St Malo Warriors pushing to hold playoff bye

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This article was published 19/01/2024 (365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fans of any team in the Capital Region Junior Hockey league are in for an exciting final month of the season, as the standings continue to tighten in the new year.

The St Malo Warriors currently hold the valuable second-place seed with 29 points (the top two teams earn a first-round bye in the playoffs), but are tied with Lundar and Beausejour trail by just two points.

Arborg and North Winnipeg aren’t too far behind, and are locked in a battle of their own, with 22 and 21 points respectively. All teams are looking up at Selkirk, who have put together an excellent record this season, with only one regulation loss.

The Warriors couldn’t add another tally to that column, dropping a penalty-filled 4-3 decision to the league leaders, before bouncing back with a solid 7-2 win over Beausejour.

“The goal is top two, it always is,” head coach and general manager Ralph Collette said after the weekend’s action.

“You’d like to finish first, but the way we structure our program is we want to be healthy going into the playoffs, and we want to let the guys gain as much experience as possible so our ice time is quite equally balanced for the first half of the season.”

With Ashton Dubois returning to the lineup after injury, the Warriors should get a much-needed boost to their offense. The team has only scored 59 goals so far this season, the fewest of any team in the league.

Collette said his team hasn’t had a problem generating chances, but their finishing has been lacking at times throughout the season.

“If you look at our shots on net, we’ve out-shot most teams, most nights,” he said.

“The guys are just snake-bitten it seems like. Adding (Dubois) will make a difference… He compliments his teammates quite well on the top line.”

To keep a top-two spot in the standings, Collette said his team will need to stay out of the box. That was their big problem in their loss to Selkirk, as the Warriors took 10 penalties throughout the game, with the Fishermen cashing in twice with the man advantage, including for the game-winning goal.

“Our hockey league changes a lot after Jan. 10th,” Collette said, referencing the final day allowed for junior hockey roster moves.

“The calibre gets up quite a bit, and the stakes are quite a bit higher. No team is a pushover, you can’t take anybody for granted.”

Despite their spot at the bottom of the league’s standings, Collette was quick to praise the North Winnipeg Satelites, which defeated St Malo 2-0 to start the new year.

The Satelites have had a tough 2023/2024 season off the ice, losing longtime owner and general manager Cliff “Moses” Malzensky after he died unexpectedly in September during training camp and being temporarily kicked out of their home arena due to ice plant issues.

“They’re quite resilient, they conquered a lot because they went through very tough times,” Collette said.

St Malo will host Lundar on Jan. 19 before travelling to Selkirk Jan. 21. The CRJHL regular season will end Feb. 19.