Kodiaks roar into new year

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This article was published 21/12/2017 (3091 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a slow start to their season, the River East Kodiaks girls hockey team went on a tear to cap off 2017.

“The girls have really turned it around and kicked it into high gear,” said head coach Evan Heinemann.

The Kodiaks won six of their last seven Winnipeg Women’s High School Hockey League games, including a 2-0 win over neighbourhood rivals Miles Macdonell on Dec. 8. After losing their first seven games of the season, the Kodiaks had posted 12 points heading into the holiday break.

“Their confidence grew, once they got the monkey off their back in terms of getting the puck to the net and scoring those goals,” Heinemann said.

“We’re doing a lot better right now,” said Nicole Black, a Grade 9 forward who has three goals and two assists in 13 games of her rookie season with the Kodiaks. “We’ve gotten closer as a team.”

“We’ve been able to find back of the net more,” agreed Grade 10 Mikayla Castellano, who has been on the shelf since Nov. 10 with a broken collarbone. “It looks like we’re looking for each other better out there. Our chemistry has come together as season progressed.”

The Kodiaks lost the Nov. 10 game against Vincent Massey in which Castellano left injured by a score of 2-1. A week later, they notched their first win of the year 2-1 over Kelvin, and have won five of their six games since.

“Our offense is stronger, and our defensive zone has cleaned up a lot,” Heinemann said. “We haven’t let a ton of goals in during our last few games, and we’re getting contributions from almost all players.”

“At the start of season we went into games knowing we didn’t have good chances, but as wins have been coming we’re getting more confidence. It’s clearly working.

“Once we got that first win, we started getting more,” said Grade 10 Samantha Stoddart, one of the Kodiaks’ two goaltenders. “We need to stay on that high of winning.”

The Kodiaks are back at it after nearly three weeks off on Jan. 10 when they face St. Mary’s Academy —  who were in second place in the CTV ‘A’ Division of the Winnipeg Women’s High School Hockey League at press time — at MTS Iceplex. The rest of their January schedule will see the Kodiaks face off against top contenders.

Key to the team’s success in the second half of the season will be maintaining the momentum they’ve gained in the last month.

“We just have to keep a positive attitude towards our game,” said Stoddart, who has a 2-5 record and a 3.10 goals against average.

“We need to push to the net more get some traffic in front, get some more shots on.”

“We gotta keep the good mindset going in, knowing we can win games,” added Castellano, who has been hitting the gym to keep up her strength as she awaits the doctor’s OK to return to the line-up.

“I have a lot of faith and confidence in the girls and I think they do too,” Heinemann said. “When the girls are communicating and moving the puck they’re having success, so we’ll keep building on those. If they keep doing the things they’re doing, we’ll have some luck.”

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