Twisters touch down on the ice
MMJHL club continues strong regular season
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This article was published 03/12/2021 (1372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Pembina Valley Twisters are continuing to create a whirlwind of force on ice as the club is putting the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League on notice.
“I’d say the group of guys have bought into the way we need to play to be successful this year, they are playing hard and coming to the rink ready to work whether it’s a game or practice,” head coach Matt Dyck said.
“Everyone’s been working hard, buying into the system, making a good first pass and getting pucks in deep,” added Twisters captain Travis Penner.
At press time, the Twisters had a record of 13-3-2 and sat third in the league with 28 points as they closed in on the season’s halfway mark. The Pembina Valley squad won eight of its nine games in October, and are riding a three-game winning streak from the month of November. The head coach said special teams have lately become an area of focus.
“(On) our power play, we’ve been able to generate offence by getting a lot of pucks to the net, obviously when you’re capitalizing on that, that really helps out getting wins,” Dyck said.
“Our penalty kill took a bit of a hiccup there two or three weeks ago. If you take seven or eight penalties a game, pucks are going to start going in the back of the net. I think we have a stranglehold on that now.”
The Pembina Valley club has maintained a strong defensive presence on ice from the season star, averaging only 2.72 goals against per game, good enough for second best in the league.
“Playing good defence is where everything starts,” Penner said.
“You can score as many goals as you want but you can’t let in more than two or three to typically win a game.”
The captain, who now has four goals and 15 assists on the year, said the goaltending tandem of Logan Enns and Martin Gagnon deserves credit.
“Both of our goalies have been really stellar this year in all situations,” Penner said.
“Just being consistent and making big saves occasionally when there’s a breakdown and they have to.”
“They are a really good tandem, I think they are pretty confident that they can both face any team in the league and we’re confident in them,” Dyck added.
“I think we only have five games where we allowed more than three goals, we’ve given ourselves a chance to win on a regular basis.”
Gagnon, in his fourth year of the club, has a .907 save percentage with a goals-against average of 2.66 and a record of 6-3-1. Enns, in his first year with the team, has a .905 save percentage with a GAA of 2.50 and a record of 7-0-2.
On the offensive end, the team has not taken its foot off the gas, averaging 4.33 goals per game — third highest in the MMJHL this season. The head coach said scoring was high at the beginning of the year as teams struggled defensively but play has now tightened up. The Twisters acquired forward Curtis Rebeck from the River East Royal Knights in a trade two weeks ago that has pleased management.
“It gives us three offensive threats and solidifies our top four, so we can basically open our door, and play four lines which gives us a big advantage for the duration of the game,” Dyck said.
“If you go through our game sheets, you don’t just see the same guys on there every night. There was a stretch when our third and fourth lines were producing all of our points. That’s helped to our success.”
The head coach said the league’s competitive natured has not waned as the Twisters sit behind the St. James Jr. Canucks and Transcona Railer Express , who are in first and second place, respectively. Dyck said the Canucks defensive core and Transcona’s offensive forwards will make them stiff competition, and acknowledged the parity of the MMJHL.
“If you look at those top six teams, we lost to Fort Garry, Stonewall and the Charleswood Hawks,” Dyck said.
“Right there that goes to show you if you don’t show up ready to play, anyone can put themselves in a game with you.”
“If you’re not working hard every night, you can’t take nights off, it’s as simple as that,” Penner said.
Dyck said going into the Christmas break he would like to see a consistent effort throughout the Twisters lineup to prepare for an intense return in January.
“After Christmas things are going to pick up quite a bit moving into that last stretch before the playoffs,” Dyck said.
“The pace of play is going to get a lot higher, your time and space is going to be taken away, and we want to go into the break firing on all cylinders.”
For the Twisters captain, the motivation has not dropped since the start of the season as he tries to make the most of his time left in junior hockey.
“It’s my last year of juniors so this is my last chance to win the trophy again so every night is a building block towards the playoffs, trying to become a better team and I give it my all,” Penner said.
“Doing all the little things you got to do to win hockey games.”