Fuelled by the community. Those are the four words that come to mind when I recap the Canucks weekend.
A season in any league is a grind. Every team goes through their bumps and bruises, their ups and downs. There always comes that time in the year usually somewhere in the middle when the weather turns cold and the days are short that makes everyday at
work, school or the rink just a bit more of a grind. Now even though the Canucks were coming off a tough loss in which they led the Raiders until 5 minutes left only to come up with no points, the team had been playing very well since the break winning
its first three games. There was a good feeling in the room in January and the boost we would get Friday night was the extra fuel in the tank that the Nuckers needed. It came in the form of Community Club Night and the Civic Centre 50th Birthday.
When you start the game by honouring the St. James Civic Centre for 50 years of ice sports, with dignitaries such as Greg Selinger, Jim Rondeau, Deanne Crothers and Scott Gillingham to name a few on hand to take part, it gives the game a little more
meaning. Throw in hundreds of screaming young hockey players and just over 600 in attendance and you have a substantial amount of “fuel for the fire”. It never ceases to amaze me the effect that a community can have on a hockey team. It definetly helped
inspire our team as we went on to win the game 8-0. Mitchell Lockhart led the way with a hat trick and Tyler Wiess recorded his first career shutout. The game was filled with great goals, spectacular saves and a few good tilts thats brought the crowd to
its feet on more than a couple of occasions.
On Sunday the team continued its winning ways defeating Transcona 7-3 and on Monday defeating St. Boniface 5-1. That is a huge 6 points for the Nuckers and puts them in a tie for 4th place. The team has now won 7 of it’s last 8 and has gone 8-2 in their
last 10 games. In the last three games, the Nuckers have scored 20 goals and allowed 4. The Canucks now have 4 players in the top 15 league scorers. Lockhart (4th in league scoring) with 22 goals and 44 points. Stire (10th) with 19 goals and 37 points.
Hill (12th) 11 goals and 33 points, and Arnason (14th) 16 goals and 32 points. All are career high’s for each player. Tyler Wiess has been dominant in net in the month of January. He is 5-0 with a 1.80 Goals Against Average and a .940 save percentage.
This weekend will pose a huge test for the Nuckers. They will look to win over the only team they haven’t defeated this season, the rival Charleswood Hawks. On Sunday they will travel to Stonewall to face a team that has been chasing them in the
standings. It makes for an exciting weekend and hopefully the Canucks can continue to gain momentum which started the game before Christmas and got an injection of “fuel” last Friday night at the Civic Centre. Thanks again for the community support, the
Canucks appreciated every body in the stands last Friday night and look forward to seeing you out again as we make our stretch drive.