Wolves look forward after disappointing weekend with two losses

The Jasper Wolves played at home twice last weekend, losing to Edson Friday night 4-5 and Onoway on Saturday night 3-5.

The team played hard on both evenings but according to their captain Kent Paterson they just had “a lot of bad luck this weekend and just didn’t get any breaks”. Alex Derksen seconded this, and said they almost had the opposition in each game. He was not prepared to make excuses for the losses but said that the team worked hard coming from all areas “for the love of the game”.

According to Paterson the two games offered Jasperites the opportunity to see some “old-school hockey tactics” on the Friday night, while Saturday’s game against Onoway was a true flowing game with more skill involved. He said he was disappointed by the losses but thought the team played well considering their recent injuries and other personal commitments, including a local wedding which meant six players arrived back early Friday morning from a two-week break. “We’re going to get better,” Paterson said. “We were missing five or six key players and now they’re all coming back, no more vacations. We’ll be better.”

The team looks forward to welcoming back some real form as well as some other players this week and while the two losses puts the Wolves on a six game losing streak, both Derksen and Paterson were happy to guarantee two wins next weekend for Jasperites. Paterson noted that the team had a definite home-town advantage saying the local support was “amazing”.

“This weekend we played the top two teams in the league and we played well, we showed up and gave it to them and next weekend... I’m going to guarantee two wins,” said Paterson. “And, I’ll back up that guarantee,” said Derksen. The team will face Fox Creek and Lamont on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon respectively.

Despite the losses, the team didn’t go down without a fight in either game. The end of the Edson game was a nail-biting affair as the Wolves pulled their goalie in the last minute making it six on four due to a penalty. While the last period of the Onoway game had Jasper double its shots at goal they still couldn’t secure a victory, with Rob Olson scoring the only goal for the team in that period. 

The other two goal scorers for the Onoway game were Jordan McIntyre, who scored a shorthanded goal in the first period, and the Derksen brothers worked together to get the only goal in the second period. Alex Derksen was excited to have shared the goal with his brother Jake. Rob Olson and Rockson Yoo also scored one goal each in Fridays game while McIntyre scored two.

The Wolves may have skated away without victory but they were not without injury, Alex Derksen suffered a broken nose in the last period against Onoway and Kevin Masson was assisted off the ice during the second period in the same game. Derksen said it was the first time he’d taken a hit like that and come away with such a injury.