Although they’re unbeaten after three Centre-Four Hockey League games, the bantam AA Prince Albert Venice House Pirates weren’t entirely satisfied with their 8-3 win over the Unity Lazers in Prince Albert’s home-opener Saturday at Steuart Arena.
“That was probably not one of our best games,” said Pirates captain Ryan Duret. “We just fought the puck that game. Still got the win, though.
“Maybe it was nerves for the first (home) game. I’m not really sure. It wasn’t really our day, I guess.
“They’re one of the average teams, and we’re probably one of the better ones, and we probably should have beat them by more.”
The Pirates got the job done, just the same.
“Anytime you can open up at home with a win, and fight the puck a little bit and still score eight goals, I think we’ve got a good future,” said Prince Albert coach Shawn Phaneuf.
“The previous two (games) were a little tougher battles. We played Warman and Humboldt (and won 5-1 and 6-3, respectively). They’re both big, strong, tough teams. They play very good defensively and both play their systems really well.
“Our game against Humboldt, I thought we played very well. We outworked them, we stuck to our systems (and) we kept things simple. Most of the guys were playing very unselfishly, and we were successful because of that.”
The Pirates are pegged for success this season, and they’re already attracting clusters of WHL scouts to their games. Multiple Dub teams were represented at Saturday’s game, and the spotlight is expected to remain on the Pirates through next spring’s WHL bantam draft.
“For the most part, the team is aware of what’s going on,” Phaneuf said. “Most of the kids have been approached, prior to this year, or talked to by some scouts. I think our highest-skilled players are very aware of it. There’s a lot of pressure on them right now. At times, I think they feel it. They try to do things maybe by themselves sometimes, to try and maybe impress their skill level on the scouts.
“We’re just trying to keep them grounded and try to get them to keep things simple. Make the right plays in a game, and the rest of that will come.”
Duret, a high-scoring centre, is one of those draft prospects whom scouts also witnessed last season during his rookie year with the Pirates. He’s off to another solid start, with four goals and seven points in three games.
“The scouts and stuff, you can’t really pay attention to that, or else you’re going to just play bad in front of them,” said Duret, a Grade 9 student at Carlton Comprehensive High School.
“You’ve got to ignore them. Just use your linemates. You can’t go out and (selfishly) try to get points. If you’re just out there being selfish, you’re not going to do anything. You’re just going to have a bad game and a bad year, and it’s just going to affect your whole career.”
Duret knows there are no guarantees at draft time. Despite the team’s strong season last winter, just one Pirate was drafted last spring when the Prince Albert Raiders selected hometown goaltender Taryn Phaneuf (Shawn’s son) in the fifth round.
The likelihood is that the Pirates will be more prominent in the 2011 draft. There’s no shortage of prospects.
“Up front, we’ve got Ryan Duret and Miles Warkentine and one of our injured guys, Lance Yaremchuk,” said coach Phaneuf.
“On the back end, we’ve got Jordan Harris and Bryton Sayers — both big, strong, very skilled defencemen. They’re both tough. They’re probably in the top five in the province for defencemen. They’re hard-working kids and good leaders.”
All of those second-year bantams are “awesome leaders,” Phaneuf said. “In practice, they’re my hardest-working guys.”
Duret, five-foot-nine and 155 pounds, is best known as a scorer and playmaker, but he’s trying to broaden his game this season.
“Just got to work on my defence a bit more,” said Duret, a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
His favourtie NHL player is Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin.
Duret comes from a hockey family that includes older brother Jason, a rookie forward with the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos. Ryan and Jason were teammates last season with the Pirates.
“It was fun playing with him,” Ryan said. “We played good together, but you can’t really get mad about (his graduation). You’ve just got to deal with it.”
The younger Duret is managing well, lately on a line with athletic Zach Hurd and rookie Matthew Campese, a top scorer at the peewee AA level last season. Campese has four goals and six points after just three games.
Warkentine and Yaremchuk joined the Pirates this season after playing bantam AA last winter with the Melfort Mustangs and Tisdale Ramblers, respectively.
Yaremchuk is scheduled to make his debut with the Pirates this weekend when they play three road games in as many days against West Central, Battlefords and Unity.
Prince Albert’s goaltenders are second-year man Logan Morhart and rookie Connor Toporowski.
“Logan is a big, strong, very intense goalie,” Phaneuf said. “Very much a student of the game. I think he’ll do very well this year.
“(Toporowski) is a first-year goalie who came out of nowhere to make the team. We had three or four guys pegged, battling for a spot, and he had a couple of strong performances in the exhibition season and he kind of stole a position from a second-year guy.”
OVERTIME: Saturday was a busy day for Pirates defenceman Bryton Sayers. After helping the bantam AA team win its home-opener in the afternoon, he was called up to the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos that night for their 3-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Generals.
No comments:
Post a Comment