed their team game as they fine tune their systems, the coach said.
“We battled hard in tiering and they’ve improved so much and they’re starting to work together and it’s made a huge difference,” he said.
During practice, they hone in on improving their power play as well as penalty kill, with coaches endeavouring to teach them how to compete consistently, he added.
The U15 Huskies are hosting their annual home tournament fundraiser this weekend – Dec. 8-10 – and will be playing their first game on Friday starting at about 5:20 p.m.
