Wolverines continue to lead the AJHL as their strong start continues to pick up momentum

By Serena Lapointe

The Whitecourt Wolverines wrapped their home games for October with a three-game stint
starting on October 24. Since the start of the season, Whitecourt’s team has been snagging
wins against their divisional rivals, racking up the points and putting distance between
themselves and the other teams.
Heading into their game on Tuesday, October 28, against Lloydminster, the Wolverines were
sitting atop the whole AJHL with twenty points. The next closest team was the Lloydminster
Bobcats with sixteen points. A win on Tuesday night would mean the chance to not only grab
two points but also put two more points in between them and the Bobcats.
Before breaking down the game, it’s worth noting that the Whitecourt Wolverines have an early
pattern, if you will, when it comes to game finals. In the first fourteen games, the Wolverines
won five games where they only allowed one goal against. They’ve won three games by a score
of 4-1 and two games by a score of 3-1. It’ll be interesting to see if the pattern continues
throughout the rest of the season.
Thanks, probably, to televisions dialed into the Blue Jays games on the concourse at JDA
Place, lots of fans showed up to support the Wolverines in the last week of October, with an
average of 500 fans in the seats per game.
On Friday, October 24, the Wolverines battled against the Calgary Canucks. The visiting team
was the first to get on the board halfway through the first period, but that would be the only goal
the Canucks would get. Four unanswered goals from the Wolverines lifted the home team into
the win column, 4-1.
The next night, on Saturday, October 25, the Wolverines welcomed the Olds Grizzlys to JDA
Place. Like the previous night, the visitors were first to score. However, unlike the previous
night, the Wolverines didn’t have several unanswered goals and only scored one. The Grizzlys
took the win, handing the Wolverines their third loss of the season, 3-1.
On Tuesday, October 28, when the Wolverines welcomed the Lloydminster Bobcats into the
home barn, there was a lot at stake. As mentioned, it was a four-point game as the two teams
sit first and second in the league, and the win would either get one team closer to the other or

further away. The Wolverines were definitely looking to distance themselves.
Early into the game, the Bobcats struck first, scoring just four minutes and thirty-six seconds into
the opening frame. Though no team scored for the next nine minutes, and no penalties were
called, things intensified. Hits became more pronounced, the speed increased, and both teams
began cranking up their control of the puck, bouncing from one end to another, quickly. At 13:19
of the period, Wolverine Tristan Slywka scored his third goal of the season, assisted by Mason
Russell (6) and Spencer Claerhout (5). The Whitecourt Wolverines were on the scoreboard. It
was tied, 1-1.

In the second period, the intensity observed in the first came through like glaring high beams on
a dark night. Eight penalties were called, five against the Bobcats. From high sticking to delay of
game, goalie interference, charging, toughing, slashing and a 10-minute misconduct, the two
teams quickly racked up the game’s penalty count. Amongst the kerfuffle of the second, the
captain, Jalen Bianchet, scored his 16th goal of the season on the power play, giving the
Wolverines a 2-1 lead heading into the final period.
In the third, unlike the previous period, there was only one penalty, a slashing one against the
Bobcats. Much of the period saw Lloydminster fighting to get back into it and tie the game. With
only a couple of minutes left, they pulled their goalie. Try as they might, the Bobcats couldn’t get
the puck past Whitecourt’s goalie, Luke McKechnie, who was an unpassable object in net.
With 50 seconds left in the period, the puck landed on Quentin Bourne’s stick, who then passed
it to Jalen Bianchet. With an open net before him, Kyle Tucker accepted a pass from Bianchet
and proceeded to snag an empty netter, hammering the final nail in the coffin for the Bobcats.
The Wolverines won 3-1 and lead the AJHL standings with 22 points.
The next home games for the Whitecourt Wolverines come in pairs. The first two are Friday,
November 7, against the Camrose Kodiaks and Sunday, November 9, against the Drayton
Valley Thunder. The next two are Friday, November 21, against the Calgary Canucks and
Saturday, November 22, against the Canmore Eagles, which pauses Wolverine action at JDA
Place until December.
TAGLINE:
With fourteen games on the season (as of October 30), the Whitecourt Wolverines only have

three losses and are sitting atop the AJHL mountain. The team had seven home games in
October, giving fans a lot of great action at JDA Place. There are only four homes in November.