NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat U13AA Hounds forward Teddy Maser redirects a shot on net in the third period of an 8-4 win Friday morning at the Hockey Hounds arena over the Foothills Bisons for a second-straight win to kick off the locally-held regionals.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat U13AA Hounds continued their path of success through the opening days of regionals.
After a 9-2 opening win Thursday over the East Kootenay Avalanche, the Hounds topped the Foothills Bisons 8-4 Friday morning. It’s pair of wins at the Hockey Hounds arena that extend the Hounds win streak from the regular season to 28-straight victories.
Ahead of their game later in the day Friday, against the Okotoks Oilers, the Hounds had outscored opponents 17-6 in their first two games. They’ve also taken a combined 46 penalty minutes, a lot to like and easy things to change head coach Tanner Barton says.
“We’ve been though a lot of adversity, we’re taking a ton of penalties but we’re not getting down on ourselves,” Barton said. “We’re just pushing through that.
“You’re not going to win many games taking 10 penalties per game, so that’s something we have to get down for the weekend.”
Beckam Sprunger led the Hounds in the first game Friday with a seven-point effort, tallying four goals and three assists. Teddy Maser had a pair of goals and two assists, Weston Haslbeck had a goal and two assists and Tyson Nguyen added a solo marker. Blade Schreiner made 16 saves.
Medicine Hat was without forward Raylan Johnson for the game Friday morning, he was the Hounds’ leading goal scorer with 54 goals and had the third-highest point total on the team with 101 in 34 regular season games. Barton says they’ve had players step up and help lead the way with the absence.
“Tyson Nguyen has played great for us, we’ve been doing that all year, we’ve had guys step up when needed,” Barton said.
The Hounds wrap up their round robin play on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest against the Wheatland Braves. They’re tied atop the seven teams in the regionals, with semifinals and finals set for Sunday.
The Hounds would play at either 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m., and if they continue the winning ways, following the four-stage plan they’ve followed all season, the regional finals would be Sunday at 6 p.m. Barton says as a group they have another gear to find if they want to play that last game of the weekend.
“It’s easy at this age where they’re thinking about Sunday,” Barton said. “But we still have a lot more work to do to get to Sunday.”
Hounds beat Okotoks
The Hounds continued their winning ways, beating the Okotoks Oilers 11-2 Friday night.
Haslbeck led the offence with five goals, adding an assist for good measures.
Diesel Bishop scored twice with three assists, Sprunger had a goal and two assists and Barit Bjelland added a tally.
Dawson Ressler made 24 saves.
The Hounds wrap up the regionals round robin on Saturday.
[…] Reference link […]