The Airdrie Thunder did not have a weekend to remember.
The Junior B hockey club managed three out of four points against the Banff Academy Bears in a home-and-home series, but looked sluggish in a 7-2 home win on Jan. 21 and needed two late goals to earn a 4-4 tie in Banff, which has the league’s second-worst record, on Jan. 23.
The Thunder move to 19W-8L-1T on the season and 3W-1L-1T under head coach Art Krusel, but are eight points out of first place in its division with eight regular season games left.
“Our players must have had in the back of their minds that they were playing a team that has had its struggles,” Krusel said.
“We underestimated the opponent and overestimated ourselves. They certainly didn’t give the same kind of effort they did last weekend.”
In the first game, where Airdrie outshot Banff 47-15, Kristian Petit had two goals and an assist, while Sam Yetman, Chase Dobler, Ryan Russell, Alex Hustad and Cache Doolaege added singles. Andrew Bergmann had three assists and netminder Logan Marlow made 13 saves for the win.
“We did what we had to do in the first period, but I thought we were awful in the second and only marginally better in the third,” Krusel said after the game. “I think had that been a better opponent tonight we would have really struggled. Collectively as a team we didn’t play very well. We got the two points, but I thought we were lucky.”
Airdrie scored three times in the first period, including Petit’s first, which eventually became the game-winner, before Banff added a late marker. The Thunder then had two goals disallowed early in the middle frame, before the teams exchanged goals and Petit made it 5-2 on a controversial shot that appeared to hit the crossbar.
Airdrie would add two more in the third to secure the win.
“Ever since me and Bergmann came back, and since we came up with (Travis) Wallan, we’ve been trying to work hard together and we’ve been getting some bounces,” Petit said. “But we didn’t play up to our potential (Friday night) and I thought we could have buried them a lot more.”
Alex Hustad, Alex Diduch, Bergmann and Doolaege scored for Airdrie during the tie in Banff, while netminder Jeff Gardner made 47 saves in net.
Krusel, who was in his second week back behind the Thunder bench, said the team is still adjusting to his style and that he is still trying to teach his systems.
“There’s definitely some areas I have some concerns in,” he said. “We’re going to work on some things, that’s for sure. By the end of this month, hopefully they’ll be playing a lot better. And they’re going to need to because we have some better opponents coming up. I’ve got to get them focused on what it is we’re trying to accomplish and make sure they carry it out.”
“It’s kind of like a clean slate,” Petit said. “Before Christmas, we couldn’t seem to win two games in a row and when Art came back, we got those two wins right off the bat. That lifted everyone’s spirits and attitude. Everyone is pretty optimistic right now.”
Airdrie returns to action again on Jan. 25 against the Mountainview Colts in Didsbury, in a make-up game for the weather-postponed matchup from Jan. 8
Danny McSween and Alex Colborne each scored twice to lead the Cochrane Generals to a 7-5 home win on Jan. 21. Mike Matlo, Kris Keller and Jason Labelle also scored, while netminder Kenny Quinn made 40 saves for Cochrane, who have the league’s best record at 23W-4L-1T.
