It has been a long cold winter for the Jasper Wolves, playing 15 games straight without a single win. That was until Sunday, when persistence paid off and the team turned around to beat the Drayton Valley Wildcats 4 – 1 on home ice.

The last time they played the Wildcats the game went to a shoot out, so when the team was up 2 -1 at the end of the first they weren’t ready to ease up.

“We had a loss on a lead before in other games, so nobody wanted to back off at all,” said Wolves player Jake Derksen.

But the Wildcats left Jasper with just one goal on a power play in the first, while Jasper skated their hearts out.

For some players the victory was extra sweet, as it wasn’t just the first win of the season, but the first win in senior hockey.

“It’s pretty good for all the guys that haven’t played before, and they played really hard. Everybody’s improved a lot... even for guys like Kent Paterson and Brandon Luong because they drive up from Calgary every weekend,” said Derksen.

The team seemed to come to a consensus that goalie Ryan Verge helped seal the deal. The words ‘Wolves on the Verge’ were chanted at celebrations after the game.

“As Ryan was playing a great game, everybody else can play with a little bit more confidence and that works well with our team,” explained Derksen. “We have a lot of guys that are really strong offensively, but not defensively. Jamie’s (Black) goal is a good example of that.”

Black managed to finish the game with four points, scoring the second goal in the first assisted by Jeremy Journault, and the first in the third assisted by Rob Olson and Kent Paterson.

Other goal scorers for the game were Royd Irwin, assisted by Jamie Black and Kent Paterson, and Taylor Van Tighem, assisted by Rob Olson and Jamie Black.

With just one regular season game, and one re-scheduled game left in the season, the Wolves are ready to face Drayton Valley again in the play-offs. This time, with no monkey on their back.

“The confidence will help us out... now the guys know what it feels like to win it could really help us out for play-offs,” said Derksen.

The next Wolves game is in Edson on Saturday Jan. 23 at 7:45 p.m.