The Northwest Junior Hockey League’s 2017-18 regular season opened up over the weekend.
And things didn’t turn out well at all for the North Peace Navigators, as they now have a 0-and-2 record to start things up.
First, on Friday, September 22, 2017, they fell in their home opener to the County of Grande Prairie JDA Kings 4-2 at the Peace River’s Baytex Energy Centre. The next day, the Navs got destroyed on the road, falling to the Dawson Creek Junior Canucks by a score of 6-nothing.
“I thought our home opener against (the JDA Kings) was a very good game,” said Navs Head Coach Ken Quinney. “Our players stuck to the game plan, and both outshot and out-chanced them. But, we make a couple of mistakes, and Grande Prairie capitalized on them.
“Our game against Dawson Creek was an entire different matter altogether,” he continued. “We started strong in the first period, got into a little penalty trouble later on, and Dawson Creek capitalized on it. And as a result, we could not get our game back on track.”
Quinney says it was a hard lesson to learn, but it was an important one to learn as well.
“We’re just going to stick to our plan that we’ve been working on,” he said. “We’ve got some discipline issues that we do need to work on, and get everybody committed to the game plan here. I think the team will do just fine this upcoming weekend.”
The Fairview Flyers, though they did play over the weekend, didn’t quite start their season yet. They played the final pre-season exhibition game of the year on Saturday, and they were victorious, taking it 5-2 over the Beaverlodge Blades at the Fairplex.
“It’s exhibition action, so we were just trying out a bunch of different players, in different situations, and trying things out with them,” said Flyers Head Coach Lance Wiebe. “We’ve got some new guys in the line-up, so we’re just taking things as they go.”
The Flyers are set to play their home opener on Friday, September 29, 2017, when they play host to the North Peace Navigators at the Fairplex at 8 PM.
“We just need to keep things fairly simple, and just put the game plan into motion,” said Wiebe. “(The Navs) are going to be out for redemption this after a tough final series last year. It’s a tight little rivalry (the Flyers and the Navs) have, and it’s also shown to be good hockey, and exciting for both the players, and for the fans as well.”
The Navs also have a game coming up on Saturday, when they continue on the road to Beaverlodge to take on the Blades.
– Posted by BET
