By Scott Rodda, head coach of the Morinville Jets
Another successful week for the Jets, both on and off the ice. This past week saw the Jets beat the Mustangs in a thriller on Wednesday by skating to a shoot-out victory and then downing the Icemen in Wetaskiwin by a score of 7 to 3. The win against the Mustangs was an ugly win as the Jets showed a lack of discipline and allowed the game to be a lot closer than it should have been. In the shootout, it took the heroics of Brad Miller stopping six shooters and a great goal from Troy Roberts to secure the two points. The coaching staff are always pleased with two points, but the effort and execution of the Jets on this night was not positive. The win in Wetaskiwin was impressive in some manners, notably the effort to score seven goals in another team’s barn. The Jets played two excellent periods, but the middle frame was marred by penalties. On three occasions the Jets left themselves two players short. If the team hopes to be successful in the long run they will need to learn to cut those types of periods out of their game. Dalen Paul had a productive night increasing his lead in goals with a hat trick.
The off-ice success this week was the effort the players put in over the weekend to renovate the dressing room, building and staining 23 individual stalls in dressing room No. 1, the room they use for home games. The room still needs to be painted, name plates installed and a few additional touch ups so the Jet players are hoping to have these tasks done in the next few weeks. Volunteers to help paint the room are welcomed. The players are excited for their new digs and are equally pleased that other teams in Morinville will benefit from using the new dressing room. They have built the name tag plates so that any name can be inserted easily and are hoping that other teams will enjoy an improved ‘team’ environment. It is nice to see the players wanting to give back to the community.
This coming week for the Jets will be a big one, a rematch against the Beverly Warriors on Tuesday in Morinville and a home game Sunday against one of their arch rivals the Edmonton Red Wings. We finished the month of October in first place in our division and our goal is to distance ourselves in the month of November so be sure to come out and be that extra source of support.