Pembina Valley Twisters storm to second place in the MMJHL

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This article was published 25/01/2024 (375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the beginning of December, the Pembina Valley Twisters were mired near the bottom of the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League’s standings.

The team was sitting in a tie for seventh place in the 10-team league, with an 8-8-1 record after a 4-2 loss to the River East Royal Knights Dec. 1. They have not lost since then and are now second in the league standings.

Second-year head coach Braeden Beernaerts has his club humming, as they boast the second best offense and defense in the league, alongside the top power play.

“We didn’t have the start coming out of training camp that we wanted to have,” Beernaerts said after a 5-2 victory against St Boniface Jan. 19.

“The boys settled in, we started buying in, and the boys took it from there… If you play the game right, the game is going to reward you.”

It was a tight game against St Boniface in Pembina Valley’s home Morris rink, as a pair of first period goals from Derek Wiebe and Merek Degraeve erased before the end of the period.

Mike Heppner broke the game open early in the second period. He deked around a Riels defender at the offensive blue line, took advantage of the vacated space to charge right down the slot before snapping a shot top corner to give the Twisters a lead they never looked in danger of losing.

“(Heppner) is known to do some of that stuff whether we teach it or not,” Beernaerts said, laughing.

“It takes a skilled player to sometimes open up a game like that, and that’s what he did.”

Despite St Boniface directing 12 shots towards the Pembina Valley net in the third, the lead always appeared in safe hands, as Logan Enns held down the fort behind a strong defensive effort.

“We felt like we had our feet underneath us the whole time,” Beernaerts said.

“A few bad bounces are going to happen, but the heart in the team kept the wheels pumping and keep pressing, and eventually got ‘er and shut ‘er down in the end.”

Beernaerts added he thinks the strength of this Twisters squad is their ability to hinder opposing offenses.

“We’ve got skilled forwards up front, so as long as we preach (defense)-first kind of hockey, we’ll have good success that way,” he said.

The Twisters’ win streak is more impressive given the competition. While the win against the Riels was big in the standings to keep another team from gaining on them in the standings, their most impressive result was a 6-3 come-from-behind victory over the powerhouse St James Jr Canucks.

“To come back against that team down three-rip is pretty unheard of,” Beernaerts said.

“To have the heart to do that, I think that’s when it really started to click for the boys and we knew we had something special here.”

The Canucks have been the class of the MMJHL since the league returned to a full-time schedule after the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the past three seasons, St James has only lost 13 games in regulation during the regular season, and boast a plus-83 goal difference so far this year.

Pembina Valley has now carved out a four-point advantage over the Charleswood Hawks for second in the league.

“You can’t overlook any team in this league, you have to come to play every night,” Beernaerts said.

“You’ve got to keep pressing, and not take a night off.”

The Twisters will close out their January with a pair of tough matchups, first visiting St James on Jan 26, before hosting fourth-place St Vital at 7 p.m. Jan. 28.