Sports | DrumhellerMail

Senior Titans improving down the stretch

The Senior Titans, despite a close loss versus Brooks, are showing a winning attitude down the stretch.

The Titans were in Brooks last Friday night. Despite coming up short, falling 28-27, coach Ken Fournier says the team has made progress.

“We had to crawl back into it, but it looks like we finally got over that hump of getting scored on and giving up,” said Fournier. “The moral victory was definitely there.”

The Titans went down by two touchdowns in the first quarter, but they clawed back.

“It was a pretty wild fourth quarter. It was a really good game, our guys needed it. They needed to see that if you take away a couple of those mental errors in the first quarter, we are right in these games,” said Fournier.

This bodes well for the remaining of the season.

Currently the Titans are ranked ninth in the province at the Tier IV, despite sporting a 1-5 record.

“Obviously this year we are in such a strong league. The last three or four weeks we have been hanging in there with some really strong top Tier III level teams,” he said.

This weekend the Titans play Strathmore. Last week Strathmore got the best of the Titans. Coach Fournier hopes the Titans can return the favour.

“We are looking to put everything together as we head down the stretch,” he said.

He hopes to get his team as much experience as they can heading into the post season.

“We are young in a lot of areas, the defense is young. We have a lot of Grade 10s starting in spots, in key roles. So, we are going to need them to get as many reps as they can to learn and understand. Going into provincials we need to have all these guys ready.”

The team also has the option to bring up Grade 9 players when they are finished their season. Coach Fournier has been having them come for practice.

Dragons take 4-3 overtime win over Oil Barons Friday

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The Drumheller Dragons, after three weeks on the road, hosted the Fort McMurray Oil Barons Friday night at the Drumheller Memorial Arena. They didn’t stay home long though, heading back on the road to Calgary Saturday to face the Canucks for the second time in a week.

The Canucks stole the show Saturday, taking a 5-0 win over the Dragons.

Friday night was a repeat of the October 9 game in Fort McMurray, at least in regulation.

At 12:45 of the first period Matt Muzyka put the home team on the board but less than five minutes later, the Oil Barons’ Brett Edwards scored two back-to-back goals. Shortly after, the Dragons’ Levi Wunder scored his ninth of the season, unassisted, to tie the game at two each by the end of the first period.

With no scoring in the second period, Muzyka scored his second of the game to give the Dragons their second lead of the night 56 seconds into the third period. With less than five minutes left in the game, the Oil Barons’ Landon Welykholowa tied it once again to force an overtime period.

Just 21 seconds into the overtime period, newcomer Isaac Schacher scored for the Dragons to give the team their first win since facing the Grande Prairie Storm in the AJHL Showcase on October 3.

“Lets call it spade to spade, we’ve been playing some awful hockey. This really was a big step for us. There is so much more to go, but this is defiantly a better start. We just need to get on a little bit of a run the other way and start building that confidence. (The players) competed much better tonight since they have eight games, other than Grande Prairie, this is a much better effort. Slowly but surely they got it more tonight. When you start getting confidence and you start believing that things will work and just give it that extra every time you play then I think you’ll start seeing this team play and you won’t even recognize it by Christmas time,” Head Coach and General Manager Brian Curran said.

The Dragons will now travel to Spruce Grove tonight (Wednesday) to face the Saints at 7 p.m. before hosting the Calgary Canucks on Friday (October 23). Game time will be 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Arena. The team will then head to Olds to face the Grizzlys the next day.

Dragons’ Ryan Chynoweth named AJHL player of the week

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The Canalta Hotels Alberta Junior ‘A’ Hockey League (AJHL) Player of the Week is Ryan Chynoweth of the Drumheller Dragons. Chynoweth scored five goals and eight points in three games played from September 28 – October 4, 2015.

The impressive week included a game winning goal on September 28 versus the Calgary Mustangs, and a hat trick on October 1 during the Annual AJHL Showcase.

Chynoweth was selected as the Viterra AJHL Player of the Game in two of the three games last week.

Chynoweth of Cranbrook, British Columbia, is enjoying a five game point streak totalling 11 points. The 20 year old forward leads the Dragons in scoring and is tied for 4th in the AJHL Scoring Race with 14 points. This is Chynoweth’s first AJHL season.

The Dragons travel to Fort McMurray to face the Oil Barons tonight (Friday) before heading to Bonnyville to face the Pontiacs on Saturday night. The Dragons next home game is Friday, October 16 when they will host the Oil Barons. Game time at Memorial Arena will be 7:30 p.m.

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