Brown joins exclusive club, Minard’s heroics salvaged Warriors' rough weekend

Stratford Warriors goalie Gage Hurst makes the save in the shootout against the Listowel Cyclones on Dec. 14.

It was a week for the Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors to forget as they had their winning streaks ended by St. Marys and London, but a shootout goal from Lucas Minard gave the Warriors a much-needed win over Listowel.

But if there was a notable highlight that deserved the positive attention from this week, it was from veteran forward Rhyse Brown.

Brown became the twentieth player in the history of the Warriors/Cullitons franchise to play 150 games on Dec. 14. One of the three remaining players from the 2023 Cherrey Cup Championship team still playing with the organization, Brown says he’s grateful to be part of the franchise.

“It feels great. I'm glad to have that milestone here in Stratford for my games here. I love this community. I love it here,” Brown said.

Team captain Haden Frayne and Jonas Schmidt praised Brown for their friendship and being a great presence with the team for the entire duration of their junior careers.

“I'm really happy for him. He's a really good friend of mine. We've been playing here together for four years, our fourth year together. It's cool watching him grow as a hockey player and as a friend. Him and I, we came really close together,” Frayne said.

“Rhyse is an awesome guy to have in the room. He's one of my close friends now. It's been really good to see him grow as a player and a person over the last couple years. I couldn't be happier for him to achieve that milestone, and I was really happy to be a part of it throughout his junior career,” Schmidt said.

Warriors head coach Dave Williams said Brown is an invaluable asset to the organization.

“He is excellent. He's been with us for four seasons, and he's a guy we can hopefully lean on as we get into the playoffs. You know him (Brown), Jonas (Schmidt), and (Haden) Frayne have all played on the team that went to the (2023) Sutherland Cup,” Williams said.

“So I think any time you have guys like that that have experience, be it that season or even the last two seasons, you know, going to the final two seasons ago in that seven-game series against Chatham, I think a guy like Rhyse can be a good calming influence on the group, because we're going to face some adversity and have some tough games. I think that it's guys like that that have been through it (that) can help the group push forward.”

First up for the Warriors was a road trip to the Pyramid Recreation Centre for their first “Battle of Highway 7” matchup of the season against the St. Marys Lincolns on Dec.11.

Alongside Williams, coach Chase Windsor shared his thoughts with the Times on the rivalry between the two franchises.

“I think both towns are very passionate about their junior hockey teams, which is excellent, right? We talk a lot about how privileged our group is to play in a community that looks so favorably upon the hockey club. And you know, lots of young kids come and see our guys play and aspire to be them someday,” Williams said.

“I mean geographically, when you're only 15 minutes apart, and you have two proud organizations with fan bases that are consistently following their team, I think it's going to be a great environment. Hopefully the weeknight doesn't take away from that, but I would anticipate that there should be a good crowd in there for our first trip to St Marys.”

“When I was growing up, they ran in the same conference, so I didn't see a whole lot. But last year we had a game where we came from behind, and I think we won in overtime with Hudson Binder scoring two goals late. So that was an exciting game. That was kind of my first real experience of the big rivalry and the exciting game,” Windsor said.

The visiting Warriors scored first when Evan Arnold scored his sixth of the season from McQuen Haylock and Dax Vader at the 9:34 mark of the first period. St. Marys responded with 4:49 left in the period to tie the game at 1-1. The Lincolns took the lead 96 seconds into the second period and kept piling on the lead with 53 seconds left in the middle frame.

After St. Marys extended their lead to 4-1 less than a minute into the third period, Stratford starting goaltender Noah Bender was relieved for Gage Hurst. Hurst kept the Warriors in a stable float by stopping all seven shots, and Max Wildfong scored his 13th of the season from Joseph Curtin and Will Coward with 3:41 remaining to cut the lead to 4-2. Despite the Warriors' offensive push, they ran into bad luck and ran out of time, as their season-long winning streak ended at nine games.

Bender allowed four goals in 18 shots and picked up the loss. Williams commented on the team’s performance at St. Marys.

“There were lots of the game that I liked. I think it's been like how we played the last little stretch here. I think our PP obviously needs to be more impactful in games like this, where things are the goals are a little tougher to come by against a good team, really good defending team, and I think the biggest thing for us is we need to get inside in the offense as well,” Williams said.

“We're playing too much outside the dots. We're generating some shots. We're not generating many second-shot opportunities. We're not making it tough on the goalie sometimes, you know. I thought there were too many pucks that he saw. That's an area that we need to continue to get better at.”

The Warriors returned home on Dec. 11, hoping to keep their unbeaten home streak alive against the London Nationals. The team, along with CJCS and the Kiwanis Club of Stratford, hosted its annual Christmas Basket fundraiser during the game to support local Stratford families in need.

London struck first just over a minute into the game, but Wildfong responded with his 14th goal of the season from Jonas Schmidt and Haden Frayne midway through the opening frame. Later in the period, the Warriors nearly took the lead, but Lucas Minard missed the open net.

The Nationals retook the lead for good 65 seconds into the second period and added another goal with 6:59 left in the middle frame for a 3-1 lead. London would add another pair of goals in the third period and won the game by the score of 5-1.

Postgame, Williams wasn’t pleased with the team’s lack of offensive scoring.

“I think we were hoping that things would go a little bit better tonight, after last night's tough game in St. Marys. You know, it's kind of tough when you fall behind on that first goal real early, and you're kind of chasing the game a little bit. I thought we still had moments in the game where we're doing some good things, and we still need to find ways to score goals. I mean, it's tough to win hockey games if you're only scoring, you know, a goal here, a couple goals there,” Williams said.

“I didn't think that we had some decent chances. I mean, we seem to be a little snake bitten around the net, and sometimes the timing of those goals can really influence the game. So, you're struggling to capitalize on some of those chances and still trailing, but it just feels like the game is that much harder. And, you know, you're kind of pressing, so I think we could have been better.”

Before the late-matinée contest against their regional rival, the Listowel Cyclones, on Dec. 14, the Warriors hosted their alumni game earlier in the afternoon.

The Cyclones got on the board first with the powerplay goal 5:54 into the first period. Listowel added another goal with 1:41 left in the period, but the Warriors responded with Schmidt’s 11th goal of the season, the 50th of his GOHL career, from Minard 43 seconds later to cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into the second period. With the goal, the Stratford native has recorded a point in nine of his last 13 games.

The score remained 2-1 for the first 19-plus minutes of the middle frame until Wildfong scored with 33.6 seconds left in the period from Dominic Marshall and Coen Galbraith. With the score remaining at 2-2 after the third period and overtime, the contest headed into a shootout where Minard scored the lone goal, and goaltender Gage Hurst stopped all three shots for the win.

When asked about the mental preparation for the shootout, Minard shared his thoughts about the process.

“Yeah, 100 per cent it's a little game of chess with the goalie. It's obviously way easier. I think for the player, at least, you can kind of go whatever speed you want, try to throw the goalie off. That's what I kind of try to do there, go slow and then speed up at the end,” Minard said.

“I think at the end of the day, you get comfortable with certain shoot trip shots or moves or whatever it is, so you just kind of stick to your old habits.”

Williams was happy the team fought through and pulled out the win in the shootout.

“I thought it was the type of game we thought we were going to see here this afternoon, they do a really good job defending and make it tough to get inside,” Williams said.

Williams also explained to the Times how the coaches prepared for the shootout.

“I think a lot of it goes into just everyday hockey, when you see guys shooting pucks, and whether it's game or practices, the toughest part for I think a lot of the guys going in to shoot is the ice is typically so bad by the time we get to the shootout already, so it can be a little bit challenging,” Williams said.

Stratford hosts the Elmira Sugar Kings at the Allman Arena on Dec. 19 and then travels to Strathroy to face the Rockets on Dec. 20 before the holiday break.