The Airdrie Xtreme have officially moved into the sole spot atop the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League’s Ram South Division.
Tyler Wong and Philip Anderson each scored for the Xtreme (12W-4L-1T) and goaltender Malcolm Wililko made 14 saves for the shutout, as the team beat the Red Deer Black Rebels 2-0 at the Ron Ebbesen Arena, Dec. 4.
With Lethbridge’s 6-2 loss to Lloydminster on Dec. 5, the Airdrie squad moved ahead by one point over the Golden Hawks – and still has three games in hand.
Head coach Terry Keogh was happy with the win, but said his team still has areas in which to improve.
“In a game like this, our best have to be our best and they weren’t tonight,” Keogh said. “They can play at 80-85 per cent and still be some of the best players out there, but they’ve got to step it up. Our checking lines did an exceptional job tonight. They deserved to be out there. They were working and making things happen. We didn’t score as many as we should have, but they were the ones creating the chances from their hard work.”
Wong, the Xtreme’s top scorer and third in the league with 47 points, scored the eventual game-winner with a slap shot from the top of the circle, beating Red Deer goalie Joey Desrosiers 13:37 into the first. Ben Kriwokon and Connor Boyd earned the assists.
Thompson made it 2-0 for Airdrie 6:57 into the second, when he completed a passing play from Kriwokon and Slater Ransom. The Xtreme controlled play for much of the middle frame and allowed only two shots on Walilko.
“Sometimes that’s very difficult for a goaltender – to keep focus when he doesn’t see a lot of shots,” Keogh said.
“And when we were up 2-0, if he lets one of those in we would have been scrambling, so he did a really god job back there despite the lack of action.”
The Xtreme killed off all seven penalties they took, but also went 0/4 on the power play, something Keogh said could be a concern as the games will continue to get tougher in the coming weeks.
“We need to work on the power play, but we had a couple of nice back-door setups that we failed to pull the trigger on,” he said. “It comes back to playing and skating and we weren’t moving our feet on the power play. If we start skating, we’ll start executing.”
Airdrie will play two home games at the Ron Ebbesen Arena this weekend: 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 11, against the Medicine Hat Hockey Hounds and 1 p.m. on Dec. 12, against the Red Deer White Rebels.
