Klippers vs Humboldt
Well that went EXACTLY as planned! The 3 game losing skid is over thanks to a complete team effort, who once again proved their depth. The visiting Humboldt Broncos came to the InterPipeline Arena at the WCEC on Sunday, November 10th and ran up against a Klippers team that would not take no for an answer. Even though the Broncos were tied with Battleford for top spot in the Nutrien Division with 21 points, that didn’t stop the juggernaut that was all Kindersley. We now sit only 1 point behind both of those teams. Except for a few teams, this season is almost a bottleneck jam with only 1 or 2 points separating some teams. Keeping the pedal to the metal is the key mantra now. These teams are so good that no one can afford to take any games off.
Cam Perlinger scored the 1st goal of the game just 5 minutes in. Dayton Tailfeathers added another 1 in the final 2 minutes of the first period. 24 seconds into the 2nd frame, Braden Cunningham put the Klippers up 3 to 0 before Humboldt winger Gabriel Filion potted the first of his 2 goals. Almost midway through the 3rd stanza, Braden Cunningham once again added to the Kindersley lead. Final score was Kindersley 4 and Humboldt 2. Very few penalties were called which was extremely unusual. Only 2 for the Klippers against 3 for the Broncos. The only “bad” incident happened when Oakley McIlwain of the Broncos took an unintentional stick to the face and leaked a fair bit of blood onto the ice. The officials had a difficult time removing the blood but did their best and the rink crew finished it off the cleaning when they were reflooding the ice between the 2nd and 3rd period.
Not widely reported but the Captains and assistants were named 2 games ago. Ethan Hilbig will be the Captain for the home games and his defence partner Kyler Smith will take the Captains “C” for the road games. Both players bring something different to this leadership role in the dressing room as well as on the ice and both players are well respected and unfortunately, this will be their final season representing the Kindersley Klippers. The same can be said for Shayne Tibbles and Zachary Anderson as assistants as they will be aging out at the end of this season. Coach Clayton Jardine has a great group to choose from for next season as he evaluates the players from now until the end of the season plus play-offs. Who will step up into the leadership roles? An interesting question to be sure. This author has some ideas but of course, that’s just me. Brett O’Halloran in goal has been the biggest surprise so far. He has filled in for Cody “Noodles” Jaman so well that Cody has been sitting more than playing since he has healed from his ankle injury sustained from the final pre-season game against the Battleford Northstars. But hey, like any sport, you tend to ride the “hot” player. And hockey is a prime example of that.
Next up for Klippers is a pair of weekend games against the visiting Flin Flon Bombers on Friday, November 15th and Saturday the 16th. Both nights the puck drop is at 7:30 pm. As of this writing, Flin Flon sits at 17 points in the Sherwood Division, good for 3rd place. Come out and support and cheer on the Kindersley Klippers! They are having a terrific 2024-25 season.
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