There’s nothing unlucky about 13 for the Saints, but perhaps that digit is a bad sign for the rest of the teams in the AJHL.
Riding a win streak that’s now stretched out over a month and a baker’s dozen in games, and having collected points in 15 straight games on top of that, the Saints have been unbeatable as of late. But, explains interim head coach Michael Ringrose, those wins and the climb up the standings haven’t come without a lot of sweat and effort.
“We’re finding ways to win and it’s been a situation where it’s been different guys every night,” Ringrose said moments after the Saints had downed the Drumheller Dragons 4-1 on home ice, adding that the team has continued to win despite missing its top three players, Brandon Hickey, Dylan Hollman and Cameron Hughes along with head coach Jason Mckee, is simply a matter of other guys taking advantage of a situation.
“We knew coming into this we might lose a few guys for an extended period of time (for the World Jr. A Challenge) but it’s nice to see some of those (other) kids take advantage of the opportunity that’s in front of them.”
The thing is, even though the Saints are winning, their mentors aren’t entirely pleased. Sure, the end result is great but sometimes getting to that point hasn’t been so pretty.
Asked about the season-long coaching mantra of “getting better each day,” and if in fact that’s continuing to happen because it’s hard to get much better than 13 wins in a row, Ringrose said things are far from perfect from where he stands.
“You know, it’s a nice streak and things are going well right now but there’s always room for improvement,” he began. “There were parts of the game tonight that I really didn’t like and need to be addressed in practice next week.
“Yeah, we’re doing things well a lot of the time and getting the results we’re looking for, but to say we’re at our best would be a far cry from the truth.”
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