The Williams Lake U13 Tier 2 Timberwolves are heading in to the playdowns in a good place, according to coach Jared Kohlen.
Kohlen said the group has a 26 wins, 14 losses and three ties record as they look towards the final games of the season.
“I’ve seen a huge improvement,” said Kohlen.
The team is “just a great group of kids,” according to Kohlen, and the team “seems to be buying into what we’re trying to teach them.”
Starting out the season, there were a lot of individual-focused players, noted Kohlen, which can be normal going into the season with rep hockey.
However, since the players have come together and started working better as a team, he said they have been seeing good results.
The team played a two-game series at home on Saturday, Feb. 5 against Dawson Creek, one win with a score 9-4, and one tie game, 3-3.
The following weekend, the team played another two-game series against a northwest select team, which includes some of the best players from Vanderhoof to Prince Rupert.
The Williams Lake team won one and tied one again.
The Williams Lake team will be facing off against Prince George for the end of the season playdowns, which will be a best of three game series, on Feb. 25 and 26 in Williams Lake.
The Williams Lake team has faced off against Prince George about a half dozen times so far during the season and Kohlen said they have only lost once.
Kohlen thinks the team’s chances of making it past Prince George are pretty good if they “show up and play the way they’ve been playing the last month or so.”
The winner of those games will become the season leaders and earn a spot in the provincials in late March, which will take place in Salmon Arm. The structure of the provincials has yet to be determined.
Kohlen has been involved in coaching minor hockey since his oldest son Luke started playing the game eight years ago. He helped coach the U11 development team for two years as assistant coach and then head coach and moved up to U13 this year.
Saturday night, Feb. 12, the team accepted donations of food and money for the local food bank during the Williams Lake Stampeders game, collected several bags of food as well as $300 in cash.
Read more: ‘Midget’ no more: Sweeping division name changes coming to minor hockey in Canada
ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
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