Cougars breaking down U18 season

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/09/2023 (708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An older Southwest Cougars club is going to spend an entire Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League season learning to play in the post-season.

Head coach Tanner Lewis, who is joined on the bench by assistant coaches David Robertson and former Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Garrett Sambrook, said his team is breaking down the 44-game campaign into bite-sized pieces to mimic a playoff run.

“We’re going to take it a week at a time,” Lewis said. “It’s no secret that we have an older group and a lot of guys are looking towards the end goal but you don’t want to think about that because then you’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t end up making it to the final and winning.

“We want to make sure we put the blinders on. We do it in five-game segments so we get our team ready to play in the five-game segments, similar to a playoff series. You have to win three out of the five no matter what, and you just keep getting them ready for this next five games.

“Hopefully we do end up in the playoffs and then they’re already in that mentality of having to win three out of five no matter what.”

Southwest began its season with a home-and-home series with the the Pembina Valley Hawks, visiting Morden’s Access Event Centre last night and hosts the Hawks at the Souris/Glenwood Memorial Complex tonight at 7:30 p.m.

The Cougars, who finished eighth with a record of 19-21-4 last season, had about 40 players try out this year, which is close to average. The big difference was that seven or eight goalies tried out.

“It was good to see some younger guys come out, some fresh faces to challenge our older goalies,” Lewis said. “There wasn’t as much D that tried out as years past, but there were a lot of forwards. I think we had about nine D and the rest were forwards.”

They have some big pieces to fill.

Southwest graduated its top four scorers from last season, Luke MacKenzie, Nicholas Cullen, Dawson Andries and defenceman Darren Hunt, but they have plenty of veterans returning. “We’re going to be a big, physical, hard-working team,” Lewis said. “It’s not lost on anyone that we graduated our three leading scorers and top D-man to junior … It’s a group that we’ll have to do everything by committee. It’s not going to be the same guy every night. I think we’re going to have nine guys up front who can do the job every night or be the hero.

“And it’s going to have to be by committee on the back end. It’s not going to be one guy either. All six of them are going to have to play big minutes and important minutes for us and are going to be relied upon in big situations.”

One of the nice stories that has emerged on this season’s Cougars roster is the impact of the Westman Ice Bandits, which joined the Winnipeg U17 AAA Hockey League a year ago. The expansion club offered players who didn’t make a U18 team an opportunity to play at a slightly lower level that is considered a step above high school hockey.

Southwest ended up with five forwards off last season’s Ice Bandits squad, leader scorer Tyson Draper of Virden, (58 points in 34 games), Lynden Gould of Wawanesa, Jackson Hofer of Deloraine and Connor Hoemsen of Virden. They also added a defenceman, 16-year-old Brock Hutchinson of Virden.

“It’s an awesome program to get into the region,” Lewis said. “We’ve seen strides with Tyson Draper and Jackson Hofer and Hutch and Gould and Hoemsen that they wouldn’t get if they didn’t have that opportunity to play in that U17 league where they play against higher competition and get to develop their game a lot more. We’re really happy with those kids

“It gives us a chance to have these 16-year-olds that didn’t make it at 15 but get to come back and play a more prominent role on the team because they’re used to playing high level AAA hockey. It’s still a jump from U17 to U18, but it makes it a lot easier not going from high school right to U18.”

Thankfully for Lewis, the team hasn’t lost any players out of the region to prep schools.

The veterans up front are Nate Robson of Carberry (44gp, 20g, 9a), Jack Clark of Treesbank (39gp, 9g, 9a), Sebastian Stone of Boissevain (44gp, 15g, 12a), Kelby Diehl of Glenboro (43gp, 7g, 11a), Regan Anderson of Souris (44gp, 6g, 13a), Bryan Laing of Boissevain (43gp, 4g, 7a) and Kylan Anderson of Killarney (43gp, 2g, 4a), The team has just one 15-year-old rookie forward, Kole Beard of Boissevain.

“We’re looking for guys who are going to take the bull by the horns early and who essentially want to be the guy who can out the team on his back and score some big goals for us,” Lewis said. “I don’t think it’s going to be just one guy. I’ve coached a lot of these kids — it’s my third year with a lot of them because we had that one year with a bunch of 15-year-olds and then they all stuck around last year and we’ve only lost one or two since then — so they know what I’m about and I know what they’re about.

“I believe some of them can do it, it’s just a matter of getting the opportunity, taking it and running with it.”

The defensive unit includes two rookies, Hutchinson and 15-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings prospect Jack Swaenepoel. The veterans are Ryder Heaphy and Drew Shiels of Killarney, Jesse Brown of Wawanesa and Jackson Kohut of Souris. “Me and David have been working with those 17-year-olds for two or three years now so they know how we want to do things and know what we expect out of them,” Lewis said. “They can bring in Hutchy and Swany and really show them the ropes … We really don’t have a weak link on the back end.”

Southwest returns both goalies, 17-year-old Evan Svoboda of Killarney (4.10 gaa, .879 save %) and 16-year-old Micky Gross of Cornwallis (3.48 gaa, .886 save %).

“It’s awesome to have them back,” Lewis said. “We were really happy with both of them last year. It’s not easy having to come out of high school and face the quality of shooting that he was, but we knew (Svoboda) was up to the task, and with Micky, he’s been on a trajectory ever since bantam where he just keeps getting better every week and every month.”

The two veterans, who essentially split the minutes last season, are sent to the Western Canada Hockey Academy to work with goaltending coach Colin McGill.

Lewis said it’s a luxury to have a pair of goalies with their talent and competitiveness.

“We’re happy to have some internal competition,” Lewis said. “I know in years past when we had (Owen) LaRocque and (Eric) Reid, those were your guys who were playing 60 per cent, 70 per cent of your games. Now we have this internal competition with two guys who can get the job done for us and they’re good enough friends and get along well enough where it’s not connected to their relationship.

“They’re going to push each other in a positive manner to be better.”

» A preview of the U18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings will run next week.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson