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The Cold Lake Jr B Ice will welcome the Vermilion Tigers and rivals St. Paul Canadiens this weekend at Imperial Oil Place. Head Coach Scott Hood says he’s ready for the boys to show what a full 60 minutes of hard work looks like.
The Ice have a bad habit of working hard for the first 40 and falling apart in the final period, case in point was Wednesday’s game versus the Frog Lake T-Bird. The Ice had the game, 2-0 going into the third, explains Hood, “we were up going into the third and then we blow it.” The game went into extra time, where the T-bird took it to a shootout and won 4-3. “I think some of these guys, our veterans who are making mistakes, are getting too confident. Thinking we can come in and just win, like we did last year. But we can’t, we gotta come in and work hard the full sixty,” states the coach.
That game was there for the taking and we let it slip through our hands – Scott Hood Head Coach Cold Lake Jr B Ice
Killiam on November 14th was the same situation, says Hood, “we were up 3-1 in that one and Killiam walked away with a 5-3 win. We blown six games, that we should’ve won.” Hood says a lot of it falls on the player’s head, “mental lapses and player’s putting themselves in front of the team, that’s what it comes down to.”
We gotta work as a team – Scott Hood Head Coach Cold Lake Jr B Ice
The Ice stayed out of the box on Wednesday evening, says Hood, “if you can believe it! We haven’t taken a whole buncha penalties in the last four games.” Knock on wood, the Ice may have fixed a major issue they had in the first month, too much time spent contemplating bad behavior in the penalty box. The team had the most penalty minute racked up at the end of October, but seem to have gained some discipline in recent weeks.
Know it’s time for the team to work hard, says Hood, “I’ve said it over and over, there’s not all that skill there this year. We have to work hard. We put together spurts of it and it looks like we’ll be turning a corner, then we sit back and let the other team take it to us.”
On Friday, November 13th, the squad was able to do what little have, beat the number one team in the league, the Wainwright Bison. Hood says the club was forced to work hard after a few key injuries. “You go to Killiam the next night, thinking you’ve turned a corner, but nothing changes. We get ahead and everyone stops working.”
With nearly half the season behind them, Coach Hood is hoping the team is ready to work hard and shine in front of the home crowd this weekend. Vermilion is in town tonight and the Canadiens Saturday. Puck drops in both the games at 8:00 pm at Imperial Oil Place.
