One thing other NWJHL teams will have to admit about the Wolves as they take game after game from them down the stretch: the guys from Slave Lake make the other guys work for their two points.
A case in point: on Jan. 28 the Wolves – all 11 of them – stepped on the ice in Fort St. John against the Huskies. They proceeded to knock the Huskies back on their heels for 20 minutes, firing 21 shots on goal, scoring three times and grabbing the lead late in the period.
But predictably, the lack of bodies began to tell.
“The boys absolutely played their hearts out,” says team manager Wayne Sarginson. “They just ran out of gas.”
Aaron Franklin, Evan Lohr and Michael Zinyk scored the Wolves’ goals in what turned into a 6 – 3 loss.
The Huskies scored the first two goals and then the Wolves struck back with three straight. Fort St. John tied it at three near the end of the first period. The Huskies added three more later. Three of the Fort St. John goals were shorthanded.
Sanford Lamouche played a tremendous game in net for the Wolves, Sarginson says, facing over 60 shots.
Eleven skaters might not seem much, but there were even fewer available for the Friday night game in Dawson Creek. So few, in fact, that the Wolves couldn’t make the game. Sarginson says he’s trying to re-schedule it, but “we might have to forfeit the points.”
Sarginson says he hopes the league will quit asking Slave Lake to play Friday games. Given work schedules and travel distance, it’s an unfair disadvantage, he says.
The Wolves have five regular season games left on the schedule, starting with home games this weekend against Fort St. John and Beaverlodge. The Saturday game time has been changed to 5:00 p.m. to accommodate the Winterhawks’ playoff game against Fox Creek.
The Wolves will have to play out the season with out the help of forward Cody May, #14. He suffered a concussion in a fight in Peace River on Jan. 21 and will miss the rest of the season.

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