Tyler Traptow of the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers turns to find a puck in the back of the after he tipped it past goaltender Rayce Ramsay of the Humboldt Broncos during a Klippers’ win by a score of 6-1 over the visiting division rival on Oct. 17 at the West Central Events Centre.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers are being recognized as one of the top teams in the nation after continuing to win during a strong start to their season.
The Klippers picked up a pair of wins at the West Central Events Centre (WCEC) this past week. The Klippers defeated the Humboldt Broncos on Oct. 17 by a score of 6-1 and the team won its game against the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Oct. 20 by a score of 4-3.
As of Monday, the team was tied for first place overall in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings with the Broncos, a Global Ag Risk Solutions division rival, but the Klippers have played two fewer games than the Broncos.
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The team has amassed 21 points after 14 games this season and the team has a 10-3-1 record heading into tonight’s game at the WCEC against the Battlefords North Stars, another division rival. The Klippers will host the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday in yet another game against a divisional opponent. The two games this week will end a string of six consecutive games at home, and the team is 3-0-1 in the first four games of the home stand.
The strong results of late have earned the Klippers a spot on the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s list of the top 20 ranked Junior A teams in the country. The Klippers are at 19 on the list this week after sitting at 20 last week.
Excellent team defence and strong goaltending have been the team’s calling card so far this season. The team has only allowed 32 goals against in its first 14 games and only the Nipawin Hawks have allowed fewer goals with 30 against. The next lowest goals against total is 41 by the Melfort Mustangs and Weyburn Red Wings.
The Klippers were struggling on the power play going into play last week and, in an interview last week, Coach Clayton Jardine said the team was focusing on its power play. The team’s work in practice really paid off.
The team scored four power play goals in only six opportunities versus the Broncos and the Klippers scored two more times on the power play in five opportunities versus the Ice Wolves last Saturday. In the two games, the team went 6-for-11 on the power play, a resounding success rate of nearly 55 per cent.
What’s more, the Klippers are dominating opponents. The team had 41 shots compared to only 20 shots by Humboldt last Wednesday, and the shots were 37-15 against La Ronge. The Humboldt game was a foregone conclusion, but the team had to battle against La Ronge.
Kindersley was down by a score of 3-1 after two periods against La Ronge, but the team scored three goals in a span of three minutes and 27 seconds to get up by a goal with about nine minutes left in the game.
The goal scorers against Humboldt were Cameron Shorrock and Tyler Traptow with two goals each, and Josh Fletcher and Austin Nault. The scorers against La Ronge were Nault, Nate Keeley and a pair of defencemen in Noah Turanski and Brandon Borbely. Kindersley’s own Kyle Bosch, who leads the team with 12 points, picked up three assists in the wins.
In an interview on Monday, Jardine said a loss to La Ronge would have been disappointing because the team was controlling the play throughout the game. He noted that his message to the team in the second intermission was one of encouragement.
“I told them just stay positive,” the coach said, recognizing the team had several chances to score in the first two periods including two open-net chances while La Ronge scored on its only good chances. “We had to stay positive, stick with it and it shows how much character we have in that room.”
Jardine said the tough games are the ones when the team is playing well and getting several chances, but not getting the bounces and scoring. It was a test of mental toughness and the guys showed their stripes, he said.
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