It wasn’t the home debut the Prince Rupert Bantam Rep Seawolves were hoping for, as they lost 6-0 to the Kitimat Winterhawks last Saturday at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre.
After splitting two games opening weekend, coach Bruce Watkinson was expecting more jump out of the team.
“It was a little disappointing. I think we played pretty timid in the first period. We got behind and struggled to get back in it,” he said.
The Seawolves had chances to put the puck on the net. In the latter half of the second period, the team applied lots of pressure and a few scoring chances, but couldn’t convert.
Then late in the third, Kitimat took a couple of penalties, including a game misconduct to Kailen Rigoni thanks to a hit on Rupert’s Brodie Melanson. That gave the Seawolves a 5-on-3, but the Winterhawks showed strong penalty killing skills, consistently getting the puck out of their own zone.
The game misconduct to Rigoni, who scored two goals, might have been better news to Rupert if it wasn’t so late in the game.
Watkinson, who is also the president of Prince Rupert Minor Hockey Association, said he wants to see more body contact in upcoming games.
“We have to be a bit more aggressive with our body checking, especially in our forecheck,” said Watkinson.
He also mentioned the bantams need to tighten up around their own net and execute assignments.
Gavin McNiece was in net for Rupert and made some strong saves to keep the team in it.
Prince Rupert spent just eight minutes in the penalty box as opposed to Kitimat’s 19 minutes. Melanson, Braedon Anderson and Nolan Weick took penalties for Rupert.
The loss drops the Seawolves to 1-2 on the year. They don’t play again until Nov. 19 in Smithers.
