Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
It has been tough sledding since Christmas for the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers and they dropped a second game in two weeks to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s worst team.
Kindersley headed north for a pair of games against the last place La Ronge Ice Wolves last weekend. The Klippers lost by a score of 3-2 on Jan. 11, but the team rebounded with a 5-2 win in the second game on Jan. 12. The team is 3-2-1-0 since its holiday break.
The Klippers have only played two teams since the break. The team started with a home-and-home series against the Battlefords North Stars at the end of December, and then the team has played four games – two at home and two on the road – against La Ronge over the past two weekends.
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Despite the recent stretch of sub-par results, the team’s overall record of 25-10-3-2 puts the team in first place in the Global Ag Risk Solutions division and second place overall in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League with 55 points.
Kindersley is three points ahead of Battlefords in the division and three points ahead of the Melfort Mustangs, but three points behind the Nipawin Hawks for first place in the league. Kindersley’s next two games are against the North Stars, so they will be two of the team’s most important games so far.
The Klippers gave up two goals in the first six minutes of the 3-2 loss in La Ronge. A goal by Tate Page early in the third period closed the gap, but La Ronge scored shortly after and the shorthanded goal ended up being the dagger.
Kyle Bosch scored his 14th goal of the season to draw the team within a goal, but it was all the team could muster and La Ronge got the win despite being out shot 46 to 24. Goalie Zach Johnson stopped 21 of 24 shots in the loss on Friday night.
A four-goal second period on Saturday powered the team to its 5-2 win. The teams traded goals in the first period and La Ronge took a 2-1 lead early in the second period, but then the Klippers rallied with four straight goals to end the period. Neither team scored in the third period.
Ty Enns stepped up in the win with four points including two goals and two assists. Brett Neumeier, Tyler Traptow and Liam Fraser also lit the lamp for Kindersley. Goalie Justen Close stopped 37 of 39 shots to earn the win.
Coach Clayton Jardine, who spoke from Regina where he was attending the annual SJHL/MJHL showcase, said he was helping as an assistant coach for the showcase. Close, Enns, Traptow and Blake Kleiner were playing at the two-day showcase and Jardine said it is a great event to showcase the leagues’ top players to college scouts.
As for last weekend, he said the first game in La Ronge was a disappointing effort by most of the team’s players. He noted that he has seen a different team on the ice since Christmas, so he had to send a message to players on the Saturday morning.
The coach said he decided to sit a couple of players to help send his message, and they were players that have been in the line up every day when healthy. The healthy scratches did the trick and the team responded with a win.
“I think the message was loud and clear that it’s unacceptable how we’re playing, and we played well on Saturday night,” Jardine said, recognizing he wanted make it clear to players he will remove any of them from the line up if they are not playing up to the team’s standards.
The Klippers got five out of a possible eight points in four straight games against La Ronge, but it is a disappointing result against the last place Ice Wolves. Jardine said the guys played as if the wins were a foregone conclusion, and it hurt them.
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