Warriors endured a rough homestand weekend at home

Stratford forward Rhyse Brown battles with St. Marys defenceman Luke McMillan along the boards during the game at the Allman Arena on Feb. 8, 2026.

The Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors played a pivotal three-on-three homestand as they faced the Chatham Maroons, Waterloo Siskins and St. Marys Lincolns at the William Allman Memorial Arena.

As the Warriors prepared for the key slate of games, Max Wildfong, Quinn Kipfer and head coach Dave Williams spoke to the Times earlier in the week about the matchups.

“It's going to be a really good test. All three teams playing are of high quality. They're having a lot of success. You put in that we're playing all three back-to-back nights, this little added extra challenge in there,” Williams said.

“But I liked how we practiced this week. I thought our guys practiced with a lot of energy and focus and we seem to try to bring that to all three games this weekend.”

“We know it's going to be a long weekend, and just kind of take it game by game and make sure we're doing all the right things that we've been preaching all week of practice,” Kipfer said.

“We’re just gonna play hard, play our game and stick to our systems,” Wildfong said.

The Warriors kicked off the homestand against the visiting Maroons on Feb. 6. In front of the 870 fans who braved the cold weather to attend the game, they witnessed an equally chilling offensive performance from the visitors.

Chatham opened the scoring at 4:02 as the goal came off the glove of the Stratford starting netminder, Noah Bender. The Maroons struck again at 5:27 and increased their lead to 3-0 as the shot went between the pads of Bender at the 9:15 mark. Following the third goal, Bender was relieved from the game for Gage Hurst.

Things continued to spiral for the Warriors in the second period as Chatham added to their lead at 6:51. Evan Arnold’s eleventh of the season from McQuen Haylock just over a minute later put the home side on the board. Still, the Maroons responded with eight minutes remaining to put the game out of reach.

Chatham added a pair of goals at 2:45 and 9:33 to patten the lead and walk out of the Allman with the 7-1 win. Bender was credited with the loss as he allowed three goals in six shots in over nine minutes of play, while Hurst allowed four goals in 17 shots in relief.

After the game, Williams reflected on the tough loss.

“Oh, we definitely need to be a lot better than we were. I mean, when you get behind three nothing 10 minutes into the game against … an excellent team, it's a tough hole to climb out of,” Williams said.

“You can't have those situations where you're down that quickly to a team like that. Couldn't get away, back out of it. There were parts of the second period that I actually liked. I thought we found some o-zone time in the second period. But to a man, we need to be better.”

The Warriors continued their homestand on Feb. 7 against the Waterloo Siskins.

Cruz Ferguson opened the scoring for the Warriors from Haden Frayne and Will Coward midway through the first period to lead 1-0 through 20 minutes.

Wildfong scored his 18th of the season from Kipfer and Coen Galbraith to put the Warriors ahead 2-0 at 5:45. Waterloo responded with the late goal before the end of the middle frame to close the deficit to one heading into the third.

The Siskins would then tie the game midway through the third period and win the game 63 seconds into overtime to pick up an additional point. Stratford netminder Hurst picked up the loss with 19 saves out of 22 shots on goal.

Williams was not pleased with the team’s lack of scoring in a game that was in the cards.

“We got a point out of it. Still need to generate more offence. Still need longer, sustained periods of offence from all our groups. We're getting it from some and inconsistently from others, but we still need to find ways to create better scoring opportunities than we're having. I mean, we've got to score three to win. That always seems to be a bit of a standard thought in the game of hockey that you keep a team to two, you've got to score three, and we need to get some guys here scoring some goals,” Williams said.

“Guys need to be consistently generating offensive opportunities, and we're not doing that right now. On the other side of the pocket, we're struggling with some of our decisions. We're forcing pucks and I think playing a little bit uncharacteristic to the way we were playing when you know we were winning some hockey games. So we've got to look after, and we've got to fix it with the big game coming out tomorrow afternoon.”

On Feb. 8, the Warriors renewed their rivalry with the St. Marys Lincolns in a sunny winter late afternoon at the Allman Arena.

Galbraith got things started for the Warriors on a shorthanded breakaway goal, 11th of the season, in the mid-way mark of the first period. The Lincolns tied the game at one apiece with a last-minute goal.

Aaron Green’s eighth of the year put the Warriors back in the lead on the powerplay at the 1:46 mark of the second period from Kipfer and Colin Slattery. Stratford doubled their lead with 5:46 to go in the period as Grady Murphy tallied his seventh of the season from Coward and Galbraith.

But the Lincolns scored another late-period goal in the middle frame to cut the Warriors' lead to 3-2 heading into the third period. Stratford's defence and the goaltending play from Hurst kept the Lincolns in check in the final frame, and Murphy iced the game with an unassisted empty net goal in the dying seconds to preserve the win.

Hurst made 15 saves to pick up his 11th win of the season.

Following the game, Hurst and Frayne spoke to the Times about the weekend-salvaging win over the rivals.

“I think it was a really tough week. We came into the weekend taking things a little too lightly. It was unfortunate what happened on Friday night. Saturday, we just couldn't get her done in OT, and I think today the boys really just needed to win,” Hurst said.

“It was huge to get two points out of this weekend. Obviously, Friday and Saturday didn't go the way we wanted. It was a lack of just competing for 64 minutes (on Saturday), and I think we really brought it today. We just really wanted this game today, and did everything we could,” Frayne said.

Galbraith described how his breakaway goal was set up.

“It was a good way to get it started. I was just happy I got in the slot and was able to put on the ice, especially with the ability to control in the last second. I bobbled it but was able to get it back and try the net,” Galbraith said.

Williams praised the team’s performance and cited strong defensive play against the rival Lincolns.

“It was a nice effort here this afternoon by the guys. I thought we were good right from the get-go, and it'll put three good periods together. I thought both teams played a really solid game,” Williams said.

” I don't think either team gave the other side much room out there defensively. I thought both teams defended really well. And, you know, you had to battle for every inch out there.”

When asked about the goaltending decision for the game, Williams says it’s about giving Hurst the test to play against a top conference team in preparation for the playoffs.

“Nothing specific, (Hurst has) been playing well. So, I just thought we would give him the opportunity to play here this afternoon against St. Marys, and he played a solid game,” Williams said.

“Going into the playoffs, you've got to be able to have two guys who are capable of playing. On any given night, you've got to be able to flip and go to the other guy.”

The Warriors will host Pass-The-Bucket Night in support of the United Way as they play the Sarnia Legionnaires for the last time this season on Feb. 13 at the Allman Arena, followed by a trip to Elmira for the weekend evening matchup with the Sugar Kings on Feb. 15.