Eastside schools battle for Price Division banner

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East Kildonan

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This article was published 15/11/2023 (1048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

East Winnipeg bragging rights, along with a division title, are on the line in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Price Division this season.

Among the 11 teams competing in the third-tier division, nearly half are from east Winnipeg: Kildonan-East, the Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau Canadiens, Murdoch MacKay, Collège Louis-Riel Voyageurs, and the defending division-champion Windsor Park Royals. Maples Collegiate and the Warren Wildcats are sole teams hailing from west of the Red River, while the Lorette Scorpions, Pinawa Panthers, Edward Schreyer Barons (Beausejour) and the Powerview/Sagkeeng Wild aren’t far from the Perimeter and all lie east of the Red.

At the quarter-mark of the 24-game regular season, CPET, KEC, and Pinawa have established themselves at the top of the heap. At press time, CPET was undefeated in seven games leading up to a Nov. 17 match against Pinawa.

“We’re an offence by committee team,” said Stephen Gregoire, CPET’s head coach, who has been with the team since 2019-20. “We’re definitely strong from the net out, we have some great goaltending and great defence, not to take anything away from forwards. It’s not like we need one line to do anything, we have great depth.”

Returning goaltender Thomas Wyatt, a Grade 11 player, has allowed only nine goals in his first four starts, while new addition Tyson Murdock, also in Grade 11, has allowed only five in three starts. Gregoire also highlighted the leadership of captains Brady Heilman (who is top of the team in scoring with five goals and 12 assists in seven games), Thomas Turner, Ethan Da Silva, and Owen Chmelnytzki with the team’s great start.

“Some lead by example, some are more vocal, so that’s a good mix,” Gregoire said. “It’s all about bringing the team together, and they’ve done a great job of that.”

Despite going undefeated heading into a weekend tournament in Coquitlam, B.C., Gregoire said there‘s still plenty of room for improvement.

“For us, the power play is something we need to be more efficient with. That’s where you can win or lose a lot of games. We want to be clicking on all cylinders. We want everyone to be with the systems,” he said. “Being undefeated is awesome, but we haven’t played all the teams yet. We have a good outlook, the boys are happy and having fun, which makes it easy to coach.”

The Kildonan-East Reivers, though, are also knocking at the door.

“Our style of play right now is a bit of high risk, high reward,” said Dylan Friesen, one of KEC’s coaches this season. “We’re working on fixing that, but right now we have a lot of guys who can score goals. We have a good group of kids, all good people who are all pulling for each other.”

Winners of five of their first seven games of the season ahead of a Nov. 14 match vs. Louis-Riel, KEC boasts a high-scoring squad that had notched 50 goals at press time. However, the team had 28 goals against, whereas CPET had 46 for and only 14 against through its first seven.

“We’re working on our defensive structure, D-zone structure, trying to eliminate the cheating in our game, working on positional hockey while maintaining the great team bond,” Friesen admitted. “We want to continue winning and maintain at the top of the division and hopefully cleaning up our defensive game up at the same time.”

Leading the Reivers so far are Grade 12 forward and captain Eston Katcher, who had scored 12 goals and 19 assists through seven games, and Grade 10 defenceman and alternate captain Jack Plett, who had two goals and 13 assists in seven games.

“(Katcher) is an excellent leader, plays the game really hard most of the time the right way. What makes him a good leader is he goes about his job quietly,” Friesen said. “(Plett) has been the same way, a quiet leader who goes on and really takes on the responsibility of all the players on the ice. When he’s on the ice, he’s really good at communicating where people should be and leading by example.”

CPET and KEC will go head-to-head on Dec. 5 at Gateway Recreation Centre (1717 Gateway Rd.). For more information, including full schedule, results, and statistics, visit winnipeghshl.ca