Ice have good shot at top spot
Club has caught and passed Oil Kings with WHL regular season winding down
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2022 (1654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Two months ago, most observers were conceding top spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference to the talent-laden Edmonton Oil Kings.
Well, those projections appear to be ancient history now.
Following Winnipeg’s 5-2 conquest of the Prince Albert Raiders at Wayne Fleming Arena Sunday and Edmonton’s 5-1 home-ice loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the Ice have opened up a four-point edge on the Oil Kings.
Winnipeg has seven regular-season games remaining, one more than the Oil Kings. The playoff ramifications are clear, but do Ice players believe they are close to having top spot sewn up?
“It’s definitely our goal to finish first and do as good as we can but we’re just focused on peaking at the right time and continuing to get better and coming full steam into playoffs,” said Matt Savoie, who scored his 30th goal of the season and team-leading 81th point while assisting on linemate Conor Geekie’s 20th of the season.
“Going down the stretch, every point is huge,” added Savoie. “Especially when you’re when you’re fighting for first place and we’re fighting for home-ice advantage. So it’s definitely something that’s been an area of focus in our dressing room and we’re pushing towards that first spot.”
The Winnipeggers have been ruthlessly efficient, outscoring their opponents 48-14 on their current 10-game winning streak.
On Saturday, the Ice opened the two-game weekend series by thumping the Raiders 6-2.
In their last 15 games, they’ve gone 13-0-1-1 to capture 28 of a possible 30 points and seize control of their post-season destiny.
“I’m just saying we needed to play better a month ago, we needed to start playing the game the right way,” said Ice head coach James Patrick. “And we’ve done that for the most part.
“We’ve played better two-way hockey and that’s going to give us the best chance to take it game by game and win games and be successful. But we’re playing a real good team on Tuesday, and I’m going to start getting ready for that.”
Next up for the Ice is a Tuesday home date with the dangerous Moose Jaw Warriors, one of the league’s hottest teams and currently fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Connor McClennon potted his 39th of the season early in the first period to get the hosts started.
Chase Wheatcroft, with his 14th, Mikey Milne’s 32nd and Savoie pushed the Ice lead to 4-0 before Carson Latimer replied with his 14th for the visitors.
Geekie and P.A.’s Vladislav Shilo exchanged goals in the third period.
“I liked the win. I like how we got got the lead,” said Patrick. “I just felt we got away from it, which we’ve done in the past where we started playing some individual (stuff), we started diving in and gave up some 3-on-2s. We gave up a 4-on-1 and a 4-on-2 to last half of the second period so I don’t I don’t want us doing that.”
Daniel Hauser made 14 saves in the Ice net, improving his record to 28-2-1-0 with a 2.06 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
Rookie Raiders goaltender Tikhon Chaika, who entered the game with three wins, an overtime loss and a regulation loss in four previous starts against Winnipeg this season, stopped 20 shots but wasn’t a major factor in Sunday’s encounter.
Patrick said a pre-scouting video of opposing goalies compiles by assistant coaches Byron Spriggs and Josh Green appears to be having the desired effect.
“We weren’t doing that first half of the year but we’ve started doing that and maybe that’s (helped),” said Patrick. “We’ve tried to do every little thing.”
Savoie found the tutorial helpful.
“That’s been a really big help for us,” said Savoie. “Everyone gets to see kind of his habits and where he likes to go, if he goes down early — just small things like that.”
Prince Albert, ninth in the Eastern Conference, fell to 24-32-4-1.
BLUE-LINES: Sunday’s three stars: 1. Conor Geekie, Winnipeg (one goal, one assist); 2. Matt Savoie, Winnipeg (one goal, one assist); 3. Connor McClennon, Winnipeg (one goal).
mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @sawa14