The Haliburton County Huskies put together another solid win on home ice Sept. 13, defeating the North York Rangers 5-2, before a tough showing at the annual Jr. A Governor’s Showcase saw the young team drop back-to-back games.
New head coach Jordan Bailey said he was encouraged by the team’s start to the season, which also included a tight 4-3 win over the Cobourg Cougars on opening day Sept. 6, but was disappointed by the poor showing in the leaguewide tournament in Niagara Falls.
The Huskies were soundly beaten 4-0 by the Leamington Flyers Sept. 15, the first day of the Showcase, and followed up with a 5-2 losing effort against the Milton Menace Sept. 16.
That left the team languishing in eighth place in the East Conference, with four points from the opening four games. Bailey felt it was too early to make any real determinations on how his side stacks up against the rest of the league, with the season still in its infancy.
“It’s hard to say how [we compare], it’s only been four games for us, the most any team has played is five or six and, looking throughout the league, there’s a lot of very young teams right now,” Bailey said, noting the Huskies still have seven max-age roster spots open. The team will likely be a major player when Ontario Hockey League clubs start making roster cuts over the next few weeks.
Huskies 5-2 North York
The 470 fans in attendance at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena Saturday were treated to an offensive clinic, as the Huskies pummelled the Rangers through three periods – outshooting the visitors 61 to 23.
After a frustrating opening frame, where North York netminder Nicolas Morvan made 20 saves, the Huskies burst into action in the second.
Daniel Vasic got things started with a powerplay marker at 7:21, assisted by Ivan Mentiukov and Jacob Smith, before goals from Chase Del Colombo, Christian Giancola and Carter Petrie made sure of the result. Harrison O’Connor added some gloss to the scoreline in the third, adding another on the man advantage late on, to send the fans home happy. Defenseman Ronen MacFarlane was a standout, recording three assists.
“I thought we played very well – we stuck to our game plan and executed it well, throwing a lot of pucks on net, our rotations in the offensive zone were very good, very physical. It was a strong performance,” Bailey said.
Discipline costs team
Heading into the Governor’s Showcase, Bailey said the message to his young squad was to take advantage of the opportunity to play in front of a packed arena at the 2,170-capacity Gale Centre and not get overwhelmed or deviate from team plans and systems.
Bailey lamented issues with discipline, which he believes was the main contributor to Monday’s 4-0 defeat against Leamington. The Huskies took eight penalties in the game – including three in the opening period and a checking from behind major in the third – with the head coach feeling that lack of control cost them.
“Penalties kind of killed us there – when you’re spending almost a full period in the box, it’s hard to establish any kind of rhythm. Guys are sitting for long periods of time and when they did get back out there, there was no flow to the game for us,” Bailey said. “Coming out of that, I told them that it’s going to be very hard for us to win hockey games taking that many penalties.”
The blue and white gave up one powerplay goal in the opening period and another midway through the third, with the Flyers tallying two more goals late-on.
It was more of the same against Milton on Tuesday. There wasn’t much five-on-five action in an opening period that treated fans to four goals – three of them on the powerplay – as the two sides evened each other out.
At 2-2 heading into the second, Bailey felt his team had a good shot at a bounce-back win, but more penalty trouble – three minors in the second and two in the third, hurt them again. The Menace tallied off three straight powerplay goals in the second to make sure of the win.
“We’ll be talking about this with our players, but we’ve got to stay out of the box. Constantly playing a man down against top-tier teams like Milton is never going to go well for you,” Bailey said.
The Huskies are back in action Sept. 19 for a road game against reigning league champions the Trenton Golden Hawks. They follow-up with a home tilt against the St. Michael’s Buzzers in Minden Sept. 20. Puck drop is 4 p.m.
