The Delisle Chiefs have climbed themselves to a respectable 12-10-2 on the season this year in the Prairie Junior Hockey League, as the break approaches after a very ugly start for the west central team.
They just had a four game winning streak snapped that had followed up another win streak for Delisle, and the recent losses came in back-to-back fashion against a pair of teams from Saskatoon. The Quakers would beat the Chiefs 7-3 on Wednesday, and then the Royals took the win 5-3 yesterday.
Chiefs Head Coach and General Manager Eric Ditto, who just recently passed 300 career PJHL games behind the bench, shared a bit about the tough stretch entering Saturday’s final game of the first half. The team was coming to the end of a stretch that saw them play five games in eight nights against some tough opponents.
“We were hoping to take some points, and we did early, but losing the last two wasn’t a good feeling. Hopefully we can go into the break with a couple of points.”
Delisle’s recent stretch has also been tattered with player absences. A cold has made its way through the room and the team does have a good amount of injuries to deal with, but with most of their players in university, this time of year certainly creates some roster instability.
“Most of our guys are in university and it’s finals time right now,” said Ditto, “That was the reason for starting Peterson back-to-back nights, our other goalie Noah couldn’t make it because he was writing finals during the game.”
Ditto knows pairing sport with school is just one of the challenges a Junior B team faces, and they make sure their players know the priority sits with their education instead of hockey. Peterson is a student as well, but the team has fortunately been able to navigate the status of their goalie room quite well.
The goalie in question Noah Martens is just one of the rookies for the Chiefs that has impressed Ditto so far this season, and you can expect more of coaches comments as the team enters its December break.
Thu, May 9, 9:30 AM
