The Parkland Rangers earned three of a possible four points last week to stay in the race in the Manitoba AAA U18 Hockey League.
Nolan Kozak’s second goal of the game 2:17 into overtime lifted the Yellowhead Chiefs to a 4-3 win over Parkland, Nov. 25 in Dauphin.
On Friday in Dauphin, Noah Smigelsky scored once and added a pair of assists to lead the Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Interlake Lightning.
Rangers head coach Rick Freese felt the Rangers played well at times on Friday, but feels they have to be better in the defensive zone.
“Our neutral zone steer got better today. Those two teams are indicative of the whole league. There’s four points between third and eighth, so we have to make sure we’re on every night,” he said.
“And we have to hate getting scored on more than we like scoring goals. We’ve got the fire power. We’ve got nothing but fire power here. But we have to make sure we’re defensively sound.”
The third period, Freese said, was a perfect example of how well the Rangers can play defensively, as they sealed the wall against Interlake, limiting the Lightning to just six shots.
“Twenty minutes of sealing the wall is one thing. But we’ve got to do it for 60. So we’re getting there. We’re getting better, but we’ve got some work to do, for sure,” he said.
The work ethic has gotten better since the start of the season.
“Holding players accountable is the only thing coaches can do. We control their ice time. That’s the only thing we can control. But, yeah, I think work ethic has gotten better in the last two months,” Freese said.
“But we’re in the dog days now and you’ve got to find ways to be a contributor, especially the bottom six guys. Sometimes those top six guys start to get worn out a bit in the dog days. So we want those bottom six guys to step up a little bit.”
The Rangers won’t get much practice time in this week as they are on the road, Tuesday and Wednesday.
They face the Chiefs in a rematch, Tuesday in Shoal Lake before heading to Brandon on Wednesday to play the Wheat Kings.
At 11-5-4-0 for 26 points, Parkland trails Brandon by five points and will look to close that gap.
On Friday, the Pembina Valley Hawks will provide the opposition at Credit Union Place in Dauphin at 7:30 p.m.
When the Rangers do hit the ice for practice, the focus will continue to be improving their defensive play.
“Offensively, we’re talented and we can do things down low, but we have to support our teammates a little better in how we enter the offensive zone as a unit, so we’ll work on that this week,” Freese said.
