Flat play, penalty woes put damper on Jacks’ weekend
After winning just one of three, Wellesley now looking to step things up against divisional leaders
IT WAS A ROUGH-ANDTUMBLE weekend for the Wellesley Applejacks, who paid the price for all of the whistles and penalties en route to taking just two points from three games.
After losses to New Hamburg (5-2) and Norwich (54), the Jacks finally broke out to romp over Burford by a score of 8-1.
Starting out the weekend, trips to the box set the pace in New Hamburg on Friday night, as the Jacks were unable to get much going while playing shorthanded much of the evening.
“We just have to stay away from that stuff. We spent a lot of energy killing penalties that night, and we never really recuperated from that,” explained head coach Brad Gerber. “Things just didn’t really go. We made it 3-2 midway through the third, but we just didn’t seem to have the energy that night to pull it off.”
The boys spent a combined total of 18 minutes out of the first period in the penalty box on calls like roughing, crosschecking, interference and fighting. The Firebirds were able to capitalize.
The Jacks hosted the Norwich Merchants the following night, and once again, Gerber says the guys just couldn’t get it right.
“It was the same kind of thing. We just didn’t come out on the ice with the work ethic that we need,” he said, adding that he knows the team is capable of more. “We didn’t create the chances, Norwich outworked us. I thought we played only about 10 minutes that night, and we lost 5-4. It just goes to show, that if we play the way we talked about, and how I know we can play, we will be fine, but we have to bring that ethic every night or you aren’t going to win in this league.”
Sunday afternoon’s matinee game was a completely different story. The Jacks turned it around and managed to salvage two points from their three-game run last weekend.
Gerber says he was pleasantly surprised by the work the team put in against the Burford Bulldogs on home ice. The final score was 8-1 in favour of the Jacks.
“When you have a threegame weekend, sometimes you worry about the third game a little bit with energy levels and guys getting tired, but we played with a lot of energy,” he said. “It was a nice surprise, and we finally got rewarded with some pucks going into the net for us. We were happy to get at least two points out of the weekend.”
Sunday’s afternoon game was the last home game for the Jacks for a little while, with the Wellesley arena hosting the International Silver Stick tournament this coming weekend. But, soon the Applejacks will be back on home ice for nearly the rest of the regular season.
“It is a long time on the road. We have played a lot of road games already, and after this little stretch here, we only have two or three more road games to go, compared to 10 or 11 at home,” said Gerber. “We are looking forward to getting through this part of the schedule. We had a really busy November. We played lots of hockey in lots of three-game weekends. Then hopefully, we can get some good home wins going there.”
During their weekend on the road, the Jacks will be visiting the top two teams in the division, Ayr and Paris. Gerber says the team is prepped for the upcoming challenge.
“Ayr are in first place, and we are finally starting to get healthy and getting guys back from suspensions. It is a good challenge for the guys, it really is,” said Gerber. “We talked to them a bit about it after the game on Sunday and more at practice on Wednesday. I think the guys are excited. We have the two teams that are ahead of us, and hopefully we can make up some ground.”