Chipelski grows from adversity with Wolverines

Adam Chipelski’s season may have started late, but he’s certainly done his best to make up for lost time.

The 18-year-old defenceman in his second year with the Waywayseecappo Wolverines missed the first eight games of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League season after being sidelined with a foot injury, and since returning to the lineup in mid-October, he’s quickly reminded everyone on his team what they were missing.

Chipelski, a product of Foxwarren, may be one of the youngest players on his squad, but his play would prove otherwise. At five-foot-11 and 180 pounds, he’s a strong, agile and reliable two-way defender with an active stick that can also play the body when needed too. He’s been a key part in stabilizing Wayway’s top-four, and although he made it look easy, being thrown to the wolves after missing time is far from an easy task.

“It was obviously not easy,” said Chipelski of his return to the lineup. “Everybody was already eight games into the season and had adjusted to the pace and everything so the first couple shifts in that first game were just keep things simple and get a few bumps in and get my feet under me. After that, it was just about getting my mind back into the game and redialling everything back to normal so I can start getting more creative and take off.

“I made sure I kept my body in good shape and stayed in the game while I was injured, so that when I was back, it wasn’t as hard to readjust too.”

Chipelski broke his heel bone in his right foot in July, so he even though he was watching training camp and games from the stands at the start of the year, he couldn’t help but feel a bit less a part of the team not being in the room as much and battling with the guys out on the ice. What did make his missed time a bit more tolerable, though, is he wasn’t the only one. In fact, some had it far worse than he did.

Forwards Max Collyer — who won the Turnbull Cup with the Northern Manitoba Blizzard last season — and Rhett Perrin started the season healthy but then both missed more than two months due to injuries. Wolverines Captain Aidan Herring, who has 20 goals and 34 points in 29 games, also missed 16 games with a fractured thumb, while veterans Ben Roulette and Mikey Thomas were also sidelined for more than a handful of games.

The injury bug dragged Wayway down significantly and handed it just 12 wins in 32 games, barely holding onto the last post-season spot in the West Division — trailing the Dauphin Kings by 13 points, Neepawa Titans by nine points, and Virden Oil Capitals by seven points. Since the post-christmas break, however, the tides have shifted and the Wolverines have worked themselves back into contention for home-ice advantage with a healthy lineup.

“It was a struggle off the start with all the injuries we had and a lot of key guys out of the lineup, but I feel, now that we got everybody back we’re clicking,” Chipelski said. “We just started playing more as a team and using each other, being more team minded and less self-centred. It was tough to get everybody on the same page before, but I feel like now everybody’s starting to buy in to the team system and the team culture a lot better, so that obviously helps.

“Guys are gelling more, and if you’re not gelling off the ice, it’s hard to gel on the ice, so I feel like it took a while, but now everybody’s gelling more and good friends. So we just gotta keep winning games when it matters, and keep playing a full 60.”

Thanks to a reinvogarted energy, Wayway has gotten up to positive with a 21-20-4 record, and still sits in fourth place in its division, but is only behind Neepawa by one point and three within Dauphin. Virden is comfortably at the top 11 points ahead of any of its competition. The Wolverines had a chance to jump the Titans in the standings with a win at home over the Winnipeg Monarchs last night, but the game ended after deadline. Nonetheless, the gap between two to four in the West couldn’t be tighter.

Chipelski believes that should raise the urgency level with just over a month left to go before the playoffs begins.

“Nothing’s set in stone yet, and Swan (Valley) could technically still catch us too so we gotta keep winning games,” he said. “After Christmas things started to tighten up between in our division, and we defeinetly have a lot of motivation to catch them and put ourselves into second place, so we can have home ice advantage in that first series of playoffs. We’ll see how things play out, but that’s what we’re trying for and we’re gonna put everything we have out there to bring back a title for Wayway.”

And he will need to continue being a big piece of the puzzle on the backend if the Wolverines do.

Playing alongside 20-year-old Dylan Hebert, who Wayway acquired from the Warman Wolverines of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League at the trade deadline for a player development fee, Chipelski has notched one goal and 10 points in 32 contests. Hebert has also put up one goal and four points. The offence between the two may not jump off the page, but their chemistry does. The vet and the young gun play as a cohesive unit and sure don’t give up a whole lot in their own end which has paid dividends on the score sheet when it’s all said and done.

“We just click really well together,” said Chipelski. “Our play styles go together, both being two way defenders and just being a younger guy, getting the opportunity to play with a veteran in junior hockey is good because he’s obviously got more poise and a bit more confidence in all those tougher situations and stuff, so on the ice it’s great. Then off the ice, you can ask him questions and learn from the experiences he’s been through.”

Chipleski said he’s never felt more comfortable in the MJHL than now because of his confidence, which has seemed to grow tremendously from last season when he was still adapting to the jump from the U18 level. Where playing against bigger and stronger men up to four years older than him would have put him on edge last year, it’s appeared to heighten his game this season with a helping hand in Hebert, who’s given him more leeway to play creative and free.

The extra physicality and speed of the game is no longer an issue. In fact, that’s what’s helped him embrace his roots back on the farm in Foxwarren, where Chipelski fell in love with the game after watching his dad and uncles play senior hockey for the Foxwarren Falcons of the North Central Hockey League — a team that won seven consecutive championships from 2000 to 2007 with ex-pros like Pat Falloon and Craig Geekie.

“They had a pretty good legacy around the time I was born, Chipelski said. “It was fun to go watch them, and growing up on the farm kinda taught me how to be a hard worker, have determination, and resiliency because obviously farming is not an easy thing to do and just the lifestyle I grew up in helped me a lot to get me where I am today.

“It was always kind of a dream to play junior hockey and then maybe even go farther than that someday, so to be playing for my local MJ team is a dream.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com