Ice shoot down Bandits in Home Opener

Cold Lake Jr B Ice win over Lloydminster Bandits 5-0

“It’s a great way to start the season,” proclaims Head Coach of the Cold Lake Ice, Scott Hood. The Ice, unlike some other teams in the North East Alberta Junior B Hockey League (NEAJBHL), decided to forego the exhibition season and it appears to have worked out well for the squad with a big 5-0 win over the Lloydminister Bandits.

“We didn’t have any exhibition games, so this was a go-get at ‘er boys,” Jason Hamilton opened the scoring at 3:34 with an assist from Captain Curtis Witney. 21 year old Witney is in his third year with the club, Coach Hood calls him a great leader, “we have a good leadership core. We threw a couple of guys as assistant captains to throw that leadership core out and so guys can learn from each other.” Wearing A’s on their chests are Mackenzie Zarowny, Brae Howatt, and Guillaume St-Gelias.

The Ice kept the momentum going, in the first period, with an unassisted snipe from defenseman, Tristan Kean at 8:20. Captain Witney got another point in the first 20 at 16:34 with Jean-Guy Boisvert and Zarowny picking up the assists.

3-0 heading into the second, the Ice out in one goal at 10:33 from Alex Antal with the assist going to Witney. Antal would get another goal before the end of the game. With the help of Kean and Howatt at 10:44 in the third to close the game 5-0.

The Bandits are typically a tough team, explains Coach Hood, “after each win you gain a little bit of confidence. Lloyd’s going to be a good team, it’s early in season right now. The more wins you get early in the season, the better it’ll be; it only gets tougher as you move on.”So far we like what we see in the room, lots of positive stuff. It’s good for the young guys to see that.” 18 year old, Nathan Dancy, of Meadow Lake started for the Ice in net and recorded his first shout out with the club saving all 19 of the Bandits shots.

“It was the first game, so there are some kinks that we need to work out,” Coach Hood says the club will be working on perfecting their systems over this week’s practice. “We played well and I seen a lot of good things in the first game.”

Next week the Ice welcome the Vermilion Tigers to Imperial Oil Place at 8:00 pm – Enter now for a chance to WIN tickets on LCN.

After the Tigers the Ice will travel to St. Paul to take on rivals, the Canadiens, “they’re hosting Provincials, so they have to be good.” Coach Hood says he’s looking forward to the challenge, “Joe’s (Young) a competitive guy and he wants to put the best team on the ice as possible, so that’s going to be a good measuring stick for us. We’ll hopefully bring them our A game and all that they can handle – maybe a little bit more!”