Warriors stay near top of West while battling growing pains

In the 12 games after the team’s six straight wins to start the season, the Stratford Hunter Steel Ltd. Warriors find themselves having precisely half the points that were available to them.

Since Oct. 3, the Warriors have a 6-6-0 record, most recently including two wins and two losses to start the month of November.

The Warriors opened the month with a pair of interconference games, the first being on Nov. 1 against the Eastern Conference’s Brantford Titans, who only just climbed into eighth in the East as the Welland Junior Canadians find themselves in free-fall amidst an 11-game losing streak as of press time.

Seven different goal-scorers got on the board for the Warriors against Brantford, while Chase Furlong earned the win in goal, making 26 saves as Stratford downed the Titans 7-2. Dax Vader and Aaron Green each led the way with a goal and two assists, while Heath Bogart, Dracen Campbell and Cole Lewis all had two-point nights.

Their goal-scoring touch disappeared just 24 hours later, however, when the Warriors were stifled by Lennart Niesse in Cambridge, losing 2-1 despite outshooting the Redhawks 44-16. Quinn Kipfer scored the Warriors’ only goal.

According to head coach Dave Williams, the bench staff was pleased with the group’s effort despite the disappointing result.

“We played a really solid game,” Williams told the Times. “We maybe could have started a little bit better in the first but we were really good in the second and third periods. We just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. As a coaching staff, looking at how we played, I don’t think we were too upset, but it was just one of those nights where we played well enough to win, but didn’t get the result we wanted. We had our opportunities to score, but a big credit to Cambridge’s goalie who played really well.”

Back to facing their Western Conference rivals, the Warriors hosted the Listowel Cyclones on Nov. 8. Unfortunately for Stratford, the Cyclones got the early jump on the game, taking a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the contest. However, by the end of the first, the Warriors had clawed back and took a 2-1 lead into the first intermissions.

Colin Slattery and Hudson Binder scored Stratford’s goals, and in doing so, ended four- and five-game goal droughts respectively. 

Williams praised his squad for handling one of the most physically demanding games of their season.

“It was probably a heavier game than we’re used to. Listowel forced us to play a little bit more physical than we might typically play, but I thought we did a decent enough job handling that. As a group, we’ve been talking about being prepared to have to play a bit more physical at times and sacrificing physically to make the right play at the right time and the majority of our guys were prepared to do that.”

The two teams went end-to-end in the second frame, trading goals over a span of seven minutes and 26 seconds, resulting in a 4-3 Warriors lead going into the third. Lewis, who entered the game with just one goal in his previous five games, scored for Stratford in the second, along with Dax Vader, who enters the Warriors’ next game on Nov. 15 against the Komoka Kings with points in three of his last four outings.

“There was a lot of back-and-forth play,” Williams noted. “I think our guys deserve a lot of credit because every time Listowel scored and made it feel like they were crawling back and maybe about to take control, our guys were able to respond and give ourselves a bit of breathing room.”

The lone goal of the third period came from Rhyse Brown, who ended a goal slump that had lasted for the Minesing, Ont. native’s previous five games heading into the clash with Listowel.

Once again, however, as the Warriors hit the road on Nov. 12, they also hit a stumbling block in the form of the rapidly rising Chatham Maroons which, as of press time, lead the GOJHL in goals with 86 and also hold the distinction of being the first team to defeat the St. Marys Lincolns this season.

Despite the Maroons outshooting Stratford 20-12 in the opening period, Chase Furlong managed to keep the Warriors in the game as it went into intermission scoreless.

Chatham’s shot-clock advantage finally translated into goals when Ryan Vannettan scored the ice-breaker with just over two-and-a-half minutes left in the middle period. Brody Gillis put the Maroons ahead 2-0 midway through the third before Hunter Nagge scored to cut the lead in half, but the Warriors couldn’t find the game-tying goal, losing 2-1. 

Nagge’s goal came after a five-game stretch in which he found the back of the net just once. 

Furlong made 48 saves in the Warriors’ net.

The Warriors’ bench boss discussed the loss to Chatham and the group’s growing pains, specifically in the offensive zone, explaining they are in the midst of transferring the good habits being developed in practice into their games on a consistent basis.

“It was another case of struggling to generate offence. Since we last played Chatham, they’ve made some good acquisitions and they seem to be a much-improved team. We just struggled to find ways to get to the net and generate offence. I think we’ve seen it a few times. Whether it was against St. Marys (on Oct. 28), or Cambridge (on Nov. 2), or in this one against Chatham, I thought we played some decent hockey but we needed to be a bit more selfish in good areas.

“We want to have a little bit more grittiness in wanting to get around the blue ice and find pucks in tough areas where goals are scored,” Williams continued. “We look at our data to see where our five-on-five shots and tips coming from each game and we’re getting a bit too many from outside the faceoff circles and above the dots, so we need to challenge our guys to really push even more for those chances in the tougher areas.”

Despite having an up-and-down stretch since their red-hot start to the year, the Warriors remain near the top of the West, with Williams stating the team’s drive to get better has allowed them stay afloat despite their inconsistent results.

“Being a bit of a younger group, I think they really embrace that mindset of coming to the rink and competing and working hard for two hours every Monday and Wednesday night. I think they're really trying to do what we're asking them to do systematically. I think they are trying to implement how we want to play every night. It’s a great group to coach. They are very coachable. They’re working very hard at doing what we ask of them and it’s just a matter of translating what they’re doing in practice into the games.”