Warriors routed Sarnia and crowned Komoka to pick up their first wins of the season

The Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors travelled to Sarnia to face the lowly Legionnaires on Sept. 25 and hosted the Komoka Kings at the Allman Arena on Sept. 26.  

Stratford entered the game in Sarnia with a winless record through two games and ranked second lowest in the league with only four goals scored. On the final practice of the week on Sept. 24, Warriors Captain Haden Frayne told the Times he is confident that the team will be better and more efficient offensively.

"It's obviously not the best start we wanted, but I think we're doing a lot of things right," Frayne said.

"We have a good foundation to build off, and I think it's just a matter of time of putting the puck in the net. We have some great forwards, and we know it'll happen, and it'll come."

Frayne's words came to fruition in Sarnia as the Warriors bashed the Legionnaires for 52 shots en route to the 6-1 win, their first of the season. Quinn Kipfer led the Warriors with three points (one goal, two assists).

It was another night of firsts for the Warriors as Lucas Minard scored his first two career GOHL goals and Gage Hurst stopped 30 out of 31 Sarnia shots for his first career win in his first career game in the league. Jonas Schmidt, Aaron Green, and Colin Slattery scored the other goals for Stratford.

On Sept. 26, the Warriors defeated the Komoka Kings at the Allman Arena by the score of 5-3. For the second straight game, Minard led all Warriors goal scorers with two goals. Aaron Green, Jack McGurn and Dax Vader also scored a goal for Stratford.

Schmidt continued his point streak to start the season at all four games as he recorded a pair of assists. Rhyse Brown notched two assists as part of nine different Stratford players who tallied a point in the game. Connor Davis saved 14 of 17 shots to pick up his first win as a member of the Warriors.

After the game, Warriors head coach Dave Williams said he likes how the team responded this week, as well as the performances from both goaltenders.

"I think we took advantage of some of our opportunities. You know, I thought we were doing a better job of getting pucks towards the net. So, I think it's just a matter of putting more pucks towards the net and making sure we're getting more bodies there," Williams said.

"It wasn't probably the opening weekend we wanted to have as a group. I think for both those guys to each get into a game, each get a win, is hopefully good for their confidence. Because this league has so much parity in it that we're going to have to be solid and consistent as we can be from the crease out."

As of press time, the Warriors are ranked 17th out of 23 teams in the GOHL on the power play, with a 12.5 per cent success rate, but ranked 12th on the penalty kill, with a 78.9 per cent success rate.

Looking forward to next week's games against the Hamilton Kilty B's and the Fort Erie Meteors, Williams says the team needs to continue improving their game.

"It's just a matter of continuing to work on the things that we think are part of our identity, and again, a lot of times just being more consistent with very simple plays," Williams said.

"On top of that, obviously, I think we need to get more focus on special teams. The power play and the penalty kill need to be better. Hopefully it's just a little bit of sloppiness to start the season, and we can find a little structure and consistency with both groups."

On Sept. 29, the GOHL announced Minard was the Western Conference Player of the Week after his four-goal week. Minard is appreciative of the honour, but said that winning both games was important to him.

"It's definitely cool to get something like that. Anytime you can be recognized for anything is amazing," Minard said. "But the other day, it's we got our points in our two games. So, we got four points, and that's really what matters."

Hurst says the team gained confidence in winning the two games after the tough opening week.

"I think the first two games weren't ideal, but the boys stuck together and we got rewarded with our second two games there," Hurst said.

The Warriors play two inter-conference games this coming weekend. They will host the Hamilton Kilty B's at the Allman Arena on Oct. 3 and then travel to Fort Erie to face the Meteors on Oct. 4.