Coach of the Drumheller Dragons Brian Curran is confident the right pieces are in place, now it is up to the players to buy in and get on the same page.
This comes after a tough weekend where the Dragons fell two straight on the road.
“At the end of the day, I still have a lot of faith and believe in this team, and we are not hitting any panic button and we are not going to be negative. We are going to get things straightened around and that what we coach for, to make sure the kids know they are good, and there is a price they have to pay more than they have,” said Curran.
“I think you are going to see better hockey from this team going forward.”
On Friday night, they were in Brooks to take on a tough Bandits team. Five quick goals in the first period put the game out of reach. Evan Rochowiak scored for the Dragons with about four minutes left, as the Bandits took away a 7-1 win.
“Brooks is a very good hockey club, but I think the message we were sending our guys is that while Brooks is a very skilled team, we need to have an attitude or a swagger when we play anybody, said Curran. “If we just sit back and watch, Brooks is going to kill anybody.”
“I liked our second and third period, but we have to get more involved in the physical side. At the end of the day we showed a lot more heart and compete in the second and third period which was a positive.”
On Saturday, things were looking a lot brighter for the Dragons as Levi Wunder scored just 42 seconds in versus Canmore. The Eagles scored the next three before Craig Ofner scored with a minute and half left in the first, ending the period down 3-2.
“We came out strong in the first 12 or 15 minutes of the game. I really liked our game, the compete level was good and we had a good attitude,” he said.
Canmore lit it up in the second period with three more goals. Tyrell Mappin scored on the power play with five minutes left as Canmore went on to a win 6-3.
Some positives out of the Canmore game for Curran was their power play and penalty kill.
‘“Our five on five and the odd man rushes were being created by our mistakes. We have some teaching to do,” he said.
He is positive for the future of this squad.
“We have given them a good game plan, we just have to have guys execute the game plan better than what they are doing,” said Curran. “The plan is there. the coaching is there, but obviously when they are not winning the coaching staff has to find ways to get them to understand what we want.”
“The pieces are there, and there are things Gavin and I can’t teach, that is what we are challenging them with.”
