Titans find identity heading into break

Just when it seemed like the train was falling off the tracks, the Neepawa Titans managed to stay the course.

The Titans opened the season dropping eight of their first 11 contests and then followed up that stretch with mediocre .500 hockey that saw them lose ground in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s West Division standings before they could even blink. Then, the turnaround happened — and by no accident.

Neepawa head coach and general manager Ken Pearson saw the glaring issues and knew he needed to put a stop to them.

“I think early in the year, we really struggled defensively as a whole group,” said Pearson. “Our goaltending has been very good, but just our team defence struggled, and I think the last 15 games here we’ve really made a conscious effort to look after our own end first, and then by doing that it’s actually helped our offence. We’ve been able to exit our zone with speed and come through the neutral zone with speed and attack the other team at their blue line, and it’s created some good opportunities.

“I think now that’s something we’re really happy with in our game.”

Now, with the Titans stiffening up defensively and being a harder team to play against, they’ve managed to claw all the way back to second in the West Division with a 17-13-1 record. They’ve won eight of their last 11 contests and sit just four points shy of the first-place Dauphin Kings with one more game played.

To make matters even better, Neepawa ended the first half of the season on a winning note on Saturday night after it earned a 5-3 victory over the defending Turnbull Cup champion Northern Manitoba Blizzard at Yellowhead Community Recreation Centre.

Gladstone’s DJ Meloney scored his second of the year and the game-winning goal with just two minutes to go in the second frame as Logan Paquette and Kyle Weisgarber notched the assists. Jack Clark, Talen Wallis, Grayson Slaney, and Paquette also added goals for the Titans.

Pearson believes while his club is on a hot streak, the Christmas break will be a chance for guys to decompress from the rollercoaster that’s been the last few months.

“I think it’s coming at a good time, and guys can get home and get refreshed,” he said. “I think we’re kind of where we thought we would be, hovering just above that .500 mark, but I think we’ve had a little bit of a favourable schedule too and been healthy. Overall, we’re certainly happy to be in second at this point, and we’re just going to continue what we’re doing when we come back and look to finish the second half off strong.”

The big contingency on keeping up the success will, once again, start in their own end of the ice. Pearson said many mistakes in their zone to start the year were a self-inflicted result of not being committed to playing the team defence that’s made Neepawa tick in past seasons, so staying ahead of the game curve will be everything. And it starts with all the veterans in the room.

“I think with the group we had coming back, sometimes you think things are going to be easier because you’re a year older and things are going to be easier for you. Guys just weren’t putting in that effort that you need to be good defensively because they thought it would just going to come easier for them, but I think once they figured that out, we made a few adjustments and still played hard defensively, and things then started to become easier for them.”

In addition to having that defence-first mindset, Pearson and his coaching staff also brought in a pair of defencemen to solidify their blue-line, which has made a big change in the way they play in their own end.

Easton Walters is an 18-year-old defender from Virginia, Minn., who’s immediately caught in anybody’s sightline with a six-foot-five, 205-pound frame. He plays big and heavy and will certainly make you pay if you have your head down. He played four games in the North American Hockey League for the Wisconsin Windigo before coming over to Neepawa, where he’s registered three goals and five points through 18 games.

Jacob Faith, 18, is also another Minnesota native. The six-foot-three, 225-pound defenceman hailing from Savage played with the NAHL’s Elmira Aviators and Minnesota Mallards last season and has two points with the Titans this season. Make no mistake, though, these two were not brought in for points.

The common denominator: two big bodies that are hard to play against.

“Just having those big bodies on our own end, both guys that move the puck well, they’ve really come in and really helped solidify the backend,” said Pearson. “Jacob sees the ice very well and makes that good first pass, and Easton was just kind of that guy that we were missing with his physicality, but also a guy that moves the puck well.”

Walters and Faith have also brought a boost to the specialty teams on the penalty kill, being two guys that will get in front of a shooting lane and block shots while also being nearly impossible to gain body position against during a net-front battle. The penalty kill started off on the wrong foot but has slowly gotten better throughout the season, and now it stands at 81 per cent and second in the West Division.

“We’d like to see it get a little bit better still. We’ve struggled at times with allowing goals, but again, that’s a whole effort to everyone doing their job properly. That’s one thing that we’re going to look at working a little bit more and spending a little bit more time on via video and in practice, which is just making our penalty kill better,” Pearson said.

A big piece of the penalty kill people overlook is just winning the face-off, which can burn close to a quarter of the time if you manage to dump the puck out after initial possession. Pearson said that’s a factor his team needs to work on, not just on the penalty kill, but also on the man advantage — which is currently running at 22 per cent.

Similar to the penalty kill, the power play has also gotten better with time. The main issue near the beginning of the season was all five guys sticking to the perimeter and not getting any high-danger chances near the inside of the house. It’s a common habit on the power play but can be tweaked by switching out the net-front guy for someone who is willing to be around more of the hard areas and create a disturbance for the goalie and close-side defenceman.

Neepawa made the switch and hasn’t looked back.

“Once we changed out our net-front guy, we’ve seen our power play numbers rise,” he said. “Early on, it’s just finding the right chemistry with the right five guys so the guys trust each other and we trust them. Right now it’s led to them having some success on the power play.”

At even strength, the Titans scoring is spread out well. They have six players (Paquette, Wallis, Clark, Weisgarber, Keenan Skrupa, and team captain Cooper Kasprick) ranging from at least eight goals to 15. Paquette leads his club in scoring with 10 goals and 31 points, with Wallis not far behind with 30, while the other four range anywhere from 22 points to 26. Clark’s also been on fire as of late with eight goals in his last eight games and has gotten more comfortable as the season’s gone along, playing in more situations with elevated ice time.

While the top scorers have no doubt been getting their flowers, Pearson believes this team will only go as far as its depth takes it.

“That’s what we’re about. We’re a four-line team that is going to need production from all four lines,” Pearson said. “We need all these guys every single night doing their job, and that’s something they have all bought into. They all know what’s expected of them, and they’ve all done a very good job of making sure they give us their best effort for all the minutes they play.”

On the goaltending front, Alex Myers and Zach Burleigh have brought consistency to this Titans lineup from the very start. When the team was struggling defensively at the start of the season, they kept playing their game and kept them in games, so they’ve arguably been the most consistent players up until now.

In 13 appearances, Myers carries a 9-3-1 record to go along with a 2.98 goals against average and a .914 save percentage, while Burleigh has racked up eight wins and eight losses with a 2.62 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

There’s not much more to ask for, according to Pearson.

“They’ve given us a chance to win every night because of the way that they’ve played, and I think that they’re a good complement and a good tandem together,” he said. “They work well, they push each other in practice. They push each other when a guy gets a start, and when the other guy wants to get the net back, he works just as hard, so those two guys have been great for us.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com