CANORA - “It shows the character of this squad,” said U15 Highway 9 Predators Coach Terry Demchuk.
After qualifying for the A Final in a fairly complicated tie-breaking formula, the Highway 9 Predators, made up of players from Canora and a number of other area communities, defeated the Park Posse 6-4 to win the championship of their home tournament on Nov. 2 and 3.
In addition to the Preds and the Posse, the other four teams entered were: Indian Head Chiefs, Yorkton Medicine Shoppe, Tisdale White Ramblers and the Humboldt Broncos.
The teams were split into two pools for round robin play, with the first-place teams qualifying for the A Final, the second-place teams in the B Final, and the third place teams met in the C Final.
The Preds opened the tournament against Tisdale, and their chances of winning a championship did not look good early. But after the White Ramblers scored in the opening minute of the first period, the Preds came back to tie the game before the end of the period. The teams traded goals early in the second, before the Preds took the lead for good and stretched it to 6-2 by the final whistle.
The second and final round robin game hooked up the Preds against the Humboldt Broncos, who had also won their first game, meaning this was a battle for first place in Pool A.
After a scoreless first period, the home team built a 2-0 lead by scoring twice on a five-on-three power play in the second period. But the tenacious Broncos kept coming and scored twice in the third period for a final score of 2-2.
That meant the Preds and Broncos were tied for first place in the pool. By a tie-breaking factor of only .067, the Preds finished first and were off to the A Final on Sunday against the Park Posse, with players from Kelvington, Porcupine Plain, Archerwill and Rose Valley.
For the second time in the tournament, the Preds gave up a goal in the opening minute of the first period, and once again the home team rallied, this time battling to a 2-2 tie by the first intermission. A shorthanded breakaway goal by Gavin Erickson of Preeceville sent the Preds into the third period with a 3-2 lead.
In the final period, the Preds scored first, but Humboldt then found the net twice for a 4-4 tie headed into the final stages of the game. With only about three minutes left in the third, Zarin Godhe of Buchanan put the Preds ahead for good when he jammed in the puck after a mad scramble in front of the Humboldt net. An empty-net goal for the Preds made the final score 6-4.
Preds Coach Terry Demchuk was pleased with the tournament championship, especially since this was the team’s first game action of the young season.
“It’s valuable in assessing line combinations, special teams and developing better systems on the bench for coaches as well,” said Demchuk. “We have a large squad and it can become difficult to make sure players all have opportunities in most given situations. Early season games like this establish that as a large team everybody needs to be accountable to their teammates in terms of effort. Once a team establishes that, they can all work towards the common goal of being able to have four equal lines and every shift being as important as the last. I think that this weekend has laid the foundation that, if effort is provided across the roster, we can compete.”
Demchuk said it was good to see that the Preds outworked the competition throughout most of the tournament, “except half of a period, and it showed on the scoreboard. From the two goaltenders (Mason Reine of Canora and Emmett Lukey of Norquay) outward, our penalty kill was very good.”
Composure is something that Demchuk feels the Preds need to work on.
“We lost it in a half period to Humboldt when we started running around and developing some failsafes to deal with teams pressing. We need to work a bit more on our special teams, more specifically our power play, which became a little unorganized.”
Demchuk would like to see the Preds remain very difficult to play against while reducing the amount of penalties received. Even strength play was good for most of the tournament.
“We outshot our opponents about 2-1 and that bodes well for us,” he said. “In two of the games we weren’t quite ready and gave up early opportunities resulting in being a goal down within the first minute. But the character of this team is that, given the chance, we will outwork the other team and that is definitely comforting, even if you are down on the scoreboard.”
Members of the 2024/25 U15 Highway 9 Predators are: Cameron Sznerch, Wade Vangen, Shiloh Leson, Declan Lowe, Caden Doogan, Emmett Demchuk, Ashton Strelioff, Kasen Heshka and Mason Reine of Canora; Emmett Lukey, Lise Nokinsky and Nate Korpusik of Norquay; Ethan Balawyder, Bostin Smith, Gavin Erickson, Carter Moekerk and Henrie Bertram of Preeceville; Levi Coleman and Keltyn Konkel of Sturgis; Carson Chernoff and Seth Symak of Kamsack, and Zarin Godhe of Buchanan.
Joining Demchuk are assistant coaches Jeff Sznerch of Canora, Jared Lukey and Jesse Nokinsky of Norquay, and Riley Erickson of Preeceville.
“We have two more tournaments in November to get the whole team up to speed as well as four league home games starting Nov. 15 in Canora.”
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