Wolves' losing streak extended to three games
Defending champs suffer setback at home against Crushers, road loss to Steamers
MIRAMICHI • After the Miramichi Timberwolves lost a season-high three consecutive games, head coach Tyler Noseworthy says his players will have their work cut out for them at practice this week.
Two of those losses came over the weekend, with the Wolves (6-8-2) dropping a 5-2 decision to the Pictou County Weeks Crushers (7-8-2) before 829 fans on Saturday at the Miramichi Civic Centre after falling 5-1 to the West Kent Steamers (9-5-1) the night before in Maritime Junior Hockey League play at the J.K. Irving Centre.
Noseworthy said the Wolves have suffered from having “too many passengers” lately and admitted their power play has been their Achilles heel, despite spending two days a week working on it in practice. Miramichi has gone 3-for-30 on the man advantage in their last five games, with their 12.9-per-cent power-play conversion rate ranked second-last in the MHL.
“We’re in a situation right now where, when it rains, it pours,” said Noseworthy. “We can’t have the ‘throw in the towel’ mindset. We need to manage the ebbs and flows. We sometimes get deflated if we have a rough start or a bad period.
“This group is more than capable of being competitive, but there have been so many nights where we’ve had too many passengers. Many of the same guys have been working hard, but we’ve had too many passengers.”
Noseworthy said the Wolves have also watched videos constantly to improve the power play, including National Hockey League clips, and changed positioning and players. However, they’ve still gone 9-for-70 on the man advantage through 16 games.
“It’s about execution,” the coach said. “We’re hanging onto the puck too long and not making 100-per-cent plays. It’s costing us.”
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