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After winning the western Canadian "C" championship last year in Winnipeg, the Wheat City Wildcats call hockey team will step up to the "B" category for this year's event, beginning Friday in Kelowna, B.C.
BY CHARLES TWEED
When the Wheat City Wildcats hit the rink for the western Canadian ‘C’ ball hockey championship on Friday, they plan on running, and running, and running some more.
"We’re going to run-and-gun," said Nathan Krieser, who has played on the team since it was established three years ago. "We’re going to run and be all over everybody all tournament long. That’s our game plan and we don’t have the most skill, but we’re going to run and that was our plan last year and it worked out so no use in changing."
Last year, the Wildcats won the western Canadian ‘C’ championship in Winnipeg, earning the team a birth in the ‘B’ event this year in Kelowna, B.C. While the Wildcats may have flown under the radar last year and caught a few teams off guard, Krieser expects that trend won’t continue this year when they step up in competition.
"We won’t catch anyone by surprise this year and a lot of teams know who we are and will probably be gunning for us," Krieser said.
But it hasn’t changed the expectation the players have for themselves.
"We’re going into the higher division so we’re not quite sure what to expect, but our expectations are high," Krieser said. "We’re not going there just for fun. We’re going there to win. We’re going to try to defend our title."
The team, which is an all-star collection of players from the 10 Wheat City Ball Hockey League teams, returns 11 players, including last year’s tournament MVP and leading scorer Kyle Grier. While the team shouldn’t struggle to put the ball in the net, the biggest turnover was on defence.
"We are missing a few veterans on the back end, so we are a little younger for sure," said Krieser, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenceman. "We’ve got four returning guys back there, but I would say defence is our biggest question mark."
However if teams do get past the Wildcats’ defence, they’ll have to deal with two stingy stalwarts in net in Curt Gouldie and Larry Tockaryk.
"Larry has got a lot of experience and he’s a good goalie; they both are," Krieser said. "It’s (Larry’s) last kick at the cat. He’s retiring after this year, so we want to win one for him."
The team will fly to Kelowna today and play the Delta (B.C.) Jaguars Friday night at the Kelowna Memorial Arena to start the tournament.
Krieser said it’s important to get off to a good start in that game.
"We have to get off to a strong start and get a lead and leave it all out there," Krieser said.
The Wildcats are in a pool that also includes the Edmonton Dirty Birds and Vernon (B.C.) Flyers.
The four-team pool will play a round robin with the top two teams advancing in a crossover format to face teams from the other pool, with the winners going through to the gold-medal final on Sunday.
» ctweed@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition July 26, 2012
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BY CHARLES TWEED
When the Wheat City Wildcats hit the rink for the western Canadian ‘C’ ball hockey championship on Friday, they plan on running, and running, and running some more.
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BY CHARLES TWEED
When the Wheat City Wildcats hit the rink for the western Canadian ‘C’ ball hockey championship on Friday, they plan on running, and running, and running some more.
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