Drumheller took a 6-2 loss against the St. Albert Steel on Friday.
“We managed the puck well in both first periods of the game, and that resulted in us scoring the first goals in both games,” said Dan Price. Price says the team is now working on their aggressiveness and penalty killing, faults which contributed to both Friday’s game and Saturday’s shoot-out loss against the Grande Prairie Storm, 3-2.
“We ended up making some decisions about when we pressure and when we don’t, and other than these areas of improvement I think the games went good.”
These early losses absolutely matter, said the coach, and the Dragons are a process team.
“If we think about the process in St. Albert, a lot of things we did from the offensive line to their net were good, it’s our defensive-zone coverage and pressure which we need to work on.”
The Dragons took their foot off the gas a couple times in Friday and Saturday games, and they now look to remedy that for the rest of the season ahead.
Being hosted in Canmore on Tuesday night, the Dragons will have their regular season home opener against the Eagles on Friday, September 17.
“There will be animosity between the teams, and Canmore always plays fast and physical.
“We will be prepared mentally in order to set the tone from a physicality perspective.”
Price says everyone on the team is shining on the ice right now.
For the home opener Friday, the team will be handing out orange t-shirts and thunder sticks to the first 500 people through the gates, hoping a sea of orange will help bring energy into the team for their first home game of the regular season.
The game starts at 7:30 p.m., Friday.
Results from Tuesday’s game were not available by press-time.