Warriors find different ways to win four straight

The Stratford Hunter Steel Ltd. Warriors have put themselves right back in the mix for the top spot in the Western Conference on the backs of a four-game winning streak.

On Nov. 15, the Warriors scored two goals in the first 64 seconds of the game before finishing with a 7-1 blowout victory over the Komoka Kings. Carter Petrie scored two goals and added an assist, while Hunter Nagge earned three helpers. Defenceman Aaron Green had a two-point night, which included a goal.

The story was very different just 48 hours later, however, when, for the second straight Sunday, the Warriors visited the Chatham Maroons who defeated Stratford 2-1 one week earlier. This time, the Warriors came away with a 2-1 victory in overtime. Nagge scored the game-winning goal in the extra frame, while Cole Lewis scored the Warriors’ lone regulation goal. Both goals came on a Stratford powerplay.

The Warriors finished with a heavy advantage on the shot clock, outshooting Chatham 65-38.

Head coach Dave Williams said he was pleased with the team’s commitment to a more difficult brand of hockey against the Maroons.

“It was a pretty gritty effort,” Williams told the Times. “When you’re playing teams twice within a week, the preparation for the group is always in place, and then it turns into a matter of having to execute and play with emotion. That’s where we were better (on Nov. 17) than we were in our first game in Chatham. We were more competitive and more willing to play physical style, knowing we had to against a team like Chatham.”

Williams added the win represents the way the team may have to win in the later stages of the season.

“It's always good when your group can win those types of games because that typically is what hockey tends to look like near the end of the season. If you’re fortunate enough to be playing anywhere near the final game, it gets tight and you need to find different ways to win games. I think it’s a really good confidence booster to be able to get that win, especially considering we didn’t win our first trip down there earlier this month.”

The Warriors returned home on Nov. 22 to host the Sarnia Legionnaires, and in the eyes of the bench boss, the game was a tale of two halves with the Warriors a bit sluggish to start before finding a groove in the second half of the game.

“Our last 30 minutes were much better than our first 30 minutes,” said Williams. “We just started playing with more pace. We think we're most effective as a group when we're really utilizing our speed and trying to get on top of teams to force them to turn pucks over. For whatever reason, I don’t think we were doing that as much as we would have liked in the first half of the game. But I think midway through the second, we started dictating the pace of play and playing to our identity.”

The Legionnaires took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, with Stratford’s only goal of the first 20 minutes coming from Aiden Wilson. In the second, Tyler Kelly scored his fourth of the season, which was followed by Lewis’ 13th of the year just 48 seconds later. Haden Frayne added a pair of goals and Dax Vader snapped a three-game goal drought with his sixth of the year en route to a 6-2 win.

One night later, the Warriors hit the road to visit the defensively stingy Rockets in Strathroy and, on the backs of an excellent first period, cruised to a 5-1 win. Five different goal-scorers got on the board for Stratford, including Vader, Hudson Binder, Quinn Kipfer, Jack McGurn and Zachary Schooley.

According to Williams, the team’s first 20 minutes was a template for how they want to start games.

“We got off to a good start and got two goals in the first period. It's always easier when you're playing from ahead rather than from playing from behind. I don’t think we were very happy with our start the night before against Sarnia. You typically have to play differently if you don't get off to a good start. I think those two goals early on gave us some confidence.

“We recognize that the group is always learning every time we come to the rink, whether it's for a game, a practice, or a video session,” continued Williams. “We're always trying to get better, but as much as we always want things to be perfect every night, we have to recognize that not every game is going to unfold exactly the way you want it to. But if we can start well like we did against Strathroy, it can go a long way in helping us win.”

Williams also mentioned the team’s need to stick to their system in order to maintain their recent success.

“A big piece of (building on our recent success) is getting the group to fully appreciate and understand the parity that exists in our conference. We can be a really good team if we play to our identity, but if we don't, we're going to be in for many tough nights. With how strong our conference is, winning hockey games is never an easy thing to do. The margin of error is pretty small for us on a lot of nights, so we have to play with good structure and use our speed to be effective consistently.”