Hounds eager to drop the puck

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on November 13, 2020.

Medicine Hat Dyna Tech Hounds forward Callen Prosofsky fires a shot during a drill in his U18 AA hockey team's practice on Tuesday at the Kinplex. The Hounds open the South Central Alberta Hockey League tonight at the Kinplex against the Wheatland Chiefs. -- NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN

Editor’s note: The hockey hiatus will have to continue for the Medicine Hat Dyna Tech Hounds. Newly announced provincial guidelines have resulted in this weekend’s games against the Wheatland Chiefs being called off. No make-up dates have been scheduled at this time. 

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

An eight-month hockey hiatus ends tonight for the Medicine Hat Dyna Tech Hounds.

After having the season called off in the middle of the South Central Alberta Hockey League final, the local U18 AA squad will be back to defend their 2019 provincial title when they host the Wheatland Chiefs for the first of a four-game set tonight at the Kinplex.

“It’s a good test for us right out of the gate,” said Hounds head coach Kevin Riehl, adding the regular season’s four-game series schedule should make for some intense competition between battling clubs.

“I think it’s an idea that had to be done to keep everybody playing – every division, every league – to try and keep it as safe as possible with COVID now going around. It is going to be tough. I talked to the coaches from the other team, and even through our two exhibition games last week they were already quite impressed with both teams – the speed and the tempo, and we’re already going, ‘We’ve got four more of those.'”

The Hounds settled for a 3-1 loss and a 2-2 tie through that exhibition stretch. Returning forward Callen Prosofsky scored Medicine Hat’s lone goal in their loss on the road, and says he’s looking forward to starting the season against one of the league’s best.

“They’re a great, hardworking team,” Prosofsky said of the Chiefs. “Every game they come out and work hard so it’s definitely going to be a good battle. I’m looking forward to it.”

Riehl added that Wheatland’s reigning top scorer, Adam Kirkpatrick, parted ways with the team to play at the AAA level this season. It takes a 49-point producer out of the lineup, but Riehl says the Chiefs still bring a sizable challenge to the table.

“They’re going to be a very strong team this year. They’ve got quite a few returning players. I think they’ve got five returning defencemen,” said Riehl, who has one returning defenceman. “I think they’re a team that’s going to really be heavy on the forecheck and that’s what we’re going to have to try and weather.”

The Hounds will be icing a fairly young roster for the second year in a row due to a handful of veteran players opting to either play at a higher level or taking a year away from the game due to the pandemic. As a result, the team’s leadership group – which includes players like Prosofsky, Kaden Rath, Jase Fleury, Evan Gebhart and captain Vaughn Strutt – will be pivotal in establishing a place near the top of the standings through the series-based schedule.

“They’re young guys who joined our team last year and learned roles by the end of the year. Now we’re going to basically ask that group to take on bigger roles as the older guys, and to try and push this team forward again,” said Riehl. “We are again a younger group and they’re going to have to step up now and be the leaders on the team – and so far in exhibition they’ve been doing that.”

Strutt says he knows a lot of weight rests on his shoulders as the captain of a young squad, but the 17-year-old forward said he saw plenty of potential as he looked around the rink during Tuesday evening’s practice at the Kinplex.

“There’s definitely a lot of responsibility,” he said. “There are lots of new guys and not very many returning. It’s going to be different that way but there’s a lot of potential here.”

The Hounds also had to make some changes behind the bench when former head coach Randy Wong took on a position with the Medicine Hat Cubs in the off-season, but Riehl says the structure and systems remain largely the same. Riehl and Wong spent the past six years working together on the Hounds in a what was essentially a co-coaching situation, and Riehl says he expects that same level of co-ordination with newly added coach Jason Bartram – a former Cubs bench boss himself – and returning assistant Tyler Hodges.

“We changed name titles the second year and we’ve kind of always been a 50-50 group working together,” Riehl said of his relationship with Wong. “It’s going to be kind of the same thing this year with adding Jason Bartram to the mix. I think there are a few more things with being the head coach, where you do have to make a few more decisions when it comes to end-of-game scenarios, but the last few years Randy and I always had a good working agreement.”

That working relationship will likely continue, both on the Hounds’ bench and with the Cubs. The local junior B squad currently boasts several former Hounds on their 2020-21 Heritage Junior Hockey League roster and regularly call up U18 players for affiliate roles. While the pandemic will make call-ups far more difficult due to public health guidelines such as cohort restrictions, Riehl and Wong have both signalled a desire to keep that link strong moving forward.

“I think it’s going to continue way past this year. This year is a little difficult because, with the COVID rules put in place by every league, the (affiliate player) process has been changed,” said Riehl. “If we aren’t playing, we want our kids to go and play and help them out. I think we’ve always looked at the AA U18 program in previous years as a feeder system for moving on.”