Cubs finding success after slow start

By JAMES TUBB on October 26, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

After stumbling out of the gates to start the season, the Medicine Hat Cubs have found their way.

The Cubs started the HJHL season with four straight losses but have since rattled off five wins in their past six games to give them a record of 5-3-2, good for third in the Southern division. This weekend the Cubs tool a pair of road games, beating the Cochrane Generals 5-2 Saturday before an 8-2 win over the Strathmore Wheatland Kings on Sunday.

Head coach Randy Wong says the weekend is a good indication of where they want to be for the rest of the season as the roster gets comfortable.

“We brought in a lot of new guys again this year, I think we have 10-12 rookies on our team again, so it’s a young group,” Wong said. “But we always felt we were more skilled than last year’s group and we knew it was going to take some time for the rookies to fit in. We’re 10 games into the season now and that’s really a good indicator of where we’re at now. We can take this and go forward with it and continue to play the way we did this weekend.”

After trailing 1-0 through 20 minutes on Saturday the Cubs scored all five of their goals in the second frame. Connor Miller, Caleb Garrecht and Cooper Hilworth led the way with a goal and an assist each, and Connor Douglas and Colvin Unreiner also scored a goal each. Mark Peddle was in net for the win with 30 saves.

Sunday was all Cubs as they scored in every period and were led by a Hilworth hat trick. Kyle Woolridge had two goals and an assist, Levi Schlosser and Vaughn Strutt each had a goal and an assist and Colby Friedrich added a goal of his own. Kaiden Morin made 13 saves to secure the victory.

Wong says they’re OK with having the early growing pains in the season as the lineup starts to use their speed and no longer worry about who they are playing but just focus on playing the Cubs way and “trusting the process”. Having a week to practice before their only game of the weekend, Saturday night in Airdrie, Wong says they’ll continue to preach defence.

“The theme last week in practice was d-zone, d-zone and more d-zone, and they really took that into the games. That’s really how we build our program and how we build our practices,” Wong said. “We look at deficiencies in the games and we look to the week of practices to improve those and I thought that they did a good job with that.”

“Another back-to-work week, and even though it’s only the one game, it’s important to get those wins. There were a couple we maybe let slip by earlier in the year, it’s a chance to get two points on the road again and continue a run that will hopefully continue looking into the November schedule as well.”

He says it’s all a part of their process to let guys take their time getting comfortable and fitting into the lineup now so they are ready come the end of the year.

“We had to be patient with some and guys like Caleb Garrecht and Kyle Woolridge, they’re really coming into where we thought they would be and they didn’t show up in the first few games, but we saw little hints of it,” Wong said. “I think they’ve really solidified our top nine forwards by adding the skill that they have and that’s what gives us the depth that we have.”

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