After two loses the previous weekend, the Hawks bounced back in winning fashion to collect four big points after sweeping both Stony Plain and Sherwood Park at home.

Points were put up by Jack Snider, Matthew Bennett, Gage Gorda and two goals were attributed to Justin Ferris during Friday’s 5-1 win against the Stony Plain Flyers on Friday at the Jubilee Recreation Centre. The Hawks quickly turned the game around after some power play trouble and being out shot in the first period — the they didn’t look back after that.

“The guys were ready to go tonight. All the guys came to the rink ready to play and we stayed positive throughout the whole game,” captain Ryan Thomas said after the Nov. 25 victory, “Everyone’s working really well together.”

Netminder Micah Bonneville made some major saves during initial power play kills and allowed the team to reestablish the pace of the game with five on five play.

“If we can stay out of the penalty box, we can compete with any team in this league. We’ve seen that throughout the season, we just haven’t put a consistent effort together but I think the confidence of staying out of the box really turned the game around tonight,” head coach John Parfett said on Nov. 25.

With three assists Noah Kieser is quickly getting the reputation of the ‘set-up guy.’

“Gorda was having a bit of trouble in the beginning of the year but with Kieser, he’s able to get out into the open areas and have someone to skate with him the whole way so that’s nice for him,” Thomas said about the duos’ speed.

Kieser also set up Ferris; “There was a good play by Darren (Tardiff) trying to keep it in even though it got stuck in his feet going along the wall for a bit, but he was able to get it down low to Kieser, who faked he was going behind the net and dished it out front and I got lucky,” Ferris recalled the goal.

The team’s top scorer added it’s nice to change lines up to reignite wins. Playing with Kieser and Tardiff is a big change in comparison to the start of the season when Ferris was paired with Tyson Davey, which resulted in great offensive chemistry.

“It’s nice to win at home again. Sometimes it’s nice to mix things up, especially when we’re not winning game like we have in the past few weeks, but definitely moving forward it’s nice to shake things up but other times it’s nice to stay with guys when things are clicking,” Ferris said.

Gorda noted not too many teams in the league have two top scoring lines so if they’re able to developed well before playoffs, the Hawks will be threat for the championships.

“We’re being a big modest but I think we’d be selling ourselves short if we didn’t think we could win the ring this year. So once we come back in the second half, that’s what we can do,” Gorda said.

Sherwood Park’s short bench put up a valiant effort on Sunday evening, pushing a 4-4 tie with less than four minutes remaining in the third period, but Gorda quickly extinguished their hopes with two quick goals to round out the 6-4 Hawks win.

The Hawks take to the highway this Friday for an away game against the Beaumont Chiefs. The Fort have been 0-2 against Beaumont so far this season and Beaumont is currently ranked second in the Capital Junior Hockey League. The captain hopes the bench’s energy will remain high in order to beat the Chief’s goalie and put pucks on net.

“If we come out firing, then we’ll be successful. They have their top line which they like to play every second shift, so if we key in on them and shut them down, then we’ll be fine,” Ferris said.

Racking up points in the next few games to make it easier on the Hawks after the Christmas break and will give them that momentum as teams press on the gas heading into playoffs, said Thomas. Staying injury-free and not pondering on the past will also be key for the Fort.

“As long as we dedicate ourselves and play for each other, we’ll can only go up for here. Whatever happened in the first half of the season, that’s just the way it goes. As long as we stay healthy, strong, and progress — and we take all that into playoffs — we’ll be fine,” Gorda forecasted.

Following two recent losses to the Strathcona Bruins and Beverly Warriors on Nov. 13 and 18 respectively, Hawks head coach John Parfett said they need to focus on penalties, disciplined shots and boosting their speed and defensive zone.

On Nov. 18, Justin Ferris got the game off to a good start with a power play goal about five minutes into the first.

“I think we caught them a little bit off guard,” Parfett said. “They weren’t really moving that well at the start of the period and we were forcing their defence pretty hard for the first half of the period.”

But they were not able to maintain that momentum, even after taking advantage of a stack of penalties the Warriors picked up in the second.

“They’re very quick on the puck and started forcing us a little harder on our end. We got on our heels a bit and got away from doing what made us successful up to that first half of the first period … We were turning it over and they were taking advantage of that.”

Warriors #88 Justin Haukenfrers emerged as a force to be reckoned with, scoring four out of five of the Warriors’ goals. Parfett said they noticed he had a strong shot in warmups but were not able to hold him back effectively.

“He’s a guy who you have to take the stick away from and we didn’t do a very good job of that,” he said.

The return of forward Gage Gorda helped the team create turnovers, but Parfett said he still had to adjust to the level of play after missing several games.

On the positive side, the coaches have been emphasizing reducing penalties and the team seems to have been doing a good job of that, racking up seven infractions against the Warriors compared to 17 in their Nov. 13 match against Strathcona.

“We couldn’t think of anything that was a bad, undisciplined penalty … it wasn’t a very chippy game either way but for the most part we were happy we weren’t taking the kinds of penalties we were in the last few games,” Parfett said.

They’ve also been focused on taking more disciplined shots and making better offensive decisions.

Parfett said the team needs to be faster on the ice to compete with teams like the Warriors.

“If we watch how they played the game they didn’t really do anything fancy … they get pucks in deep and pressure teams hard. That’s something we started off doing in the beginning of the year and we got away from that.”

The Hawks next face the Stony Plain Flyers on Nov. 25 and the Sherwood Park Knights on Nov. 27, both at home.

The Hawks have already beaten both teams once this season, but Parfett says that’s no reason to get complacent.

“If they’re going to beat us, they’re going to beat us because they’re going to outwork us. So we just need to make sure we focus on our game … and use our speed and aggression to create chances.”

The Hawks and Flyers face off on Nov. 25 at Jubilee Recreation Centre at 8 p.m.

Facing the Warriors on Nov. 18 here at home, the Hawks will have a more difficult challenge ahead due to the temporary loss of Tyson Davey and Matthew Bennett, who won’t be able to make the game due personal commitments. Parfett hopes star player Gage Gorda will return from an injury to help fill in the blanks.

“We haven’t played them yet, but from what I understand they’re a small, quick and skilled team,” Parfett said. “So we’re going to have to be at our best, playing at a higher tempo.”

The Hawks currently sit at third in the east division with 11 wins and five losses. Most recently, the Hawks saw a solid win against the Wetaskiwin Icemen on Nov. 11, persevering with a 5-3 win.

Parfett noted the team was keeping a close eye on Wetaskiwin as they made it to the league finals last year.

“We came in wanting to play on our toes more and set the pace of the game,” Parfett said. “Wetaskiwin tends to play a pretty aggressive style of hockey.”

To keep the Icemen on their toes, the Hawks responded in kind, playing an aggressive game and not shying away from physical play. That led to a chippy first period, with the Hawks racking up five penalties, with two interferences and three game misconducts.

“I think what hurt the game is when things escalated when Josh Sinatynski was hit,” Parfett said.

That led to fights at the end of the first, which took away some flow from the game and the Hawks momentum. But it ultimately hurt the Icemen more because they had a shorter bench, Parfett said.

With a 2-1 score going into the third, the Hawks fought hard and scored four goals to take it away.

Noah Kieser emerged as a leader amidst Gorda’s absence, scoring two goals in the third period.

“Noah had a great game, he’s been kind of leading the way due to some of our injuries … He can set the pace for us, and he’s been able to do that the last few games,” Parfett said. He added that Jesse Morrison also helped the team achieve victory with two strong goals.

On Nov. 13, the Hawks let their confidence get to them and ended up losing to the Strathcona Bruins 4-3.

“Our team wasn’t prepared to play, I think they took Strathcona lightly coming into the rink … I think they just didn’t prepare themselves to play and took Strathcona for granted,” Parfett said.

He said the Bruins have solid goaltending but are lower in the standings because of a lack of strong goal scorers.

The second period saw the Hawks bounce back with goals by Cory Mak and Matthew Bennett, but they also received a long list of penalties.

“In the second we came out more focused and were able to tie the game. But undisciplined play led to penalties at the end of that second period,” Parfett said. “All of that momentum we had gained we gave away. Strathcona came back in the third and played hard again.”

The coaches have been strongly emphasizing the need for more discipline as they prepare for their match against the Warriors.

They face off at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Nov. 18 at 8 p.m.

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Noyen Construction Hawks had a strong start in the first two periods of the game with goals from Tanner Melynk, Justin Ferris, and a pair of beauts from Josh Sinatynski, but penalties plagued the Hawks again as the Red Wings scored two of their four goals on power plays.

“Our first 40 minutes was unreal. We were all over them in five on five. We dominated them and pressured them hard. They couldn’t really do anything and were turning it over a lot but it was hard to keep that going in the third,” Hawks captain Ryan Thomas said, who also had a pair of assists in Friday’s game.

“If we could have stayed out of the box in the third, we definitely could have taken this game. At the end we started stumbling on our feet a little bit and started to take tired penalties,” he added.

With two goals and an assist, Sinatynski and his line mates were on fire, knowing they were fighting one of their top rivals; “For the past two years these guys knocked us out of playoffs so everyone was ready when they came to rink and we were all pumped up ready to go and were positive on the bench.”

While the team’s focus collapsed in the third, Sinatynski said everyone played their roles for most of the game but finding the win in overtime and then a shoot out scenario can be tough.

“It’s mostly about do or die. When you get into overtime or shoot outs, anything can happen, which it did because we had nine shooters,” he said.

Kieser was responsible for shutting down one of the league’s top scorers, Red Wing’s Mikey Mantello, which Thomas gave him high praise for.

“Going into the game, the guys told me he was very dangerous, especially when he gets in the puck in the offensive zone because it doesn’t take him very long to get anything off,” Kieser recalled,

“I was just staying right on him, not giving him any space to get the puck moving. I heard a lot of guys were trying to chirp at him and get in his head and it didn’t work so I gave him the silent treatment, I tried to stay close to him, and got in his head a little bit that way.”

It could have been much worse for the Hawks in the third but goaltender Micah Bonneville kept the team in the game. He fought off 37 shots up to the end of OT, in addition to seven of nine shoot out attempts.

“It was unreal how many shooters he faced tonight,” Thomas noted.

Kieser slotted in the lone shoot out goal for the Hawks, but it wasn’t enough.

“It felt good but it would have felt a lot better with a win because it’s just another goal for nothing basically,” Kieser said.

Head coach John Parfett commended the team for playing on their toes and not on their heels for the first two periods and highlighting contributions by Melynk, Sinatynski and Bonneville, and named Kieser the top player of the game because of his success in taking care of the treat of Mantello.

“We were dominating the Red Wings and didn’t give life up to the end of the second period when they had the five on three power play. Their power play got them back into the game,” Parfett said.

“Tanner Melynk keeps getting strong and keeps improving with every game. Josh Sinatynski is working hard player and he’s been that kind of player ever since I’ve had the opportunity to coach him. He comes to play and he works hard and it’s nice to see him being rewarded.”

The Hawks faced the Edmonton Royals at Confederation on Sunday evening. The Hawks bounced back and took a 6-4 win against the Royals.

The Junior B team’s next battle will be against the Wetaskiwin Icemen at home at the JRC on Friday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. The Icemen took a 4-2 win over the Hawks in early October when the two teams met for the first time this season. In order to get a win, the Hawks will focus on the basics and try to get their penalties under control. Thomas would also like to see players communicate more on the ice and make sure everyone knows their roles and where they need to be to set up the plays.

“If we stay five on five, we should be fine and just put pucks on the net,” Thomas said.

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks fell 6-2 to the St. Albert Merchants at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Oct. 28. The Merchants capitalized on their power play chances, netting four of their six goals on the PP.

“They just had a quick power play and they move the puck really well so it was hard to set up anything,” Hawks captain Ryan Thomas said, adding the team was missing Gage Gorda and Alex Nisbet due to injury, “We’re a bit low on guys so it’s hard to play a full 60 minutes and then turn it around on that. We were getting so many penalties and were getting tired and it just went down hill from there.”

He noted they couldn’t beat St. Albert’s goalie, he was in the right spots at the right times. There were also too many break downs in the Hawks end of the rink, which wasn’t helped when they had to fight off nine two-minute penalties in the second period. In a rare event, the Hawks pulled starting goalie Micah Bonneville after the fifth goal and switched in Karter Anderson in the second, a period which saw a total of four goals slotted in by the Merchants.

“Micah was having a good game but we kind of left him out to dry,” noted the captain, “It was the whole team’s effort, not just our defense. We had a shut down in the second, when we should have come out harder once we were scored on. The biggest thing is to get our mind set changed, to get the guys to wake up a bit.”

That snooze alarm finally went off for the Fort late in the third period, with two goals from Tyson Davey (assisted by Justin Ferris and Dylan Dorval) and Ferris (aided by Tyler Dorval and Davey) — but it was a little too late.

“It’s really about making the smart plays earlier in the game. We made a lot of sloppy plays, we tried to play fancy a little bit and we just couldn’t clean it up — and we need to change that. They had four power play goals tonight and if they hadn’t, that would have been a 2-2 game,” Ferris said, “We tired to us our speed but we just couldn’t get around them but we had a good third period and kind of turned it around. We out shot them in the third and dominated them but you need to play a full 60 to win a game.”

The power play trouble was like déjà vu of the game against Beaumont last week, noted Hawks head coach John Parfett. He wanted to see the team be more aggressive on their PK and stay in their lanes and challenge the opposition; “When we got on our heels in this game it just spiralled into penalties. We’ll try to focus on that going forward but there are not many positives that you can take out of the game other than the way that they responded in the third, which I thought was good.”

Bench motivation and awareness is something Thomas will work to improve in coming games; “The biggest thing is being loud on the bench. If something big happens on the ice, we can’t just be there watching. It’s good to be loud, be vocal, and get the guys focused on the game even if they haven’t had a shift for a while.”

That focus seems to have returned during Tuesday night’s game as the team took a 5-4 win over the Sherwood Park Knights. Noah Kieser saw a hat trick and Mason Younger and Ferris also contributed to the score sheet. The team was leading 5-1 in the second but the Knights rallied back in the third to make it a nail bitter.

The captain will expect his bench to stay out of the sin bin in order to be successful against the visiting Edmonton Red Wings on Friday.

“We just have to stay disciplined. We can play five on five with almost any time in the league,” Thomas said, “If we can stay out of the box and play to our strengths, we should be good. We’ll just play Hawks hockey, that’s it.”

Parfett agreed; “It’s going to be a huge test. We can’t take penalties. They’re a well-coached team and they’ll have set plays, which they will execute very well... We also have to get back to play our game, they way we did in the third period against St. Albert then I think we’d have a good chance at winning. We’ll have to be up for it and be smart.”

Puck drop against the Red Wings on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. at the JRC. The Hawks will also play against the Edmonton Royals on Sunday night at Confederation Arena. 

“It’s great to be on a roll. The guys have been putting the work in to get us in a good position in the standings,” Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Hawks captain Ryan Thomas said. “Every win matters when we get closer to the end of the year.”

Goals were seen from Daryl Stranger (assisted by Tyler Dorval and Dylan Dorval), Thomas (assisted by Jesse Morrison and Matthew Bennett), Dylan Dorval (assisted by Mason Younger and Tyler Dorval), and Jack Snider clinched the win on an empty net in the third.

“We had contributions from everyone on the roster and that’s added up over the games to help us be successful,” said forward Gage Gorda.

Friday’s win was a combination of three factors, according to Hawks coach John Parfett: strong goaltending, developing defense, and offensive depth. Ranked one of the top four goalies currently in the CJHL, Micah Bonneville has a 2.62 goal against average with a save percentage of  0.90.

“Micah has been continuously strong for us this year. He’s having a great season. Whenever we’ve had difficulty with our top line putting the puck in the net, he’s kept us in some games long enough to start scoring,” Parfett said. “If you can have less than three goals a game, that’s doing very well.”

Defenseman Tanner Melnyk is also coming into his own and getting more ice time and Mason Younger has been the Hawks’ go-to D. Brandon Clark, who has had a solid season so far as a defenseman was missing from Friday’s bench due to a shoulder injury and Cole McIssac was just finding his feet again after coming back from a few games missed due to injury.

“It just emphasizes the need to have depth in defense because if you go through injuries and suspensions, you find yourself short. We’ve definitely experienced that the past few playoff years but we’re seeing that now at the beginning of the year so overall our overall defense has been really good and they limited Morinville’s chances,” Parfett explained.

Seeing top scorers such as Tyson Davey and Justin Ferris denied on the scoresheet against the Jets, Stranger and Dylan Dorval became one of the team’s strongest lines and were key scoring supports. 

“We really liked what we saw with the Dorval-Stranger line. It’s the first time we’ve had them together for a full game. They provide a lot of energy and they’re the kind of line who can go out there and set the pace for a game. They’re hard on the fore check, they’re quick and they do get the puck on the net. In a five-on-five, they’re a pretty solid line for us,” Parfett said.

Gorda said Dorval has come a long way since last year and  he adds further depth to their already heavy front which most teams aren’t lucky enough to have.

“Dorval is a great kid. It’s nice seeing him get more comfortable as we go. It makes you happy to see good things happen to good people,” Gorda said.

Davey was not able to generate goals  because the Jet’s defense threw off his game by limiting his time and space with checks, according to the coach, however Gorda noted that offered the opportunity for other players to step up.

“It’s great to see other guys contribute. Sometimes the other lines don’t get on the score sheet as often so to win without the normal scorers makes them feel good. It also makes our job easier. It takes a bit of pressure off knowing you have a team so deep with talent and that games can be won without the top line,” he noted.

Thomas is encouraged from what he’s seen from his line mates.

“For my goal, both Bennett and Morrison had a good forecheck making the defence fumble the puck and Jesse gave me a good pass in the slot. Both are hard working players and are fitting in very well with the guys,” the captain recalled. “The team has really come together as brothers.”

Injuries, sickness, and overall ‘very sloppy’ plays and penalties plagued the Hawks on Tuesday night’s away game against Beaumont. The Fort fell 5-2. Gorda, Clarke, Cole McIssac were missing, out on injury, Vermillion played with an injured hand, and Davey and Tardif played sick.

“We will be addressing the penalties at practice and focusing on making better decisions with the puck as we prepare for St. Albert on Friday,” Parfett said.

The Junior B team will get a real feel of where they rank in the CJHL as they’ll next face some of the top ranking teams in the league: St. Albert, Sherwood Park, North Edmonton Red Wings, and Edmonton Royals. At home this weekend, the Hawks will see the Merchants in the Jubilee Recreation Centre. This is the first time since exhibition the two teams have seen each other.

“They had good goaltending and a couple of threats up front. They’re a quick, hard working team.. but the last game we played against them, we out worked them,” Parfett said about St. Albert.

“They’re at the top of the other division with the Red Wings so I expect that we’ll have to play a very good game in order to beat them. I do think they’re a team we can play with but we have to be ready to match their aggression and speed and be able to solve their goaltending,” Parfett said.

The puck drops against St. Albert on Friday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. at the JRC

The Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Hawks dominated over the Leduc Riggers with a 7-1 win at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Forward Tyson Davey was the star of the night, slotting in four goals with various assists from Mason Younger, Justin Ferris, and Matthew Bennett.

A player of action, rather than words, Davey was humble following the team’s post-game celebration announcing him as MVP.

“I have to give a lot of credit to my line mates. The guys set me up pretty well out there,” Davey said. 

“We all have speed, we all have good hands and can shoot. Everything seems to be going right,” he said, adding new line mate Bennett is improving with every game.

Forward Gage Gorda noted Davey’s setting himself up as a player to watch this season; “He’s looking good. He’s a skilled player. After he’s getting comfortable in the league, he’s something special for sure and that’s great to see. You’re just happy for teammates when they’re doing well.”

Josh Sinatynski started the scoring free-fall for the flock (assisted by Gorda). That was followed by a goal claimed by Noah Kieser (assisted by Jack Snider) and captain Ryan Thomas (assisted by Neil Vermillion).

“First period was huge, we had to keep it going in the second,” Davey noted.

The Hawks’ Twitter account was giving a good ribbing to the Riggers as well; “Hawks goal! (Thomas) is left all alone in front, grabs a coffee, checks email, (and) buries the puck.”

Joining the Fort’s nest after transferring from Junior A, centreman Kieser found his first Hawks goal on Tuesday. He’s been placed on another developing top offensive line along side with Gorda and Sinatynski. The trio’s speed and talent will deepen the Hawk’s offense this season.

“It felt good. I wanted to get one in my first game (last weekend) but finally got it today,” Kieser said of his first Fort goal, following the home game.

Even though he’s already friends with Keiser since they both hail from Sherwood Park, Gorda said they’ve never played together so they’re still making adjustments and getting comfortable on the ice.

“Sometimes I’m peeling away with the puck and I look back and he’s already caught up... I’m not used to working with a guy that fast,” Gorda commented.

“Speed is good in this league, especially against Leduc’s D, who are not the fastest, speed can kill.”

Feeling protective over his new squad, Keiser was kicked out of the game following a fight in the third. He also received a one game suspension; “Number 13 (Donoven Quintin) was going at a lot of guys’ heads the whole game and he was being a bit cheap. We were all trying to get at him and I finally had the chance to and I just thought I had to do it.”

The win marks the fourth consecutive win for the Hawks and they’re not looking to ease off on the pedal anytime soon.

“We gotta keep the streak going,” Davey said.

Gorda noted the team can’t get cocky and must be present on the bench and ice every game in order to continue their winning momentum.

“Our team has enough tools in the shed to put teams away if we come and show up, but that being said, we do have to show up every single game and hopefully we’ve learned that lesson early,” he said.

The Hawks are at home again this weekend on Friday, Oct. 21 against the Morinville Jets. Gorda predicts a physical game.

“We’ll just have to hit them, stay with them, and use our speed. Many teams can either hit or be quick, but they usually don’t have both, so we like to hit, bump and grind, and show our speed,” Gorda said.

The puck will drop at the JRC at 8 p.m. on Friday. The team then hits the road on Oct. 25 to face the Beaumont Chiefs.

The Junior B Hawks had two more reasons to be thankful as they found themselves back in the win column twice in back to back games.

Getting back to their style and level of play, the Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Hawks captured a 5-1 win over the Spruce Grove Regals at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Friday, Oct. 7 and followed that up with a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Mustangs in an away game on Sunday, Oct. 9.

“We were being a little bit more aggressive and playing a little bit more physically. We had to be playing to our strengths, use our speed, and make sure we’re putting pressure on the other team’s defense. Those are all things we’re focusing on,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said.

He noted the Regals capitalized only once on a turn over by their blue line in the third period, but for the most part, the Hawks worked harder, maintained their lead, and limited Spruce Grove’s scoring chances.

Josh Sinatynski was the star of the night with two goals to his name (one of which was on a short handed breakaway), Gage Gorda had a goal to his name, a power play goal was claimed by Justin Ferris, and Tyson Davey finished the Regals off with another short handed goal.

Hawks captain Ryan Thomas said the whole team showed up to the rink ready to play on Friday. He saw the bench capitalizing in their opportunities while shutting down the Regals’ defence.

“Everyone was focused on strengths and we kept the pace of the game high and the momentum in our favour. We forced the other team to try to play at our level rather than us dropping down to their level,” Thomas commented.

Kicking off Sunday’s game, rookie Matthew Bennett found his first goal as a Hawk and further impressed fans with a hat trick by the end of the second period. Looking to create a well-balanced and deeper offense, Parfett split up the Tyson Davey-Gorda-Ferris line up and injected Bennett to the Davey and Ferris.

“He just clicked with them too,” Parfett noted.

Highlighting his speed and fast hands, Thomas said Bennett is fitting nicely into the Fort’s nest. Seeing him mentored by  the very skilled and talented forwards Davey and Ferris, Thomas forecasts adding Bennett to their line up will generate even  more chances on net.

“It took him a few games to gain some confidence but you can see the potential he has to be a leader in his league,” Thomas said.

Dylan Dorval also contributed a goal and Davey claimed a pair against Edmonton. Thomas added starting goalie Micah Bonneville was strong between the pipes in both games over the weekend.

Parfett noted the team got away from the basics against the Mustangs early in the game and slacked off once Edmonton took an early goal but they rallied back and dumped more shots on net and found the win.

“The Mustangs had us for the first period, scoring three goals on us so we had a discussion during the first and second period and got the team playing back to playing our kind of Hawks hockey,” he recalled.

The Hawks will hit the road to visit Glenn Hall this Friday, Oct. 14 as they face off against the Stony Plain Flyers. The Flyers had two top scoring forwards age out of the league last year but they will be strong defensively with both of the goaltenders boosting good goals-against averages, so having not played the Flyers yet this season, Parfett is not sure what Stony Plain will have in store.

“We’re expected them to be a tough team to play and probably a more balanced team,” Parfett noted, “We’re going to just build off on what we did this weekend and keep trying to play solid and aggressive hockey.”

Their next home game will them against the Leduc Riggers at the JRC on Tuesday, Oct.18.

A Royal and rude awakening.

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Noyen Construction Hawks were thumped 6-2 by the Edmonton Royals at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Sept. 30.

The snooze button was pressed as Fort Saskatchewan let Edmonton get an early 3-0 lead in the first. The team did claw back two goals, potted in by Gage Gorda (assisted by Justin Ferris and Tyson Davey) and Josh Sinatynski (assisted by Dylan Dorval and Mason Younger), but the damage was already done.

“Everyone was kind of all over the place,” Hawks captain Ryan Thomas said following the loss. 

“We didn’t really come out ready to play. We need to be able to play a full 60 minutes. They’re a good, hard working team and they can put pucks in the net. We need to stay on their top scorers and try to shut them down as best as we can,” he added.

At times, goalie Micah Bonneville was left to his own defenses, as the Hawks’ D scrambled after the puck. Thomas agreed defense was not playing their roles and players were not focused and he would like to see his bench to be more aware of their fellow linesmen on the ice.

“We definitely hung (Bonneville) out a few times to dry and we need to bare down and stop running around in our own end. That happened a lot. We were misplacing  guys and then the Royals would sneak in and take the back door. So it’s hard to catch someone when they’re in behind us,” Thomas explained.

Defenseman Brandon Clark expects the team to strengthen penalty kill systems and break outs during practices but this early into the season, it’s just about learning how each other plays.

It wasn’t that the Fort was not generating pucks on net during the Oct. 1 game. Hawks finished with 38 shots on net, versus Edmonton’s 34. 

Thomas said the team just were not seeing the right bounces and offense were getting too fancy, making an abundance of passes before making a play.

Top offenseman Gorda said the Hawks gave the Royals too much respect and gave Edmonton the space to do their thing, forcing the Hawks to play on their heels.

 Even with the Royal’s top scorers Mik Mykietyshyn and Chad Coulombe aging out of the league last year,  Gorda said those offensive roles have already been filled with Chad McCann and Brendan Klutke.

“Today obviously we didn’t bring our best. Our team motto is about being a team that’s hard to play against, and for at least three quarters of that game, we were not hard to play against,” Gorda said,

“We started off slow and it’s hard to battle back... when you get down like that against a good team like that, you’re only digging yourself a hole... and sometimes it’s too deep to climb out of or it’s too late to climb out of.”

He recalled wanting to protect some pride when Edmonton led 5-0.

 “We just tried to keep everyone positive, get everyone on the same page, get some momentum going. Shift by shift, you gotta get it deep, it’s about the little things, right? And hopefully you’ll get some puck luck,” Gorda noted.

The Hawks endured another loss on the road on Sunday as played the Icemen with 4-2 in Wetaskiwin’s favour. The defeat marks a three game losing streak for the Fort.

The Hawks will see the Spruce Grove Regals at home at the JRC this Friday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. 

“We had some unlucky bounces at the start and then we got behind the eight ball. We tried to make some simple plays but got into some penalty trouble. There was some frustration on the bench but we tried to put it back together but it was a little too late,” Clark said. 

“We just have to keep laying in on the bodies and make them pay for having the puck.”

The Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Junior B Hawks saw a split weekend after taking a win on the road but suffering a shoot out loss against Beaumont at home. 

“We had chances and when you leave it up to a shoot out, that’s never the best way to decide a game — but that was our fate tonight,” head coach John Parfett said following Sunday’s 4-3 loss.

Generating shots on net was not the problem, with shots on net at 42-27, but there were multiple missed opportunities, such as the disallowed goal, or Ryan Thomas’ shot that hit the post, or Tyson Davey’s shot that ran out of steam right on the blue line behind the Chiefs’ goalie.

“We had a slow start on Friday so we tried to fix that today. Just looking at the shots, we almost doubled them. It wasn’t that we weren’t playing well, we just couldn’t get the bounces, but I felt like our energy was up, so that was good. Their goalie played well and we’ll give that to him,” assistant captain Gage Gorda said on Sunday.

Parfett noted the disallowed goal, which was null and void because the net was off, would have been a big turning point in the game because it would have made it 4-2 at the end of the second. However, he was content with how the Fort bench fought and set the pace for most of the game. Both Justin Ferris and Davey agreed the main lesson from the Sept. 25 game is not letting up in the third and to not run out of gas when it matters most.

“We have to be able to play a full 60 minutes. We came in and played a solid 40 minutes, but in the last 20 minutes we let them back into the game and we were on their heels a little bit. We just need to keep pushing and we’ll come out with the W,” Ferris said.

All of the goals and assists were created by an evolving power trio: Justin Ferris, Gage Gorda, and Davey. Ferris found flight early in the first with an assist from Gorda, the second goal was owned by Gorda (assisted by Davey and Ferris), and Davey took the third goal two minutes later in the second period  (assisted by the pair).

Ferris and Davey found chemistry last season, especially during playoffs, however Gorda is a new addition to the line as he played with the now retired Morin twins. Parfett said he tried them all together on the same line half way through Friday’s game and was happy with what he saw and hopes to replicate that offensive threat on other lines. 

“Tyson, Gage, and Justin’s line had opportunities all night. They were really on the puck and supporting each other really well. They created offense the whole game. They had chances but pucks just weren’t going in for them. Tyson even had the penalty shot in overtime and couldn’t put the puck in the net,” the coach said.

Building off his partnership with Ferris, Davey noted the three are similar players who like to command the puck and things just clicked this year with Gorda added to the mix. He hopes that chemistry will continue to develop as the season wears on. Ferris said Gorda has been a key player in the league for three years and Davey proved himself last year.

“It’s nice to play with those kinds of guys who have vision. It’s tough for teams to defend against our speed because when we come down on them, we’re three pretty quick guys with good visibility. We don’t play a very physical game but we do get the job done,” Ferris said.

Gorda also hopes the trio will remain unaltered; “It’s been nice. We’ve been doing good so far and hopefully we keep together and help out the boys as much as we can,” he said, “We all play similar games and we expect each other to be in certain spots and they are.”

The weekend was not a complete lost as they saw a 5-4 win on the road against Leduc on Sept. 23. After coming out flat in the first two periods, falling behind 4-2, the coaches gave the team a pep talk — reminding them of their reputation in the CJHL and how they’ve played in order to be successful; “We told them we’re not going to be a cute, three pass back door goal kind of team. We have to work hard, get pucks on the net, and use our speed and our size.”

They ended up coming back in the third We ended up coming away with the win. Following up on Brandon Clark’s goal in the first period and another by Tyler Dorval in the second, the Hawks rallied and took the win after goals from Ferris (assisted by Gorda and Mason Younger), Davey (on the power play with help from Ferris and Younger), and Cole McIssac (on the PP again, assisted by Snider and Ferris).

“In the third period, we regrouped and thought these guys are not just going to give it to us. Shift by shift, we pounded away and came away with the win. Especially with a division win, those points are important because those games are a lot harder to get later down the road,” Gorda noted.

Having half the team comprised of rookies this season, each newbie is showing their worth. Forward Darren Tardiff and defenseman Tanner Melnyk stood out in the Leduc and Beaumont games especially.

“Darren has a lot of speed. He’s a very quick player and he’s hard on the puck. He’s not the biggest guy on our team but he plays big,” Parfett said, “Tanner, for an underager, he’s 17 who would be playing midget this year, I thought he stayed fairly composed. He’s a good heads up defenseman. He’s not too flashy and he doesn’t get into trouble. He makes good decisions with the puck.”

Flexible playing either offense or defense, rookie Darrel Stranger is a double threat. The only other two players who can pull that off are Josh Spicer and Zac Wilson; “Stranger, we’re really happy with him. We can put him on D or we can put him on forward and it doesn’t hurt us in either position. He’s strong on the puck and on the boards and he makes smart plays. Defensively, he’s really strong as well, which is something we’re trying to focus on this year,” Parfett said.

Comfortable playing anything but in net, Stranger said he’s been able to blend nicely with whichever line he’s been placed on and he’s felt very welcomed to the cast.

“Everyone in that room I look up to. We’re all leaders. Even though we all don’t wear a ‘C’ or an ‘A’, we all look to each other and hold each other accountable,” Stranger said, “They don’t treat me like a rookie, we’re all teammates in this. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Encouraged by forward Jesse Morrison’s progression since training camp, Ferris said he’s been ‘wowed’ by the new recruit. With strong third and fourth lines as well as backing from rookie Karter Anderson in net, the veteran forecasts the team will be a force to be reckoned with again this season.

“The guys are here to play for the Hawks and love the passion for the game. They’re here to work hard and learn a lot this year so we have a good solid team,” Ferris said.

“Everyone seems to be filling in their spots; getting their feet wet and getting comfortable. They’re doing a great job in helping us out and filling their roles,” echoed Gorda.

The assistant captain expects this year’s defense to be strong with the injection of rookie defenseman Clark (acting as a cornerstone and the shut down man) with backing from returning players Younger and Jack Snider.

“We’re looking really strong back there. It’s also nice to have Micah Bonneville back this year and making the saves when he needs to. If a game goes into the seventh round of a shoot out, it’s not the goalie’s fault, we need to put one in for him and help him out a little bit,” Gorda said in reflection of Sunday’s shoot out loss.

This weekend the Junior B team will see the Edmonton Royals at home Friday, Sept. 30 at  8 p.m. at the Jubilee Recreation Centre. They’ll then hit the road to play Wetaskiwin on Sunday, Oct. 2. The Royal’s roster will absorb the shock of losing top scorers Mik Mykietyshyn and Chad Coulombe as they aged out at the end of the season last year, but as of The Record’s publication time, the Royals have two wins for the regular season. Parfett expects the Royals will be dangerous without those two key players but the Hawks will focus on their own game.

“We’ll just play our game, keep the intensity up and try to keep them on their heels,” Parfett projected.

Wetaskiwin also lost a huge offensive force on their team to age, Ryley Bennefield, and will be somewhat of a question mark because of that but Parfett will use the Hawks’ speed to overcome the Iceman’s typical physical game

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Noyen Construction Hawks are finished for another season after falling 6-4 in Game 5 against the North Edmonton Red Wings at the Londonderry Arena on March 11. With only one Fort win, the Red Wings nearly swept the semi-finals with four wins and will now play Wetaskiwin in the CJHL finals.

Bryce Nelson put the Hawks on the board on Friday night on a power play goal, which started off the game on a positive note said head coach John Parfett, but then the Red Wings quickly came back with 2-1 at the end of that period due to a lack of discipline and multiple penalties on the Hawks bench. Hawks fans buzzed as Joey Morin, Justin Ferris, and Lane Morin tied the game back up at 4-4 in the third but Edmonton pushed forward with another goal in the last two minutes and shut it down with an empty netter.

Joey Morin said the comeback in the third period was huge and shifted the momentum but it was a little too late. The team was also down to three defencemen in the final period.

“It just wasn’t enough. It was a big effort of desperation,” Joey said, “Two good teams faced off against each other and penalties were the only factor that separated us from moving on.”

“Throughout the playoffs, our team showed a lot of character and we played some good hockey. Saying that, I do believe we could have went farther but that’s how it goes,” Joey said.

Captain Tyler Wilson called the effort starting off the third ‘picture perfect.’

“I’m proud of the guys and the effort they showed  all year and especially in the playoffs. The guys stepped up when needed and it was awesome to see,” Wilson said.

Nick Veenstra added knowing it could have been their last game, they came out in the third with more pep in their step and it felt great to claw back in the way they did.

“I was really proud of how the guys played. We had a good run this year,” he said.

“We battled hard in the third period to come back in that game to give us a chance to keep moving on in the series but unfortunately it was just too much to overcome,” Parfett said. 

The coach took courage in the Hawks’ level of play against Sherwood Park and the Edmonton Royals in the two previous playoff series, noting the team was disciplined and didn’t rack up penalties like their opponents. But the Red Wings were a different beast. With a long standing rivalry, the teams had a ‘mutual dislike for each other.’

“To give them credit, the Red Wings are a very good team. They got us on our heels and that’s usually when penalties start happening. They were stick penalties and hooking happening after a play, penalties that a team takes when they’re getting pushed and that’s what they did to us. They dictated the level of play, they put us on our heels and into the penalty box,” he said, adding the Wings killed the Fort on their power plays and were arguably the best team in the regular season with only six loses.

With the loss on Friday night, comes another loss for the team. Captain Tyler Wilson and assistant captains Nick Veenstra and Joey and Lane Morin will all hang up their Hawks jerseys for the last time as they age out of the Capital Junior Hockey League this year. Parfett noted all will be incredibly missed and will not be easily replaced.

He noted Wilson was a real leader for the team as a captain, mentoring the rookies in plays and positive attitudes, was a go-to on face-offs, and was willing to do whatever it took to get the win.

“Tyler is a player who will die for you out on the ice,” Parfett said, recalling all of the captain’s various injuries over the season, “He’ll compete to that level. He wants to be on the ice.”

Looking back on his four-year Hawks career, Wilson said they were his best years of hockey, making a quarterfinal, two semi finals and one league championship. He noted as a rookie, he was fortunate enough to have great leadership to show him how to represent himself not only at the rink but in the community.

“I’ve made life-long friendships with every one of those guys who put on a Hawks sweater. I’m going to miss seeing the guys in the dressing room, the stories we all shared, and our time on the ice together,” Wilson reflected, adding he has received invitations from other teams showing interest and would like to eventually enter into coaching.

Veenstra said he wouldn’t have changed a thing about his time as a Hawk and he’ll most miss the intensity felt on the bench; waiting for the next play, the next shift. 

“I still say, to this day, that I wouldn’t change how I went with my hockey career. I had so much fun with my best friends to be able to grow with them and share all the great memories we made,” he said.

“I made bonds with guys I know that I’ll have for the rest of my life. The Morin twins are my second family and they feel likewise about me,” Veenstra said, adding he’ll miss seeing all of the guys.

Parfett said the defenceman will be hard to replace as he’s ultra competitive, is one the league’s faster skaters, and has dual ability on offensive and defense.

“Nick is a true competitor. When it comes to playoffs, there’s no other player that you would want to have on your team than Nick Veenstra,” Parfett said.

“He comes to compete every night, he lays everything on the line, and he’ll do everything he can until that last buzzer goes to try to win a game.”

Joey Morin said the team’s brotherhood was ‘surreal’. He wanted to give thanks to all of the fans who showed them support throughout his sports career, adding the Fort is truly the best place to play hockey.

“Our team was the closest in the league — and I guarantee that. Nothing is better than playing four years of hockey with your brothers,” Joey said, “Playing Junior B was the best time of my life and I will cherish it forever. I don’t really know what the future lies for me.” 

Lane Morin said the team put forward a phenomenal effort throughout playoffs and they battled through injuries but that’s what Hawks hockey is all about.

“What I’ll miss most is being with the team on and off the ice. They’re a great group of guys every year and the brotherhood and friendships that were formed will be everlasting,” Lane said.

Parfett said the Morins twins will be a challenge to replace.

“You can’t develop players like that. They have a talent and a uniqueness of playing with each other and it’s a threat,” Parfett said.

“Losing those two players will be a loss to hockey in Fort Saskatchewan.” 

Parfett noted a big part of the team’s success throughout the season is attributed to how close they were on and off the ice, making them one of, if not the tightest teams in the league and they wanted to compete for each other.

“To see first class guys like Joey, Lane, Tyler, and Nick end their junior hockey careers and not be able to get what they wanted and finish the year with a win, that’s the hardest part of it,” the coach said.

Parfett also said Hawks fans were tremendous all season and their support was certainly evident on Friday.

“Thank-you to the fans. Your rowdy passion helped drive this team. (It’s) hard to tell we ever play an away game thanks to all of you,” the Hawks tweeted after Game 5.

The Hawks went into Game 4 up 3-1 in the best of five series, and the pressure was on for both sides of the rink after a dry spell for both teams in the first period of the Feb. 25 match. 

“We knew the Royals were going to come out, they had their backs against the wall,” said Head Coach John Parfett. “So coming out of that first period not having been scored on was a positive for us.”

The team was eager to seal the deal and not have to play a Game 5 in Edmonton and ramped things up in the second.

Tyson Davey lit up the whole arena with the first goal of the game about 10 minutes into the second period, which had the entire arena erupt in cheers. 

“Tyson scoring that goal just lifted the whole bench,” Parfett said. “There were opportunities for both sides up to that point, so it kind of felt like one of those games that will go down to the wire and maybe go into overtime.” 

That turned out to not be the case. The second period was an emotional one, with Jack Snider getting penalties for fighting, game misconduct and instigating. 

That left the Hawks shorthanded, but fortunately they’re well-versed in playing with a smaller line. 

“We were kind of talking about that – we’ve been the most penalized team in the league, a lot of it had to do with misconducts and guys taking penalties with their mouths, but one of the things with lots of penalties throughout the season is it gives you an opportunity to exercise your penalty kills,” Parfett said. 

The Hawks held their ground and kept the Royals on their toes. 

“I think we have one of the better groups of penalty killers in the league, and that really helped us at that point in the game,” Parfett said. 

The dynamic of the game changed rapidly in the third period, with the Royals scoring a goal not three minutes into the game. The period turned into a tight back and forth, with both teams scoring three goals, with a strong performance from Hawks Dylan Dorval

One of the Royals’ leading scorers, Chad Coulombe, helped the Hawks by taking a 10-minute misconduct penalty. 

“He ended up getting that goal out of the penalty box off the faceoff, which shows you how much of a dangerous player he could be.”

Parfett noted that at this point in the playoffs, penalties can end up having a real and paralyzing effect on teams. 

“We had a similar situation with Sherwood Park, where their leading scorer got a game misconduct at the end of their first game and wasn’t available in the second game,” he said. 

He’s hoping the Hawks stay calm and composed as they head into the semi-finals. 

The Hawks next play on March 2 against the Edmonton Red Wings in Edmonton, followed by a March 4 match at home.

Parfett said they’re a well matched team and he expects them to put up a good fight. 

“They’re a very well-coached team, they play a very disciplined game … they don’t really have any weak spots in defense. I think offensively, we’re a little stronger.

“We’re going to have to play as well as we did against the Royals to win four games.”

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Capital Junior Hockey League (CJHL) team took a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Royals on Feb. 21 at the Jubilee Recreation Arena. The win ties the series with one game a piece, following a 8-3 loss at Edmonton’s Confederation Arena on Feb. 19.

The Hawks had a strong start to the game, with a 3-0 lead in the first, but the Royals clawed back, even up to last two minutes of the third period when they found their third goal. 

Hawks captain Joey Morin said everyone played their part and the win gives them a boost of confidence going into Wednesday’s game.

“The boys were pumped after a win like that as we had a complete game,” Morin said.

Head coach John Parfett said other than four bad penalties, which he plans on cleaning up during practice this week, the team did everything it needed to and played a great competitive playoff game. 

“Getting that win was huge for the team. It just builds a lot of confidence. If we went down 2-0 to this team, for the guys, it would be demoralizing. It would be a pretty tough hill to climb where we’d have to win three in a row against the Royals. Now they’re fired up and they have new life,” Parfett said. 

Gage Gorda took first blood during a power play in the first period, which was followed up by a back door play by Joey Morin. Justin Ferris had the team’s third power play goal in the second period and Tyson Davey solidified the win on an empty netter in the third. With shots on net nearly even between the two teams at 37 for the Fort and 41 for Edmonton, goalie Mckenzie Candiani made plenty of huge saves between the pipes.

“He was tracking the puck well. He made a couple  of great saves moving side to side, which took away a couple of goals from them. He played well,” Parfett said. 

The team closely line-matched against the Royal’s Mik Mykietyshyn and Chad Coulombe, who Parfett considers to be their most dangerous players. Both were at the top of the leaders score board during the league’s regular season. Shutdown forwards, Josh Spicer, Ryan Thomas, and Josh Sinatynski were in charge of taking care of Mykietyshyn and Coulombe in the Fort’s end.

Hawks defenceman Nick Veenstra had two assists, one in the first and another in the second period. He said the team fed off of the fan’s energy.

“We knew we were going to have a great crowd and have the energy on our side, but we need to focus on being able to do the same in their barn. We need to win at least one game there, so that’s where our focus is right now,” Veenstra said.

Morin noted in order to get through playoffs, the team is playing it game by game, one period at a time, and they are all willing to come together and do whatever it takes to get the win.

“Everybody is on the same page and it’s really an exciting time in the playoffs to have a group of guys like we do,” Morin said.

“I truly believe we have the closest team in the league. There are no individuals — just a group of brothers striving for the same goal,” he added.

The Hawk’s regular season captain, Tyler Wilson is still out on injury but is expected to be back with the flock for this Friday’s home game.

“He wants to come back and do whatever he can for us, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m not going to put him on the ice if he’s at risk of tearing his knee and creating further damage because we want to be in this for the long run. We would like to have Tyler (going forward in the playoffs) and not to lose him if I bring him back too early,” Parfett said.

The Hawks played an away game against the Royals on Wednesday evening past The Record’s publication time. 

The series returns for Game 4 at the JRC on Friday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. 

Head coach John Parfett said the teams were evenly matched and emotions were high due to their traditional rivalry and it being the first playoffs round. 

“There’s a long standing rivalry between Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan and the players know each other from playing against each other for years,” he said. “That just kind of naturally exists … from a coaching perspective, that takes away one of your challenges, to get them fired up for the game.” 

The Knights took it away with two goals early in the first, which put the pressure on the Hawks to ramp it up. Joey Morin and Gage Gorda met the challenge, clinching two powerplay goals in the second half of the first. 

“I thought we started the game strong … they came out and got two quick goals on us. The guys kind of settled themselves down and came back and competed and were able to get a couple goals,” Parfett said. “Responding from those two goals was really a turning point.”

The Hawks consistently scored two goals in the second and the third, with forward Gage Gorda having a good night with three goals. 

“Gage is the type of player that if you give him the opportunities, he’ll find the back of the net,” Parfett said. 

Goalie McKenzie Candiani also shone in the series, performing well in both games. 

“I know there were times they got him a little rattled, but if you look at both games, especially the second, he really did come up big for us and controlled his emotions,” Parfett said.

That was particularly evident in the second game of the series, which the Hawks took away with a 4-0 shutout. 

“It was encouraging for us to see them play that way, because that’s the way you’ve got to play in the playoffs,” Parfett said. 

“We knew what was at stake in that game and we knew that the longer the game stayed close it was a bit more of an advantage for Sherwood Park,” Parfett said. “We challenged them to come out in the second period, step it up and take the game over. And they did.”

Players Justin Ferris and Tyson Davey proved to be a dynamic duo, with Ferris scoring a hat trick, with two assists from Davey. 

“Justin has been in a bit of a slump, he did have a lot of points this year but not as many as he did last year in his rookie season,” Parett said. “I feel that chemistry between Tyson and Justin has really helped Justin break out.” 

The Hawks next play against the Edmonton Royals on Feb. 19 in an away game.

Even with a 5-0 shutout over the Spruce Grove Regals on Friday night at the Jubilee Recreation Centre, the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks received major suspensions and possible injuries heading into the crucial playoff season.

With Spruce Grove having nothing to lose after they were bumped out of a playoff spot, Regals forward Harrison Blayney, who has racked up 202 penalty minutes this season, was looking to add to his brutish legacy as he walloped Mason Younger in the face. Captain Tyler Wilson and defenceman Zac Wilson jumped to his aid, ending with a four-game suspension for Tyler.

“That’s the biggest fear as a coach, is to see suspensions and it was my worst fear come true. We got the win which was nice but we ended up with some significant suspensions,” head coach John Parfett said.

“That kid already got 10 game suspensions this year and had 11 suspensions last year so they had a habitual problem with a player on their team which became the centre of attention during our game and unfortunately we ended up with suspensions out of it,” he added.

The team is appealing Tyler’s second game suspension as he could miss the first round of playoffs. Updates will be given this week if the captain also torn his knee during that fight which might keep him out of the first round playoffs even if the appeal is successful.

“(Blayney) throwing a sucker punch at Mason was an absolute joke,” Tyler Wilson said, “I’m glad no matter who is on the ice, they will stand up for one another and that showed with all of our players who were on the ice trying to get a piece of him... which they did.”

“I actually fought (Tyler Sonnichsen). He wrestled with one of our players and was looking to punch a defenseless player as the linesman broke them up and I stepped in and he started swinging, so I dropped my gloves and we went at it,” the Hawks captain recalled.

Hawks newbie back up goalie Grayson Parkes saw a shutout with only 12 challenges on net. Lane Morin, Joey Morin, Gage Gorda, Nick Veenstra and Tyson Davey all contributed points up on the board. 

Hawks couldn’t keep up with a shorten bench and took a 8-5 loss in an away game against the St. Albert Merchants on Sunday, Feb. 7. 

Hurting from a shortened bench from suspensions, injures, and work commitments, Parfett said he was encouraged by the effort on the ice and having players slotted into different roles with major holes in the offensive lines. The team was short eight players: both Morin Twins, Zac and Tyler Wilson, Boe Geslinger, Linden Bourne, and Tyler and Dylan Dorval. It was a close game with a 4-4 tie at the end of the second but the Hawks started to show their fatigue.

“We just started running out of gas. After the fourth goal, St. Albert switched to their back up goalie to take over the game. They had a full bench and our guys were tired and it started to show. They clawed back in the second period and in the third they just pulled away and ended it with 8-5,” Parfett recalled.

Forward Tyson Davey was a highlight of the game for Parfett as he started off the game well with a goal and an assist in the first period and repeated that same success in the second period. He noted Davey found great chemistry on a line with Justin Ferris and Gage Gorda.

The last two seasons saw the Hawks finish higher in the standings, seeing a by-week in the first rounds of playoffs. Following Sunday’s loss, the Hawks finish in fourth place in the north. Missing third place will gift home ice advantage to the Fort as they play off against fifth place Sherwood Park starting this coming weekend.

“Our fans are incredible. That’s the strength of having home-ice advantage and having the crowd behind us,” the coach noted.

In preparation for the Knights, the Hawks focused on their power play during their Monday practice after they missed to capitalize on goal opportunities in 12 power play minutes against the Regals which resulted in finding the back of the net once.bThe Hawks played their last regular season game against the Beverly Warriors on Wednesday, past The Record’s publication time.

The first playoff series kicks off this weekend against Sherwood Park. Game one against the Knights will start at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 12 at the JRC and will return to the Fort for a Game three if necessary on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m.

The Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Junior B Hawks are on a five game winning streak for the first time in the 2015-16 season.

Last Wednesday and over the weekend saw three upsets in three away games against the Morinville Jets (7-6 final), the Stony Plain Flyers (6-1 win), and the Edmonton Royals (4-3).

Bo Geslinger tied the game 3-3 and the Morin twins finished off the Jets in overtime on Jan. 20. 

Head coach John Parfett said the team played a complete game against the Flyers just two days later. He considers it to be their best game of the season with all four lines working at 10/10 at both ends of the ice. Following Micah Bonneville’s departure to France, the game also marked the introduction of the team’s backup goalie, Grayson Parkes. He started with the team in December and Parfett said it was the perfect time to test his abilities before approaching playoffs.

“It was Grayson’s first time in net. There wasn’t a whole lot of shots on net, only 17, but he made some really nice saves,” Parfett said.

“It was a good game for him to build some confidence and a good game for the team to get some confidence with him in net, which is important because if we do need to put him in net somewhere along the lines during playoffs, you need the team to be confident to play out in front of him. You couldn’t have asked for anything better out of that game than the outcome that we had.”

 Sunday’s game saw the Hawks’ first win over the division leading Edmonton Royals this season. He noted the team maintained their high spirits entering the second period Ryan Thomas found the back of the net, which was quickly followed up another two Hawks goals which put them in the lead. The third period continued to be a back and forth battle with the Royals finding the back of the net first to make it 3-3 but the Hawks clawed one back to take the 4-3 win. Only one of the three Royals goals was a power play goal, which is their strong suit.

“Holding them to only one power play goal in that game was a positive. It was a good win for us and it builds that confidence for us, knowing we can beat the Royals. It puts a little bit of doubt in the (Royals’) minds too that we can beat them and it keeps our streak going heading into playoffs,” he said.

Parfett said the team is experiencing a winning streak after more players bought into the kind of play the coaching staff were trying to establish during December, when the Hawks went through a rough patch of winning only two of ten games. 

“We’re starting to see some success. They’re committed now and looking forward to playoffs and they have the confidence they can play against anybody,” the coach said. 

“The newer players are settling in and now they feel like they’re a part of the team. Both Gage Gorda and Boe Geslinger have said the Hawks have one of the best atmospheres compared to any other team in the dressing room. When they want to play for each other and they have the confidence to go out there and compete, that’s a big step in the right direction before we head into playoff hockey,” Parfett noted.

Playing against the Edmonton Mustangs this Friday on home ice, the team will rely on similar fore check plays as they carried out with the Royals. 

“They turn the puck over very quickly so we’ll have to be conscious of that and we can’t have guys caught in deep when we play against them,” he said.

“They’re a very strong team, and very tough defensively. We’ll work on that. It’s going to be a test for us to see where we’re at, they’re right behind the Red Wings.”

The puck drops at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29 against the Mustangs at the Jubilee Recreation Center.

The Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Hawks will surely seek revenge for its 7-6 loss against the Edmonton Red Wings on Jan. 8. The high-energy game was a non-stop back and forth brawl between the two sides, seeing goals from Tyler Wilson, Ryan Thomas, and both Lane Morin and Gage Gorda netted two goals each.

“That was a playoff game — that’s what it felt like. The intensity was there, everyone was into it and the fans were into it too. It was a great battle right to the end,” said team captain Tyler Wilson.

Fort Saskatchewan has a long rivalry with the Wings as two years ago they beat out the Wings in the semi-finals and then went on to take the title. Last year, the Wings got the best of the Hawks with one-goal differential wins in five out of seven games.

Because of the rivalry, Hawks head coach John Parfett said it’s more than just a game for points against the Wings, it’s a game for pride too. He noted when a Red Wings player was kicked out for fighting and the Hawks were down 6-3, he pointed at the scoreboard as he skated off.

Parfett called Friday’s game a good measuring stick since the Wings sit at the top of the eastern division and are battling against the Edmonton Royals to be first overall. He added Thomas did a good job defensively when he was matched nicely with high scoring Mikey Mantello. 

“When (Mantello) was out there with out Ryan or being line matched, he took advantage of us and got a couple of break away goals. It was disappointing and frustrating to watch him walk in on break aways  when that’s an area we’ve been talking about and to be more aware of him when he’s on the ice,” Parfett said.

“There’s more work to be done there if we do play against them in the playoffs and we’ll have to contain him. But overall I thought there was a lot of positives out of the game.”

The news wasn’t all bad for the CJHL team as they captured a playoff position with a 5-2 win over the visiting Leduc Riggers on Sunday evening.

Wilson was encouraged by the team’s discipline.

“We controlled the puck very well tonight and the time on attack was big for us and we were creating more opportunities instead of chasing the puck,” Wilson said.

Regardless of having won all four games against the Riggers this season, Wilson said it’s never wise to underestimate Leduc because they did see wins against some of the league’s top teams.

The team is now regrouping and focusing on what it will take in the next month to rack up more points and place themselves into a comfortable playoff position. 

“Going into playoffs, we want it bad this year. We know what it tastes like to lose so we’re going to look for that win,” Wilson noted.

He said playoff wins will be contributed to every player will have to play their roles and in the case of the Red Wings, it will involve strong line matching and defensive plays against Mantello.

Wilson said he’s been particularly impressed with how the Morin twins, Joey and Lane, have upped their game yet again this season.

“It’s amazing to watch them, with the passes they do and they’re not even looking to each other. I don’t know how they do that. I guess it’s just a twin thing,” he laughed. 

The captain also gave props to newcomer Gage Gorda, who originally played for Strathcona Bruins last year and sits at thirteenth overall in the league for goals with 28 points. He said he’s been a great pairing on the Morin twins’ line.

“He’s been phenomenal. He’s been big for us this year and he’s leading our team in points. He’s a very skilled player.”

This weekend Fort Saskatchewan will host the CJHL All Star games. Saturday will see a busy afternoon with the rookie game at noon, the skills competition at 2:15 p.m. (a new addition to the showcase this year), and the all star game at 4 p.m.

“It’ll be nice to play with some of the guys who you battle against every week. It’s a fun weekend for the league and the community,” Wilson said.

With eight regular season games remaining, the Hawks will play the Strathcona Bruins on Friday, Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. at the JRC.

 The Fort Saskatchewan CJHL Noyen Construction Hawks opened 2016 with a 3-1 win over the Beaumont Chiefs on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Assisted by the Morin twins for two goals, along with one unassisted goal, while shorthanded nonetheless, Gorda was unstoppable.

“Gage is a natural goal scorer, he’s a shooter. He can pick the corners,” head coach John Parfett said.

“His first goal was a nice pass and play from Joey and Lane, and he finished it off. The second goal was on a power play and he beat the goalie low on the blocker’s side, and he picked the corner of the net really well. The third goal was a really good effort from him where he knocked the puck away from a defenceman as they were trying to break out and beat the goalie,” he recalled.

“We started off fairly strong. With rests from the break, some passing and timing was off a little bit, legs weren’t quite there, but it was the same for Beaumont,” Parfett added about the overall game.

Having played the Chiefs before the break on Dec. 22, which saw an 8-1 win for Fort, Parfett said they knew the Beaumont book and were focused on shutting down Chiefs forward Douglas Morris who currently has the most points in the league.

“They like to hang out high in their defensive end at their blue line and when the puck comes back against our defencemen, we get a shot on net and they dump it back out and they hit us on the transition quickly. They caught us in first game and the game before Christmas, and they had a few break-aways, so that’s something we worked on a little bit.”

Following Tuesday night’s game, the Hawks sit in fourth place, one point behind the Chiefs. Parfett said the first-place Edmonton Royals would have to go on a losing streak in order for the Fort to catch up but he believes the team will be able to catch to the second-place Wetaskiwin Icemen. The Hawks have just 10 remaining games in the regular season.

The Hawks will look to overcome one of their enduring rivals, as Edmonton’s Red Wings visit Friday. Parfett said focus will be placed on line matching for dangerous Wings forward Mikey Mantello.

“To play against them, we need to play a simple game because they’re very strong defensively and well disciplined. We’ll have to look for shots and rebounds and not try to make that three-pass back door goal which our guys like to do,” Parfett said.

“We need to keep playing the way we were right before Christmas and how we played on Tuesday. Everyone was buying into the plays. We’ve been getting pucks in deep on the other team, and getting our fore checking and back checking in. It’s just the simple things we want to keep doing and make it a habit so once we’re into playoffs, we’re playing competitive hockey.”

The Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks sent the Beaumont Chiefs packing with a final score of 8-1 at the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Dec. 22. The game wasn’t even close with 52-31 shots on net and the goals were shared with players from all lines finding the back of the net. Gage Gorda scored in the first minute of the first period, which was followed by Tyson Davey, Boe Geslinger, Dylan Dorval in the second, and finishing the game were Justin Ferris, Tyler Dorval, and Bryce Nelson.

“It was one hundred per cent better tonight than what we’ve seen in the past few weeks. It was a full team effort tonight. We played Hawks hockey,” team captain, Tyler Wilson said about the win.

Wilson said he was pleased with how the team capitalize three times on power play goals and they remained disciplined, unlike Beaumont who kept the penalty box bench warm.

“That’s a nice turn for us because that’s usually us in the penalty box so it’s nice to be on the other side of things,” he said.

Securing a win has been a rarity for the Hawks as of late with only three wins in the last ten games since mid-November. Wilson noted there are no excuses but it’s been a combination of many things to account for the team’s recent lackluster performances.

“Injuries have played a factor for us so far and there’s been an inconsistent effort as well. Not everyone playing their roles and that’s why we had that many loses in a row,” Wilson said.

“It feels good (to win against the Chiefs) but we can’t get too ahead of ourselves now. It’s one win and after the break, we need to set our minds on the playoffs and how we plan to get there,” he added.

Heading into playoffs, Wilson will be looking for everyone to keep up the same effort as what was shown on Tuesday night on the ice.

Head coach John Parfett said the boys had the right attitude and energy in the beginning of the game with some early goals and that carried them through to the end. He noted the team also did a good job defensively and wearing the Chiefs down. 

“Because we’ve been in a rut for the last two to three weeks, I challenged the team to play as a team and play for each other and do the kinds of things we did in the past that made us successful,” Parfett said.

He was also pleased the boys kept their emotions in check and stayed out of major fights.

“The big thing for us; Beaumont took a lot of penalties and our team stayed disciplined, which recently we’ve been drawn into a lot of that, the nice thing about this game is that we stayed away from that and we saw the results. Hopefully it’s a good lesson for us and a good stepping stone,” the coach commented.

Even though on Tuesday, Zac Wilson hopped off the ice with a sore knee, Tyson Davey got cross-checked in the mouth, and Jack Snider injured his shoulder, the team will be back in January with a full injury and misconduct free roster. 

On Dec. 18, the Hawks took a 7-4 loss against the Wetaskiwin Icemen. Parfett said a few bad goals were let in but they rallied back in the third.

“They’re a good team, especially in their own rink.  They clog up the neutral zone and they’re a big team so it works well for them. It’s just something else we learned and we’ll use it hopefully going into playoffs,” he said.

Following their game plan, the Hawks paid close attention to Ryley Bennefield, who is one of the league’s top scorers.

“He got one point in that game so we were able to shut him down but we weren’t able to shut the rest of the guys down. So I guess the one consolation is that he didn’t (beat) us up,” Parfett said.

The Edmonton Royals sit high in the eastern division standings with a record of 22 wins and five loses. The Hawks place fourth with a 15-11 record and they need to win four more games to secure a playoff spot.

“We’re not there yet but with this kind of hockey, playing as a team and playing with discipline, this is how we’ll have to play in order to get there,” Parfett said.

“(The Royals) would really have to fall apart for us to catch them right now. Obviously, we want to finish as high as we can but more importantly, when we make the playoffs, we want to be playing the right kind of hockey and take it to the next step.”

The Fort Saskatchewan Noyen Construction Hawks bounced back from a big loss against the Royals with a high scoring win over Wetaskiwin.

The Hawks won 6-3 over the Wetaskiwin Icemen last Friday.

Assistant coach Keith Toomey said prior to last Friday’s game, the team held a group meeting to discuss expectations going forward and he believes that helped them find a win against Wetaskiwin.

“They played a really strong game as a group. There wasn’t anyone who had an off game,” Toomey said, 

“The commitment level has come way up as well so that plays a huge part as well. There’s always a few bugs to work at in the beginning of year but they need to get on board and you go from there.”

Having the six goals attributed to six different players gives the team more balance in their scoring and it’s something he hopes the Hawks will carry forward into other games, Toomey said.

Alex Nisbet, Tyler Wilson, Nick Veenstra, Joey Morin, Justin Ferris and Josh Sinatynski all found the net. Sliding himself and the puck into the net, Morin had a breakaway goal after jumping out of the penalty box.

“As a team, the depth is really coming through with six different people scoring goals. We got two goals coming from the d-zone and all three lines contributed to the goals,” he said.

Toomey noted so far in the regulation season, the team has played well and he wants players to continue to gel  and communicate with one another. 

The assistant coach feels the Hawks’ power plays are getting stronger, adding they switched Boe Geslinger onto the Morin twins power play line.

“Moving Boe onto the same line with Joey and Lane has worked really well and in the last three games Tyler Wilson has just been dominate out there. He’s really strong and I think he plays well with Gage Gorda and Justin Ferris. We’re definitely taking a step in the right direction and they’re starting to buy into the system that we’re putting into place during practice.  

“It’s come a long way actually and we’re now top four in the league for power play goals and it’s nice to see both power play lines contributing as well,” Toomey said.

In recent games, forward Gage Gorda has been shuffled between two lines, at first playing with the Morin’s and now along side Tyler Wilson and Justin Ferris.

“We wanted to find a little bit more chemistry all the way through all four lines,” Toomey said,

“Gage plays wing as well, not only centre and he’s a good fit with Tyler Wilson on that second line, for sure, and Boe (Geslinger) is a natural centreman, so having those two players (Gage and Boe) on different lines, we  just wanted to try some different things out.”

He continued: “It’s been a good fit so far and I can’t see us changing it up any time soon. There’s a lot of depth on our team this year and it’s nice to see that different guys can play with other guy in different situations.”

Heading against the Strathcona Bruins on Wednesday, Hawks head coach John Parfett said he’s not going to downplay Strathcona’s winning potential because they have a good goalie.

“Strathcona is second last in our division but we know we can’t take any teams lightly. They don’t score a lot of goals but they have a really good goaltender,” Parfett said.

That game was played post-production deadline of  The Record.

Parfett expects Friday’s game against the Sherwood Park Knights to amplify their rivalry.

The Hawks sit just two points ahead of the Knights with 20 points and the Edmonton Royals comfortably in first place with 26 points.

“Their team is right up in the standings with us, so that’s an important game and we’ll come ready to play,” Parfett said,

“We know they’ll be a competitive team and we’ll have to be disciplined.”

The last time the Fort played against Sherwood Park, the team walked away with a 5-3 win on Oct.20, however, Toomey said they’re not going to take anything for granted.

“The last time we played them, they started out really strong in the first period and they definitely gave us a run for our money. They’re a strong team and they like to be physical. We’ll have to step up to the plate and make sure we’re finishing our checks and playing at our level and not down to theirs.”

For the remainder of November, the Hawks will be battling against East Division teams.

“It’s an important month to gain some ground on your division so these games all become important games,” Parfett said.

In their last three CJHL games, the Hawks finished with a win once over the Stony Plain Flyers, 6-3, during their home game on Oct. 30. The team was dominated by Edmonton teams with a shutout by the Edmonton Mustangs on Oct. 28 7-0 and a 6-2 final score against the Royals on Nov. 1.

During the Mustangs’ blowout last Wednesday, the Hawks racked up 20 penalties compared to 9 from their opponents. Even though head coach John Parfett said there were some questionable calls in how the game was called by the referees, the team needs to avoid the more obvious penalties to lessen the power play advantages. Both Tyler Wilson and Jack Snider received a two game suspension and Tyson Davey was put out with a neck injury which also kept him out of play against the Flyers.

“It was just a game where we ended up fighting the ref as much as we fought the Mustangs but it was a good game. They’re the top team in the league right now and we were with them for almost two periods,” Parfett said,

“It was a 1-0 game with almost three minutes left in the second period and then they got a couple of power play goals on us, and then we just couldn’t battle our way back into the game.”

“We wanted to erase the memory of that game and come back with a kind of vengeance on Friday against the Flyers,” he added.

Parfett said the Hawks brought their intensity and set the tone of the game on Friday. He reminded the team how they squared off against Stony Plain in the playoff series last year, noting they were a tough team to play who always finished their checks.

“We kept stressing if we work hard, good things will happen,” he said.

The Hawks could not generate that same intensity on Sunday as they lost 6-2 to the Edmonton Royals.

The last time the boys saw the Royals, they had a closer match where it went into overtime in the Royal’s favour. Parfett said a few of the players weren’t at their best because of Halloween parties the previous night.

“That’s a tough one as a coaching staff because we’re not going to ask 18-21 year old guys to stay home and go to bed on Halloween, but we need to think about how far you go when you have a big game the next day. That’s something we’ll talk about,” he added

Heading against the Wetaskiwin Icemen this weekend, the coach said he’ll be keeping an eye on their two goalies and their top player, captain Ryley Bennefield, who’s one of the top scorers in the league right now.

“He’s one of their most dangerous players,” he said, adding the Hawks will strongly line-match against his.

Parfett said the Icemen have a hometown advantage when they play at the Wetaskiwin Civic Centre because it’s a shorter and wider rink that lends itself nicely to breakouts but the two teams will be on a more equal playing field on Fort ice.

“We know they’re a good team. We’re not going to take them lightly. We’re coming off a couple of loses in the past three games so we want to come out with some renewed vigour in how we play the game and try to establish the level of play,” he said.

Head coach, John Parfett said the team fell back a bit at the end of the first period and going into the second period and the Hawks didn’t play at the level that they’re capable of but turned things around in the final period and finished the Bruins off with another three goals.  

“We didn’t execute the whole game the way we wanted to and that was a bit of a learning,” Parfett said,

He said Hawks’ skill levels heavily outweighed that of the Bruins, but the team didn’t carry out the plays and just let them happen. That’s something the coaches weren’t very happy with and is something they’ll be working on with players for the rest of the season. 

“If we’re wanting to compete for the championship this year, we’re going to be competing against teams who we can’t play that same way. We have to play at a higher level and we want to keep that constituency,” he said,

“It’s not that you’re trying to blow another team out or disrespect them. It’s more about establishing what our game needs to be and keep improving for ourselves as a team,” the head coach added.

This Friday’s game will see the Icemen enter onto Fort ice for the first time this season. After playing the team two weeks ago, Parfett said the Icemen will likely focus on line matching and pay close attention to trying to neutralize the Hawks’ top line with the Morin twins and Gage Gorda.

“What we did in Wetaskiwin, we split that line up and that’s an option we have and we know that was successful for us. Other than that to prepare for the Icemen, they were a team who came out and dictated the level of play at the beginning of the game and they came at us pretty hard, all four lines. It wasn’t until the second and third period that we started to establish the level of the game,” Parfett said.

A Hawks staple is back. 

If you attended the Oct. 2 game against Strathcona, you weren’t mistaken if you spotted the #23 jersey whipping dangerously around the Bruins net. Yes, Justin Ferris has returned.

Ferris left the Hawks two weeks ago for the chance to play with the Texas-based Junior A Tier II team, the El Paso Rhinos, in the Western States Hockey League (WSHL). 

“Texas was a cool place and a nice change from the Fort but the hockey there wasn’t as fun as what I had expected,” Ferris told The Record,

“Three hour practices and all of the other things included in it is what took the fun out of it for me. So, I decided to come back and play hockey with the Hawks because that’s where I get to actually enjoy playing,” Ferris added.

Parfett said Ferris told him it wasn’t a good fit for him and the team welcomed him back with open arms.

The head coach noted he’s happy to have Ferris back and he easily fell back into place and was lined up with Tyler Wilson and Boe Geslinger where he scored a pair of goals against the Bruins.

“That was a nice way for him to come back. They’re starting to find some good chemistry,” the coach commented.

Hawks head coach John Parfett said he expected the game to be a back and forth battle, noting the Royals always play right to the last minute because they are a physical team.

He said there was one questionable call where a linesman said Tyson Davey did a hit from behind, which would have been a major penalty and two game suspension, but the lineman changed it to a minor - something they don’t have the ability to call.

“The ref admitted he didn’t see it and his linesman caught it but that distracted us on the bench and some players were upset with the call and they lost focus in the game. It got the team rattled and the Royals ended up getting a couple more goals to eventually tie it and force us to a shoot out.”

Partfett noted the major lesson from Friday’s game is not to get distracted or let your emotions take you away from what you need to do to execute.

“We got distracted in the third period and that took their focus away from the game. At that point, we were still up 4-3,” Parfett said, “But the Royals is a team that will never be out of a game and we always play a full game against them.”

He added the team made a few defensive errors as well, with some forwards relearning the games as defencemen. “There are going to be mistakes, we know that’s going to happen but we want to learn from them and improve.”

He said since it’s so early in the season, the team wasn’t prepared for a shoot-out situation but going forward it’s something they’ll practise on.

“Shoot outs are always a coin toss you know, even with some skilled players. The Royals scored two beautiful goals, those were just very high-end goals that they scored and you can’t blame anyone for that.”

Parfett said he took note of the Royals’ tendencies of the back door passes during a 5-on-3 power play and he shut that play down.

“We were aware of that and we were taking that option away from them. We did some line matching against some of their top players which also worked fairly well. We’ve tried to make some adjustments in the game on Friday and it’s something we’ll prepare for again when we face them next time.”

As for Wetaskiwin, Parfett said they’re shaping up to be a different team this year with some young blood injected into their roster, thus becoming a quicker and stronger checking team. He added the Icemen’s goaltending has been amped up as well.

“They were a bit of a question mark because we knew they blew Strathcona out in their first game and then they were shut out by Beaumont in their second game, so we weren’t too sure what to expect but they’re a good team,” Parfett said.

The Hawks head coach said the Icemen strongly line matched against the Gorda and twin Morins line so he adjusted to that in the second period. The Hawks went on to win that game 4-3.

“The final shots (on net) was 63 to 29, we had 25 shots in the second period and 21 in the third, so we made some adjustments that turned the momentum in our favour,” he called.

“Their goalie, we couldn’t get a puck passed him but finally in the third we were able to and win the game,” he recalled.

Heading into this Friday’s game against the Bruins, Parfett said the team will continue to focus on beefing up its defensive end.

“We want to control the level of play, we don’t want it to come to us so we’ll focus on that this week in practice. That’s something we’ll hopefully execute this weekend against Strathcona, where we’re actually dictating the pace of the game and not sitting back and waiting to see what they have,” he added.

As if it was fated to happen, the Hawks #23, Justin Ferris, left the country on Sept. 23, headed for Texas where he’s been offered a spot to play on a Junior A Tier II team in the Western States Hockey League (WSHL).

Ferris said the offer came about through one of his local Bantam AAA coaches who had a contact with the El Paso Rhinos based in Texas. The Rhinos were looking to fill their rosters with some Canadian blood and Ferris said it was too good to pass up.

“At first I didn’t think much of it. I thought I’d just play Junior B with my friends and then I realized it’s just one year of hockey,” Ferris said,

“I can come back and play for the Hawks because I’d have another two years of eligibility after this year,”

“I thought it’d be a good opportunity to play some different teams and maybe get an opportunity for a scholarship in the States playing some college hockey there,” the 19-year-old added. Between 2012 and last year’s playoffs, Ferris scored an average of 1.03 points per game, making that 73 points in 71 games, with 42 goals and 31 assists. In the 2014-15 season, he blasted 50 points in 38 games (with 28 goals and 22 assists), for an average of 1.32 points per game.

He was also the only player born in 1996 and the only rookie allowed to be showcased in last year’s CJHL All-Star game because he was one of the top three scorers in the league.

He said his fellow team mates had mixed emotions on the offer but knew this could be his big break.

“They don’t really want me to go but at the same time it’s a good opportunity for me and they obviously want what’s best for me,” Ferris said,

“It’s going to be tough leaving the Hawks because I’ve grown up with all of those guys.”

“Being a Hawk is more than just playing hockey. You’re representing a lot of people and a lot of people from the Fort support the Hawks,” he reflected.

The head coach John Parfett said Ferris will be missed both on and off the ice.

“Justin was part of this team and he’s a great friend to a lot of the guys in the dressing room so they are going to miss him.” “It’s going to be a tough spot to fill because Justin had such a great season last year and was really good going into this year as well.”

“We wish him all the best,” Parfett said. Ferris’ first WSHL game is slotted against the Valencia Flyers in Valencia, California on Oct. 22.

The Hawks didn’t disappoint during their season home opener and 3-1 win against the St. Albert Merchants on Sept. 18.

Head coach, John Parfett said with all of the talk surrounding St. Albert’s complete overhaul and restructuring of its team, the Hawks may have been off their guard during the second period when the game didn’t go exactly as planned.

“We talked about trying to stay disciplined and take the time to set up plays a little bit more but St. Albert played pretty hard against us,” Parfett said.

“So in the second, we did the complete opposite of what we wanted to do. We came out a little lazy and took a bunch of penalties,”

He continued; “St. Albert played hard right through the whole game but we held on and played the game out.”

Even though the Hawks calmed down going into the third and no one headed to the penalty box, Parfett said he wants to continue concentrating on discipline.

“I know it sounds like a broken record and it’s a thing we’ll have to keep talking and talking about with this. It’s the same group I had last year and we had to talk about it a lot at the beginning of the year and get them to buy in and we were able to turn it around as the year progressed. But it’s something we’ll have to continue to work on.”

He said going forward he plans on hauling his Hawks through higher tempo practices to prepare and increase their speed for when the real puck drops, “We’d like to get to that level of play, not adjusting to it.”

A major player behind last Friday’s success was goaltender, Mckenzie Candiani. In the game against St. Albert and another past exhibition game against Beverly, Parfett said he’s impressed with Candiani’s performance thus far.

“He’s been a real pleasant surprise for us in net,” Parfett said,

“He has the attitude when he comes into a game that he wants to be the best goalie and he just goes out there and gets in the way of the pucks — and that’s exactly what we want him to do.”

Parfett noted because former Strathcona Bruins forward Gage Gorda is a natural shooter and a hard-working highly skilled player, he’s fitting in nicely on the same line with the Morin twins as a centre.

“That line had three of our goals against St. Albert so he’s definitely finding some chemistry with Joey and Lane, especially on the powerplay,” the coach said.

He said he’s trying former Morinville Jets player, Boe Geslinger, on a line with Tyler Wilson and newbie Tyson Davey. He added while Geslinger’s overall competitiveness is high, he’s also increased the team’s strength in faceoffs.

Zach Wilson and Blaine Laurensse are both out on injuries so in the meantime, Parfett will rely on veteran defencemen Nick Veenstra and Alex Nisbet.

He added rookie defencemen, Bryce Nelson, has improved week by week and is adjusting to the speed of the game and decision-making.

“They other guys will have a bit of trial by fire. They have to get in there and play. We’re hoping to bring them along and put them in situations where they can develop their confidence but it’s coming. We’ve been happy with what we’ve seen with them.

“It’s a work in progress and it’s going to take some time. We’re trying to focus on team defence, especially focus on having centremen support the defencemen in our end and give them enough time and room to make good decisions to gain their confidence.

Getting ready for this weekend, Parfett said the Edmonton Royals are already setting themselves up as the team to beat after capturing two early wins last week.

“They had a pretty strong team last year. We lost to Red Wings in the quarter finals. I knew going into this year they’re one of the teams to beat.”

“They have a pretty well-balanced team and they have a very potent first line. They get the puck to the net and they just shoot the puck from everywhere on the ice so it’s something to be aware of, they transition very well.”

He said he’ll focus on penalty kills as well as avoiding taking penalties altogether because that’s one of the areas where the Royals are most potent.

The Hawks take on the Royals on home ice at the JRC on Friday night at 8 p.m. and then they travel to Wetaskiwin on Sunday evening to face off against the Icemen.

The Hawks have played three exhibition games thus far. Head Coach John Parfett said it helped their first exhibition game was against the Edmonton Royals, consistently one of the top-ranking teams in the division.

“For us it was a really good chance to see how some of the rookie players could handle the speed of the game,” Parfett said.

“It’s a chance to get the flow of the game going and for us as coaches it’s a chance to see some of the new players in that situation,” he added.

The Hawks had a shaky start to their first exhibition match on Sept. 9, with the Royals up 3-1 after the first period. They managed to get more pucks past the net a the game went on and ultimately lost 8-4.

“You never want to lose, but we left that game feeling like we’re going to be able to compete with the Royals this year,” Parfett said. “So we left feeling very comfortable.”

The Hawks had better results at a Sept. 11 match against the Beverly Warriors, in which they triumphed 4-1.

That match provided another good learning opportunity as the Hawks were still missing several of their key veteran players and their goalie from last year has yet to return.

“Getting a win helps the confidence, but we took that win with a bit of grain of salt too as Beverly didn’t have their strongest lineup either,” Parfett said.

The Warriors get back at the Hawks on Sept. 13 with a 4-3 victory. Parfett attributes their goalie for securing the win.

“The Sunday game felt more like what a league game will feel like when compared to the first two

exhibition games … their goaltender they had played an excellent game,” he said. “We had some good opportunities and just couldn’t bury the puck.”

The Hawks had a bit more luck in the third period when the Warriors goalie was injured. Although they didn’t win, the players showed the ability to be competitive and play with some grit.

“The score didn’t dictate where we wanted to be in the game, but the level of play and us being able to compete with them gave us a comfort level, at least as coaches, that we’re going to be able to compete,” Parfett said.

Going forward, Parfett said the team needs to work on strengthening its defensive zone and emphasizing discipline. The Hawks lost three veteran defenceman last year so it will be incumbent on the vet players to help the new players develop their skills on the ice.

“Right now we only have one defenceman who won’t be able to play but we have pretty close to what it’s going to look like for the bulk of our team for our home opener on Friday,” Parfett said.

After narrowly missing out on the championship in the 2015-2016 season, the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks are gearing up for tryouts on Monday, Aug. 31. For now, though, they’re letting the players get back into the swing of the game through informal skates, which started on Aug. 24.

“We go out there and run some conditioning drills, and then they scrimmage,” said Hawks head coach John Parfett, who is entering his second season with the team.

“It’s a pseudo-conditioning camp to get them back on skates, and to see who’s interested in coming out and trying out for the team. (Monday) night was the first skate, so it was good to see the players again and get back on the ice.”

And from what’s been seen so far, next week’s tryouts should be interesting.

“It’s pretty impressive and it’s really encouraging,” Parfett noted. “We have a couple of players who have decided to come to Fort Saskatchewan from a couple of different communities.

“One is from Morinville. He’s played minor hockey here in the Fort before and went to Morinville because his older brother was playing there, but he’s decided to come back and wants to play Junior B for the Hawks, which is nice.”

Parfett noted another player is coming to the Fort from Strathcona County.

“We have a new assistant coach who used to coach in Strathcona and Sherwood Park, and this player is kind of following his old coach, and is a highly-skilled player,” he said, not naming any players’ names just yet.

Parfett continued: “It’s nice to get those two showing up at our camp — it will help replace some of the players we lost from last year.”

Those potential outside additions don’t, however, point to the Hawks not looking at their own backyard, with Parfett noting, “there are some very good, young local players coming up from the Midget ranks.”

Much is left to be seen, though, as the Hawks gear up for their tryouts next week, with major emphasis being placed on what was lost from last season.

“We’ve got a lot of strength up front on offence. Defensively, we still have a couple of question marks because we lost some of our defensive guys last year, and one of our goaltenders,” he explained.

“So we had one of the local Midget goalies out on the ice, and he’s a pretty solid goaltender. At the end of the day, that will kind of be our question mark, is those last couple defensive spots.”

While the team has yet to even conceive any sort of roster for the upcoming season — and isn’t even allowed to yet by league rules — Parfett said coaches have talked about which veterans could potentially take on leadership roles to replace Hawks who have left the nest.

“We’ve thought about it a little bit. There are some different possibilities. We have, actually, three players who were assistant captains last year who are expected to be back this year,” he said.

“You look to those kind of players first to take on a larger leadership role. There is a fairly decent core of returning veteran players, so we will definitely look to them to provide leadership.

“One of the things we want to talk about as a team is what we expect in terms of leadership this year, and then give them that opportunity to demonstrate that before we make any decisions in terms of captains or anything like that. But we do have some pretty good leadership in that room.”

And from new players, a lot has yet to still be seen — but it’s a lot of what teams are always looking for, as Parfett said tryouts will see players under the magnifying glass for “that competitiveness and skill that they can bring to the team.”

“One of the areas we want to focus on this year, building on what we did last year, is team defence — commitment in our defensive zone, playing a little stronger, and we want to be a harder team to play against in our defensive zone,” he explained.

“So we’ll be looking for players who can fit into that mould and who are willing to do what it takes to compete at the level we’re looking for this year.”

Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks head coach John Parfett has extended thanks to the team’s fans, whom he said have been out in droves to support them in the league championship run.

“We just want to thank the fans. At this time of the year — and I know it was the same last year — they support the Hawks both at home and on the road. It’s been unbelievable, and that does make a difference to the players,” Parfett said.

“They’re able to feed off that. So we just want to thank the fans for coming out and supporting the Hawks.”

Wednesday night’s game ended the Hawks' series as the North Edmonton Red Wings won 6-1. Following the game, the Hawks' Twitter account posted; "This was one tough league this year. Anybody could have beaten anybody at anytime! Proud of everything those boys accomplished.

They also gave a shout out to all of the fans in the tweet; "Thank-you each and every #hawkey fan (who) supported us all year! You were all loud and all absolutely amazing! Best in the league!"

That game was past The Record’s time of publication.

After falling to the North Edmonton Red Wings in the first three games of the best-of-seven league title series, the Hawks entered Game 4 on Sunday with their season on the line.

All it would take to knock them out was one more loss — and they weren’t having it, as the Hawks fought their way to a 4-3 win, with a menacing 44 shots on net, compared to the Red Wings’ 28.

“I’m not sure a lot changed. We didn’t really change the strategy in how we were playing the Red Wings,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said.

“What did change is that I know we had a really solid effort from the complete team. In the previous three games, I know we had some players who we weren’t able to get the complete effort we needed out of. We had a fairly complete team effort (on Sunday) night. Then I think the other thing is that we started to get a little bit of puck luck.”

A first-period goal from Nick Veenstra, with an assist from Joey Morin, put the Hawks up 1-0 early in the matchup, and gave them the lead heading into the second.

The second period marked danger for the Hawks, who have struggled in the second block against the Red Wings before, and the Edmonton squad went up 2-1 over the local men.

One more goal in the third put the Red Wings up by two, making it a tough comeback for the Hawks. But with goals from Morin and Tyler Wilson — with assists from Morin and Veenstra — the Hawks tied it up to send the game to overtime.

And even that wasn’t enough.

It took a second overtime period for Hawks forward Jordan Baillie to make a move on an assist from Veenstra, hitting the mesh to give the Hawks a one-goal win.

“It’s really been that kind of a series,” Parfett said.

“It’s been a very, very tight series and we can’t get any breathing room. We’ll get a goal and they’ll get one back. We can’t seem to find a cushion big enough to hold them off.”

But the Hawks’ new approach could serve them well, as Parfett leaned on the “one game at a time” adage so common to sports, with a few changes to boot.

“There are a few things that we’ve asked the players to do a little bit differently — getting more shots on the goalie when we can instead of trying to make that perfect pass to get a play on net, and just keep working hard as a team,” he said, adding: “It’s definitely been a challenge. This is a very good team and a very difficult team to beat. They bend but they don’t break, and we just have to keep working hard.”

However, a few players have already stepped up their game, with Veenstra taking the lead on Sunday with his three-point performance.

“With players like Nick, that’s something that’s in his makeup,” Parfett explained.

“I know Nick was very crucial in the Hawks winning the league last year, especially in the final series, and we’re seeing that out of him again. He’s a very competitive player, and when it comes to games like this, that’s when you see guys like him stepping up.”

The same goes for Morin, who also managed one goal and two assists in Game 4.

“Joey Morin really stepped up for us (on Sunday) night. They’ve been shut down for the most part — Joey and Lane (Morin) and Tyler Wilson, our top line — in the last couple series,” Parfett said.

“But we’re playing playoff hockey now and teams know what Joey and Lane like to do. They’re very physical on them down low.

“And the Red Wings have a couple of defencemen... who are very strong defencemen, and they don’t give them a lot of opportunities down low.

“But Joey’s been doing an awesome job at battling through it, keep working and battling through it.”

Finally, credit had to be given to Hawks goalie Tyler Berger, who has gone head-to-head with league-leading Red Wings netminder Joe Mandrusiak.

In Sunday night’s win, Berger stopped 25 of 28 shots.

“Other than that first game... Tyler has been there for us the entire series. As well as (Edmonton’s) goaltender has been playing, Tyler has been playing just as well, and he’s giving us the opportunity to get another game every night,” Parfett said.

He continued: “He definitely has the experience from being there last year, but that’s his makeup too. He wants to be in net.

“He wants to be that guy in big games, and that’s what drives him — he’s that kind of player and athlete.”

And now the gauntlet has been dropped.

“We need those guys to keep playing the way they are, and we keep challenging the other guys to find that next level they can step up to, as well,” Parfett said.

The Hawks played Game 5 of the series in Edmonton territory on Wednesday night and lost 6-1. The game was past The Record’s time of publication.

That’s all the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks needed as they went into Wednesday night’s game against the Stony Plain Flyers, past The Record ’s time of publication.

After Game 3 of the series on Sunday, March 8, the Hawks had a one-game lead over the Flyers in a best-of-five series.

Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Stony Plain came with a slow start, with the Flyers posting a 1-0 lead after the first period.

Hawks forward Tyler Wilson responded in kind in the second, knotting the game at one goal apiece. With a scoreless third period, the game was launched into overtime, when Lane Morin scored nine seconds into extra time on the power play.

If the Hawks were unable to win and bring the series to a close on Wednesday night, play will return to the Jubilee Recreation Centre on Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m.

The winner of this series will take on the victor between the North Edmonton Red Wings and the Edmonton Royals in the championship series.

That’s the problem the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks are facing right now, as they wait patiently to find out who their Round 2 playoff matchup will be, starting with a Friday night game.

Because the Hawks had a first-round bye, they’ve just been watching Round 1 of playoffs to see who their opponent would be. However, with two series being pushed to the last possible games — Sherwood Park versus Beaumont, and Strathcona versus Leduc — the Hawks have the potential of playing any one of three teams.

“The only team we know we won’t play is Strathcona. It can be any of the other three,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said.

Despite the waiting game, though, he noted he has no preference of which team to take on.

“We’ve beaten all of them,” Parfett said.

“I think the only one who’s beaten us out of those three was Leduc, but then we beat them 7-0 last time we played them. So we’re not taking any of them lightly. We’ve had close games with all of those teams.

“Beaumont might be a bit less physical than Leduc and Sherwood Park, but playoffs is a different game, and I know they’re going to come playing a playoff-style hockey. We have no real preference.

“In terms of goaltending, Leduc may have the weakest goaltending of the three. But again, there’s not one of the three that we would rather play over another.”

That has left the Hawks with a bit of a challenge in getting ready for what will be their first round of 2015 playoffs, as they essentially prepare for nobody and for three different teams at the same time.

“There are some things we saw from Leduc the last two times we played them — we know how their forecheck is, and then there are some adjustments we made in the last game,” Parfett recalled.

“Thinking about this week, it would be nice to practice that if we knew we were playing Leduc. But if we don’t play them, we don’t want to waste time on that when we could be working on our power play or penalty kill. It’s difficult to prepare for a team when you don’t know who you’re playing.”

He added him and his coaching staff are simply trying to keep practices up-tempo, with work on passing, timing, defensive play, and special teams.

Regardless, the wait is worth it, as the Hawks were able to enjoy the bye week, which allowed players to heal up before taking to competitive play once more.

“We had some players who were kind of banged up from the beginning of this year, and they’re approaching full health again, which is nice,” Parfett said.

“I know our top two lines against Leduc were really clicking, and that was the first time in a while since we’ve had both lines fully healthy.”

That’s not to say the envied free pass through Round 1 doesn’t come without its challenges.

“There’s always the risk in that first-round bye that in the second round, you’re going up against a team that’s already been playing playoff hockey,” Parfett noted.

“It can catch you kind of step behind to start. But the nice thing about the second round is that it’s a five-game series, and not a three-game series, so that gives us a little breathing room. We just need to come out and match the other team’s intensity to start.”

“And the whole team is pretty excited to come out and play playoff hockey. That’s been our goal since they won the league (title) last year. They wanted to get back there again and I think they’ll be ready to go on Friday night.”

The Fort Junior B Hawks learned that the hard way on Sunday, Jan. 18, when a four-goal lead turned into a one-goal loss.

“We’re still kind of shaking our heads over that one,” was how a conversation with Hawks head coach John Parfett kicked off following the Fort demise.

With a scoreless first period, the Hawks were neck-and-neck with the Edmonton Royals heading into the second frame, when they suddenly blew up on the scoreboard.

Consecutive goals from Joey Morin, Mike Green, and Tyler Wilson put the Hawks up 3-0 heading into the final frame, when an early goal from Josh Sinatynski gave the Fort boys a solid 4-0 lead over the Royals.

That was when the Hawks found themselves in trouble.

A five-on-three situation in favour of Edmonton allowed the Royals to find the back of the net for the first time, closing the gap to three goals.

From there, another Royals goal was answered by a goal from Hawk Kyle Barr to widen the lead once more to 5-3.

However, three more Edmonton goals in the third tied things up, sending the game into overtime, when Edmonton pinned the Hawks to the ground and took a 6-5 win.

“At the end of the third period, they came in and tied it up, and we were just sitting there going, ‘What just happened here?’ It was a real strange game, a real frustrating game for us, and a real disappointing game for the players and the coaches,” Parfett said. “There was a lot of discussion between coaches, players’ meetings, meetings players held on their own, and just us talking about what we need to do to focus again and keep moving forward for our last six games.”

He attributed the third-period breakdown to penalty trouble.

“ The unfortunate thing was that between the second and third periods, we asked (the players) what the one thing would be that could change the game, and right away, they knew it would be penalties,” Parfett recalled.

“We said OK, and that you never know what can happen in a game, so we had to make sure we were playing disciplined.”

It was a rough week for the Hawks all around, as Tuesday, Jan. 13 saw the Fort squad fall 6-1 to the Leduc Riggers, who are 24 points behind the Hawks in the standings.

“The Leduc game, we know we had a bad effort,” Parfett said. “That one was just flat out one of those games you just want to put behind you and move on. It was a tough one for us to lose — not that you take any team lightly in the league, but that’s a game that we should have been able to get some points out of.

“It was just a collective bad effort in that game. All the players knew that, they admitted that, we talked about it and moved forward.”

Many more conversations have taken place since, with two losses in less than a week being out of the norm for the Hawks, who once dominated the league with an eight-game win streak.

With the double loss, the Hawks’ first-place holding in the East Division is threatened by the Royals, who have pulled within two points of the top team with six games left to go.

“We lose a lot of breathing room with that,” Parfett said. “If we could have gotten three out of four points in those two games against Leduc and the Royals, we pretty much could have secured first place. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but it would have made it much more difficult for the Royals. Now with them being right there, there’s no room for us to slip up.”

He continued: “We really can only lose one more game out of these last six to still control our destiny... That’s our margin of error right now, is one game.”

That could be a difficult task for the Hawks, who face off against the evenly-matched Morinville Jets on Friday at the Jubilee Rec Centre.

The Hawks currently have 45 points and with a record of 22-9-0-1, it’s difficult to pick a favourite for the upcoming game, as Morinville’s 44 points come off a record of 21-9-0-2.

The Hawks-Jets game will see at 8 p.m. puck drop.

The Hawks have proven to be a force in the standings, still holding first place in the Capital Junior Hockey League. But now, the roster has proven to be a force of its own.

Saturday will see the annual CJHL All Star games hosted in Beaumont, with rosters from the main All-Star game and Rookie game boasting a total of eight players from the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks.

Heading to the main game, as chosen by the league, are Hawk powerhouses Lane Morin and Justin Ferris, along with goalie Tyler Berger.

Currently, Berger has a record of 12-5 on the season in net, boasting a save percentage of .902, with 525 saves on 582 shots.

Morin and Ferris were selected at a time when they held two of the top five positions for scoring leaders in the division, giving them automatic passage to the top-tiered roster.

Morin currently has 49 points on the season, putting him in first place in the division and third place in the league, divided among 18 goals and 31 assists.

Ferris isn’t far behind, being the fourth top point earner in the division and 14th in the league with 38, between 21 goals and 17 assists. However, Ferris’ pull to the all-star match came with a bit of a unique situation in a league normally dominated by veteran players.

“Justin is actually a rookie, but the league felt that because he was in the Top 5, it was important for him to go to the main game and not the rookie game, so that worked out well for him,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said.

Beyond players selected by the league to play in the Jan. 10 matchups, teams get to send one forward and one defenceman to each of the all-star matchups.

For the All-Star game, that means sending Tyler Wilson (37 points, with 16 goals and 21 assists) — who Parfett noted fell just outside the Top 5 rankings when the team was selected — and Tanner Kress (two goals and 10 assists for 12 points).

“It’s actually nice to get that many guys going — definitely to have two guys in the Top 5, and Tyler Wilson wasn’t far out from that at the time,” Parfett said. “He was right there with them and might have been the sixth leading scorer at the time.”

Kress was able to earn the spot after it was originally offered to Hawks veteran Nick Veenstra, who turned it down for personal reasons.

Going to the Rookie game are Fort players Josh Spicer (three goals and one assist) and Mason Younger (five goals and 20 assists), as chosen by the Hawks’ coaching staff, as well as league-selected goalie Micah Bonneville.

The secondary goalie’s 11 games in net for the Hawks have earned him a record of 9-2, with a save percentage of .933, saving 387 of 415 shots.

“It definitely means a lot for the players, and the game really is about the players,” Parfett said of the all-star games.

Parfett continued: “It’s a chance for them to go out in a non-pressure situation and show off their skills. It’s really a recognition of their skills and their efforts, so it really, really is all about the players.”

And he should know.

When the team was selected, the Hawks held the No. 1 position in the East Division, making it so Parfett and his staff will be coaching the all-star squads on Saturday.

“For us as coaches, it’s really just about letting the guys get out there and enjoy the game,” he said of the opportunity, adding: “Anytime you play a game, you want to win. And we’ll do what we need to do to give ourselves that opportunity to win, but again, this is about all the players who have been selected from all the teams.

“So it’s more about kind of just opening the gate, letting them go out there and have fun. Our message to them would just be to enjoy the day and enjoy the game, and to compete like they would always compete. But again, it’s about recognition for them and what they’ve accomplished this year, so they should take the time to enjoy it.”

Regardless of the outcome, Parfett noted he was happy to see so many off his roster fly to the battle of the best, noting there are numerous other players who could have made the cut.

“We have a lot of players having a really good year this year at different times, and the Catch 22 with them is that you can only send a handful of players,” he said.

“We’re fortunate that we’re sending quite a few to the games, but that’s not to exclude a bunch of other players who are having really strong years with our team, as well.”

Sunday marked the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks’ eighth consecutive win — a streak that began on Nov. 21, and continued over the weekend with a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Royals and a 5-3 victory against the Stony Plain Flyers.

“I think (the streak is) a combination of things,” said Hawks head coach John Parfett. “It definitely has a lot to do with the core players that we have who had gone through this last year — they know how to win.

“A lot of them had that experience through their minor hockey careers, and then the success they had last year, being able to get the wins again this year develops their confidence in how they play.

“What I find with this group, and what I found with a lot of these players when I coached them in Midget AA, is that when you’re in a close game, if they get down a goal or a goal gets scored against them, it doesn’t shake their confidence. They’re able to go out and keep playing, get back in the game and do what it takes to win.”

Beyond the players’ character lending to the streak, Parfett noted they’ve been receptive to key areas of focus since the start of the season.

“Discipline was one, and we have been able to cut our penalty minutes down. That’s led to some of our success, as well,” he explained.

“The defensive end, we worked a lot on and we do still have some work to do on that, but that’s helped us a lot, as well. And our goaltending has been rock solid. Those things all help.”

And it doesn’t hurt having a bit of depth in the lineup this year, he added.

“Our first two lines are providing a lot of our scoring, and they’re veterans from last year, and then the players who are coming in this year have actually really developed well and fit in well with the lineup, and they’re contributing, as well,” Parfett said. “It’s just a combination of everything that’s been working so far.”

The Hawks have a chance to round their winning streak up to 10 games this weekend, with the final two matchups before the Christmas break.

On Friday, the Fort squad will face the Beverley Warriors, followed by a Saturday head-to-head with the Edmonton Mustangs.

“We built some pretty good room in the standings now and especially in our division,” Parfett noted, with the Hawks holding an eight-point lead over the second-place Royals.

“The game that we had on Friday against the Royals was a big game for us, because they’re the team that was chasing us in our division, so we were able to get a bit of a cushion against them. But you don’t want to give that up in the last couple of games.

“We want to finish strong going into the break, and that would set us up well for our final 10 games before we get into playoffs. We do look at these as important games.”

And luckily for the Hawks, Friday night’s game against the Warriors is on home ice at the Jubilee Rec Centre, where the local skaters have been boasting a streak of another kind.

Since opening day on the season, the Hawks have won every single game played at the JRC.

“I know it goes against coaches’ superstition (to say), but we haven’t lost a game at home yet this season and I think a lot of that has to do with the really good support we’ve been getting, which has been tremendous this year,” Parfett said.

“The players are really comfortable playing at the JRC this year, and I think that’s kind of spilled over into our record, as well. That’s another streak we have going, and it’s one you hate to mention because you could jinx it, but whether we end up losing a game at home this weekend or in January, the positive is it’s been a really good streak.”

The Hawks-Warriors matchup will take place at the JRC at 8 p.m. on Friday, before the Junior puck handlers head back on the road to play the Mustangs.

Three games over the past week have resulted in a three-game win streak for the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks, with wins over the Leduc Riggers (6-1), the Wetaskiwin Icemen (7-2), and the rival Sherwood Park Knights (3-1).

“It definitely feels good when you’re winning games, but more so than that, there have been some positive signs with some of the things we’ve been trying to work on, so it’s good to see some results,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said.

Throughout November, the Hawks have gone 7-1, with their lone loss being a 6-4 tumble to the Edmonton Royals on Nov. 16.

The seven wins, though, are what are really important to Parfett, with all but one November game being against division opponents.
“We knew this month was important to us in terms of getting into position to be able to make playoffs,” he said.

“And if we could do well this month, it would set us up well. So we’re pretty happy with the results. We’ve got one game left in the month on Sunday against Strathcona, so we’re not out of it yet, but we’re definitely happy with how things have gone so far this month.”

Last time the Hawks and Strathcona Bruins faced off on Nov. 7, the Fort boys played up a 6-1 victory. Still, that doesn’t mean the Hawks can take the Strathcona squad lightly.

“If you look at their stats, they don’t score a lot of goals, but I know they were missing quite a few players out of their lineup, including probably their best offensive player — who hasn’t played, actually, since their second or third game of the season — and that’s Keagan Gorda,” Parfett explained.

“And they’ve been missing some other key players too. We know they’re a good team, though, and that they have good goaltending. We have to continue to play the way we’ve been playing, and then focus on playing strong defensively in our own end, and minimizing penalties.”

The Hawks and Bruins will go head-to-head on Sunday, Nov. 30 at 3:30 p.m. in Strathcona.

The defending Capital Junior B Hockey League champion Fort Saskatchewan Hawks were cruising along nicely as winners of five in a row and seven of their last eight games — including a 7-2 over the Beaumont Chiefs on Friday — to sit in first place in the East Division at 11-6-0 entering Sunday’s road game against the second-place Edmonton Royals, who were 10-7-0.

The Hawks actually had a decent start to the contest, taking a 2-0 lead on goals by Jordan Baillie and Joey  Morin before allowing the Royals to tie it up heading into the second period.

The Edmonton squad kept it coming with three more goals to start the second frame and lead 5-2, adding one more before a scoreless third period to win 6-4.
Morin and Justin Ferris had the other goals in the loss for the Hawks, while Mik Mykietyshyn had a monster game for the Hawks with a hat trick and two assists.
Hawks head coach John Parfett wasn’t thrilled with the overall showing in such a big four-point game.

“It was a game that we were looking at as a test as we are competing with the Royals for top spot,” he said. “We knew they were a good team and they are a very similar team to us. We were happy with how the game started, but they fought back and the wheels kind of fell off the bus for us in the second period. They ended up with three power play goals on us. Penalties have been plaguing us a bit this year. We have been trying to get the team to realize that when we get to the playoffs that is something we have to minimize. We failed that test on Sunday and allowed them those power play opportunities which had a big factor in the game. We also had two defencemen missing from the lineup and then had another one get hurt in the game, which didn’t help.”

That said, Parfett admits that a loss like the one to the Royals can make it easier for a coach to get his message through and can be more instructive to the big picture of a season than when wins were coming easier as they were in the weeks leading into the defeat.

“You don’t want the teachable moments to come in a big game like that, but the reality is that it wouldn’t have made any difference it was against another team, you are still giving up those points,” he said. “At the end of the day the game ended up close and we had an opportunity to get back into it, the second period just did us in. There were definitely some teaching opportunities from what happened to us in that game.”

Overall, Parfett said the Hawks are on a pretty good pace to mount a run at defending their CJHL title this season.

“I’m pretty happy with the way the things have gone,” he said.

“The core of the team is back. We have veteran players who have been producing and how the new players have developed and are filling big roles offensively and defensively. I think we are in a good place, overall. There are some things we need to work on, like our discipline and our defensive zone coverage. Up until this last game I was really happy with how it was going because we have been decreasing our goals against."

"Six goals was a bit more than we want to be giving up, but those games are going to happen every now and then. We have been seeing some improvements, but we still have some work to do to be where we need to be at by the playoffs," Parfett added.

The Hawks have a pair of games this weekend, facing the Riggers (4-11-0-1) in Leduc on Friday before returning home to take on the Wetaskiwin Icemen (4-12-0-1) on Sunday at 7:15 p.m. at the Jubilee Arena.

With returning goalie Nolan Noyen taking a couple of months away from the Fort Saskatchewan Junior B Hawks to attend school in Red Deer, Micah Bonneville has taken the No. 2 spot behind starter Tyler Berger.

And the Hawks couldn’t be happier.

“Micah came into the program with the right attitude,” Hawks head coach John Parfett said of the first-year goalie.

“He knew we had three goalies going into this season — Noyen and Tyler Berger — from last year. But Noyen is gone now... so this was an opportunity for Micah, and looking at the future of the Hawks, we’re looking for somebody who can replace them, because Noyen and Berger will both be overage players next year. It’s nice to have a strong goalie in the system.”

Bonneville went 2-1 over his first three game starting in net for the Hawks, with wins against the Beaumont Chiefs and the Edmonton Royals. The lone loss came against the Wetaskiwin Icemen on Sept. 21.

To date, Bonneville has allowed 10 goals on 113 shots faced for a save percentage of .912 and a goals against average of 3.33.

“He works hard in practices, and he stays late after practices and works with our equipment guy, who is an ex-goaltender and has been working with Micah,” Parfett said.

“He’s been sticking around after practices and working with him, so he’s got the attitude that he wants to get better. He’s worked hard at it and I think it’s showing.”

Still, Parfett said that at this point, it’s not going to come down to game-by-game decisions of Boneville and Berger battling for a starting position. With Berger having proven himself between the pipes, helping the Hawks to their first league championship in 41 years last season, Parfett noted it’s simply nice to know that should Bonneville get the nod, he’ll be able to get the job done.

“We’ll hopefully be able to rely on Tyler, but now that we have Micah, the team is confident with two strong goalies,” he explained.

“I think we’ll probably give him more opportunities, but we are going to rely on Tyler more throughout the year. He proved himself as a No. 1 goalie last year, and he hasn’t done anything to make us think otherwise this year. But Micah is challenging him, which is great.”

With the Capital Junior Hockey League compiling a list of top goalies, based on goalies who have played any amount of games, Bonneville currently holds the No. 10 position, while Berger — who has played more games — is right behind him at No. 12.

Berger, who has been with the Hawks since the 2012-2013 season, has gone 3-2 when starting in net this year, with 18 goals against on 169 shots. With a save percentage of .893, Berger has allowed an average of 3.60 goals per game over five starts.

Noyen has played two games with the Hawks so far this season, with a record of 2-0 in net, finding victories over the North Edmonton Red Wings and the Morinville Jets. With nine goals allowed on 46 shots, Noyen has a goals against average of 6.07 with a save percentage of .804.

The Hawks’ next matchup will be against the rival Strathcona Bruins — who the Hawks beat in Game 1 of the season — at the Jubilee Rec Centre on Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.

But the season is still young.

Following a tight 3-2 win over the Beaumont Chiefs last Friday, Junior B Hawks head coach John Parfett picked out points of imperfection for the local squad, while focusing on the positives, as well.

And to be fair, the Friday night victory was one that went against the numbers.

The Hawks were outshot 40-23 on shots, and suffered seven penalties compared to Beaumont’s two.

“Shot stats can be deceiving, too. It really depends on where the shots are coming from,” Parfett said.

“Beaumont plays a pretty simple game. They dump pucks in and take shots from everywhere, so in terms of actual goal-scoring chances, I think it was actually a little bit closer than the shot count indicated.

“But Beaumont is a hard working team. They don’t give you a lot and they have pretty solid goaltending, as well, but (goaltender Micah Bonneville) made some big saves for us at key times.”

Still, there are areas of repair to key in on.

“Late penalties hurt us again,” Parfett noted.

“(The Chiefs’) second goal late in the third period wasn’t off a very timely penalty for us, but that’s something we have to focus on a bit that’s been a bit of a problem for us. We decided we wanted to play a bit more aggressive, but we initiated quite a few of those penalties.”

Those quick fixes are issues being focused on for the weekend, as the Hawks ready for a Friday night rematch against the Wetaskiwin Icemen — the first team to beat them in the regular season, back in early September.

“We actually made adjustments after the first period in that game, based on our forecheck,” Parfett said, adding: “That kind of tightened the game up, and we know what they like to do. We know what to expect.”

The Hawks will look to heat up against the Icemen on Friday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. at the Jubilee Recreation Centre.

“On Nov. 2, the Junior B men will head on the highway to Beverley, where they will play the Warriors, before a rivalry matchup against the Sherwood Park Knights on Nov. 4.