The Cold Lake Wings took to the ice on Friday night for the team’s inaugural home opener, marking the first regular season Jr. A game to ever be played at the Energy Centre.
Over 1,300 fans flocked to witness the occasion, a night Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said the city’s been waiting for.
“It’s very exciting. We built the arena for Jr. A hockey. That was our goal on council and staff, so it’s exciting to have Jr. A hockey here in Cold Lake, finally... It’s a good day for Cold Lake, for the community, and the area, people get to see high level hockey.”
Copeland added he’s looking forward to watching the league grow.
“It’s exciting to see players from around the world and Canada that are going to be staying in Cold Lake and playing hockey. It’s also a good opportunity for local kids in the area to go all the way to Jr. A hockey in Cold Lake if they want to.”
It was a close match-up as the Wings and the visiting Meadow Lake Mustangs traded shots throughout the game. In the end, the Wings fell 4-3 in their first game of the season.
Wiping off the disappointment, Cold Lake’s new Jr. A team was quick to get their redemption the following night on the road when they trampled the Mustangs 10-1.
Wings fall in heartbreaker
While the crowd was buzzing with excitement, on the ice there was disappointment as the Wings dropped their first game of the season.
Friday night started off promising, with Danny McLean getting Cold Lake on the scoreboard first at the 15-minute mark in the game.
The celebration was short-lived. In the final minute of the first period, the Mustangs recorded two goals to take a 2-1 lead.
The Wings were quick to bounce back from the deficit in the second frame. Less than three minutes in, forward Ty DeLeeuw found the back of the net off a pass from McLean to even up the score.
Capitalizing on a power play, Cold Lake’s Ilias Okemow regained the lead for the home team. Unfortunately for the Wings, Meadow Lake responded with a power play goal of their own halfway through the second, tying up the game at three apiece.
With the lone goal of the third period, the Mustangs walked away with a 4-3 win, their first of the season.
“It’s disappointing. I saw it in our pregame skate this morning. The guys weren’t sharp at all. Just the mentality knowing Meadow Lake lost to Edson the previous Saturday, thinking it was just going to be a cake walk,” head coach Johnathan Aitken said following the loss.
He added, “We were fighting it the whole game. We weren’t playing as a unit, we weren’t playing as a team, and we made a lot of turnovers.”
Despite the outcome, Derek Prue, director of international expansion for the Western Provinces Hockey Association (WPHA), said overall the Wings’ home opener was a success.
“It was fantastic. We got tons of fans, everybody was into it. The game was exciting, it was a seesaw battle, so pretty much everything you could ask for... It’s nice to see a game so close like this; the refereeing was good, the goaltending was good.”
Redemption on the road
Cold Lake was in Mustangs territory Saturday night looking to show what they can do.
The Wings came out firing, with Tylin Cameron and Johan Crowchild finding the back of the net within less than one minute of each other. Dorian Hall capped off the scoring in the first, giving Cold Lake a 3-0 lead.
DeLeeuw netted back-to-back goals for the Wings in the opening minutes of the second period.
Meadow Lake had a quick glimpse at a comeback, finally getting on the scoreboard seven minutes in.
But it wasn’t long before the gap widened, with DeLeeuw completing his hat trick just before the halfway point in the game.
Up 6-1 heading into the final frame, Bonnyville-native Anson Smith added two more points to the scoreboard for the Wings. Nigel Cardinal and Nico Cirelli added insurance enroute to Cold Lake’s 10-1 victory.
With two wins and two losses in the season so far, the Wings are sitting in the second spot in the WPHA standings. Aitken said they’ll be back on the ice for practice this week in preparation for two home games this coming weekend.
“(We’ll be working on) just our work ethic, being consistent the whole time. We practice hard during the week. The guys do extra off-ice as well. Just trying so we can push the pace of the game and be in good shape going into the third period. Regardless of whether we’re up or down, it’s just a matter of being consistent with that effort.”
The Wings will be back at home on Friday, Oct. 26 when they take on the Edson Aeros at 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, the Hinton Wildcats will be in town. Puck drop for that game is 2:30 p.m.
