It’s been a tale of two teams so far in the Airdrie Thunder’s 2010-11 season.
First, there was the team that strung together 10 straight wins. Then there was the team that went 6W-6L through November and December.
“It was obviously a very solid start and a shaky last month,” said Thunder head coach Darryl Einarson. “Lately, we haven’t been successful and our goals are far more lofty than what we’ve done in the last month. We’re learning from it and hopefully we’ll move ahead and peak in the playoff time.”
Heading into the two-week Christmas break, Airdrie has a 15W-6L record after 21 games and sits second in the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s Central Division, nine points behind the Cochrane Generals with two games in hand.
The Thunder scored 67 goals in its first 10 games, while allowing only 24. In the following 11 games they allowed 52 goals, while scoring only 41 times. Einarson is aware of the team’s defensive woes in the past six weeks and says it is one of the team’s priorities as the calendar changes to 2011.
“We are looking to get better as a team defensively,” he said. “We have to be stronger in our own end and we’ve been working on that in practice.”
The first-year Thunder bench boss also said the team was not distracted by the departure and return of scoring threat Andrew Bergmann and did not fall into the trap of overconfidence during the early-season win streak.
“I don’t think that was a factor. We ran into a lot of injuries and we still haven’t been able to fully get back the chemistry we had in the first 10 games. We’re still missing (Justin) Rockafellow, who, in the room and on the ice is a big part of our game,” he said.
“We’re looking to get all the lines together and get in some kind of a groove here. We’ve been trying some different line combinations and with Bergmann coming back, and (Kristian) Petit’s emergence, we’re getting there. Once you get that cohesion with everyone as a unit out here, and all four lines, it’s fun at that point and it seems that everything else falls into place after that.”
Alex Hustad (19G-14A in 21 games) and Bergmann (15G-18A in 14 games) are the leading scorers, while captain Cache Doolaege leads the defencemen with 25 points.
Einarson has been consistently rotating goaltenders Jeff Gardner and Logan Marlow through the first two months. Gardner has an 8W-4L record, one shutout, a 4.09 GAA and a .890 save percentage, while Marlow has a 6W-2L record, two shutouts, a 2.60 GAA and .917 save percentage.
“Goaltending hasn’t been the issue with us,” Einarson said. “It’s overall team defence that needs to improve and getting our scoring touch back that we had early. We really can’t complain about our goaltending at all. We’ve gone with Gardner more so lately, just because he’s the veteran guy. But Marlow played very well in Medicine Hat (7-5 win Dec. 5).”
The Thunder will play its first game after the Christmas break at home against High River on Jan. 2. Game time is 3:45 p.m. On Jan. 7, the Thunder faces the Cochrane Generals for the fourth and final time in the regular season.
“I’ve always found the Christmas break is huge,” Einarson said. “It gives everyone a break from the regular routine and back with their family enjoying, with their minds away from the game a little bit. Usually, they come back really refreshed, so we expect that.
“We’ve got a couple of practices over the holidays, between Christmas and New Year’s, and then we play Jan. 2 against High River right away in a Sunday afternoon game. That would serve as a springboard, if we can get a win that day and move ahead after that.”
