Slow start sets Wolverines back

There’s no questioning what the Waywayseecappo Wolverines have on their wish list for this Christmas season.

The Wolverines have been wishing to be healthy ever since the injury bug hit them at the season’s start, but the plague throughout their lineup has managed to get even more significant as the year’s gone on, now finding themselves limping into the two-week break — which couldn’t have come at a better time.

“We’re very resilient,” said Wayway second-year head coach Landyn Cochrane. “Any time a team’s missing this many forwards up front, you’ve got to grind it and capitalize when you can, which we have, and when we haven’t got the result, I think the effort’s been there and the will to win has been there.”

“I think the record is a little bit deceiving, but with that being said, we’d like to have a few more wins under our belt, but it’s a long season, and we’re just ready to really hammer down after the Christmas break.”

With just 12 wins in 32 games, the Wolverines find themselves in the last playoff spot in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s West Division with 26 points, trailing the Dauphin Kings (39 points), Neepawa Titans (35 points), and Virden Oil Capitals (33 points). But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

While injuries on any team are inevitable, the case seems to be amplified for Wayway, who have yet to dress their whole lineup this season — and have clearly paid for it.

Over the last eight weeks, the club has been without Onanole’s Max Collyer and Morden’s Rhett Perrin, two key forwards in the lineup who have been missed for their speed and offensive production.

Collyer, 19, helped the Northern Manitoba Blizzard to a Turnbull Cup title last season and has registered four goals and nine points this year for the Wolverines, who acquired him in the offseason for forward Connor Weber-McKay. Perrin, a former Portage Terrier and King, racked up 16 points in 25 games last year and had four goals and 10 points before getting hurt this season. Both have been cleared for contact when the team returns to action in January after the break.

Third-year player Mikey Thomas of Winnipeg also missed some time the last few weeks with a groin injury that’s been lingering throughout stretches of this season. Thomas, a six-foot-one, 190-pound forward, has nine goals and 14 points this year for Wayway and is known for his physical play down low on the forecheck, which creates plenty of chances off the change in possession. He is also expected to be back to 100 per cent after the holidays.

On the backend, Foxwarren’s Adam Chipelski missed the first 10 games of the year with a foot injury. The 17-year-old five-foot-11, 180-pound defender in his second season with the Wolverines is reliable in his own end with a strong and active stick and also pitches in here and there offensively. He has one goal and five points this season.

If those losses weren’t a big enough hit to the lineup, the Wolverines also took a bit of a beating in the leadership department too. Team captain Aidan Herring, who’s in his third season with Wayway and second in a leadership role, has missed half the season after being out 16 games with a fractured thumb. Herring returned to the fold a few games before the break and has notched almost a point per game pace so far with eight goals and 14 points.

Linemate and alternate captain Ben Roulette has been on the sidelines with him for a portion of the year too. The Rivers product, who returned to the MJHL this year after spending last season with the Minnesota Wilderness of the North American Hockey League, has had nagging issues with his shoulder and also received supplemental discipline with a three-game suspension following a major cross-checking penalty in Wayway’s 3-1 victory over the Selkirk Steelers at Waywayseecappo Arena Complex a few weeks back.

Despite missing a six-game stretch, Roulette still managed to tally 36 points in 26 games, not only becoming the second-highest scorer on his team — only behind linemate Sebastien Hicks (39) — but also placing top 10 in league scoring at ninth overall.

All the injuries throughout the lineup up front have no doubt impacted the Wolverines ability to find the back of the net, but Cochrane is confident that will no longer be an issue going into the second half of the season.

“I think once we kind of get everyone back in the lineup, I think there’ll be some good things happening,” he said. “We’ve battled a lot of adversity, so this second half is going to be huge. It’s going to be a lot of in-division games, so it’s going to be four-point games and playoff-type atmospheres, so every night’s a huge game for us, and it’s got to be defensive offence.

“It’s just getting back to our identity, and the guys in the room sure know that myself and the coaching staff know what we’re made of here.”

Cochrane and his squad most recently got a taste of the inner-division matchups during their last contest before the break on Saturday night, which ended in a 1-0 loss to Dauphin after Nicholas Zaharias’ lone goal in the third frame was enough to seal the deal at Credit Union Place. If the post-season began now, the two would also be preparing for a rematch from last year’s Round 1 series, where the Kings ousted the Wolverines in five games and then went on to lose in Game 7 of the championship following an overtime loss to the Blizzard.

While there’s still lots of time to make up ground, the third-place Oil Capitals have built up a seven-point cushion, so it will take everything for Wayway to get back in this thing and catch up. Cochrane still believes they can.

“It’s been a gruelling first half, but the division is still pretty wide open,” he said. “No one’s way ahead, and we still have half a season to go, so if we play to our identity, being a hard team to play against that plays fast and plays hard, we have a chance.

“It’s going to be every game of tracking back and limiting the other team’s time and space and just kind of building our MO of being hard to play against. That’s something we’re going to really push for is every game is huge, and every power play and every penalty kill is crucial. We’ve seen really good signs of that, but I think after Christmas, that’s going to be a huge priority.”

Wayway’s specialty teams currently rank fourth overall in the West Division, with its power play knocking at just over 22 per cent and its penalty kill just shy of 78 per cent. When key guys in the lineup have been out, it’s a hard ask for players who don’t usually play those specialty teams positions to step up and do so, which is why Cochrane’s group has found a lot of inconsistencies between their two units. Regardless, he knows excuses don’t find results.

“We can go 5-for-8 one game or 0-for-5, so we’re looking for a power play that’s going to be a little bit more predictable after Christmas here,” said Cochrane. “Even a little bit more just to gain momentum, doing the right things on the power play, whether we score or not, we want it to be beneficial for our whole club.

“As a coach, you always want your penalty kill up around that 85 per cent, which we’ve had at times, so I think that’s something we just have to get a little bit more urgency for, whether it’s winning the face-off to start the PK or just times when we can have a better stick and block shots.”

A game-changer for both of Wayway’s units has been the return of Manson’s Kurt Rookes, who serves as an alternate captain and also leads the defence corps. The blue-liner was drafted seventh overall by the Wolverines in the 2020 MJHL draft but missed the last few seasons after splitting time with the Western Hockey League’s Wenatchee Wild and Swift Current Broncos.

The 20-year-old is extremely shifty in the offensive zone with his speed and uses his high hockey IQ to set up his teammates from any area of the ice. He uses those skills to quarterback the power play while also presenting a defensive threat to opponents as well with his experience playing against bigger and faster players. He is third in team scoring with 29 points in 32 games.

As for the goaltending tandem, it seems both netminders have been trending in different directions throughout the duration of the year.

Rivers’ Jase Wareham took charge of the net early with a very strong start to the season for Wayway but has fallen off a bit in terms of consistent play for his club. The five-foot-11, 175-pound crease patroller has six wins in 17 appearances to go along with a 3.54 goals against average and a .892 save percentage.

Mariko Bercier from The Pas, on the other hand, in what was a bit of a slower start to the season, has kind of taken the reins between the pipes heading into the second half of the year with a 6-7-1 record and a 2.91 GAA and .910 save percentage.

Despite the duo’s numbers, a lot could also be said of the way the team’s played in front of them, which certainly hasn’t been to an optimal standard. Nonetheless, Cochrane has liked what he’s seen from both guys for the most part and believes they will only get better into the new year.

“We’ve been very happy with our goalies, and I think percentages are climbing up here as they kind of settle in, so our duo is something we’re proud of, and we have a lot of trust in both those guys.”

The Wolverines will return to action on Jan. 6, when they go on the road to face the Kings at Credit Union Place.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com