The Osoyoos Coyotes continued their five-game losing streak on the weekend, scoring only two goals in two games, while taking 13 goals against.
The Coyotes now sit in the bottom of the Okanagan Division, tied with the North Okanagan Knights with only two points and one win each.
Coyotes’ owner Randy Bedard suggests changes will need to be made.
On Friday night, the Coyotes were shut out 6-0 by the Summerland Steam in a road game. The next night, they were in Grand Forks, where the Border Bruins defeated them 7-2.
Both games saw Coyote goalie Daniel Paul play the full 60 minutes. Despite the score, Paul was picked as the “away star” in the Summerland game, perhaps recognizing the losses mostly weren’t his fault.
In the Summerland game, the Steam outshot the Coyotes by 41-20.
The Coyotes only allowed one shorthanded goal in the second half of the first period and they were just outshot 11-8.
But two Summerland power play goals in the second period, followed by another Steam goal in the final minute, left the Coyotes down 4-0 at the end of the second period.
The Coyotes were badly outshot, 16-4 in that period as they took the lion’s share of penalties.
Finally, less than two minutes into the third period, Paul allowed two goals just 10 seconds apart.
In Saturday’s game in Grand Forks, the Coyotes once again played a respectable first period, and they weren’t too badly mismatched in the second either. Those periods also saw relatively few penalties.
Carter Shannon opened the scoring for the Coyotes close to the halfway point in the first period, with Peter Michailides and Seth Kriese assisting.
But the Border Bruins added two goals in the space of a minute, taking the lead.
With just over a minute left in the first period, Brandon Della Paolera scored, assisted by Levi Holz, to end the period in a 2-2 tie.
Grand Forks only outshot Osoyoos 10-9 in the first period.
The second period saw Grand Forks score twice to make it 4-2, but they only outshot Osoyoos 13-10.
In the final period, fists flew and again the penalty boxes were busy places.
Two of the Border Bruins’ three penalties were scored on power plays.
In the final period, Grand Forks outshot Osoyoos by a factor of four – 24-6.
Adding to the Coyotes’ misfortunes, the Coyotes last week announced they’d traded Brandon Onstein and Sam Reinbolt to Revelstoke to acquire Grizzlies Brecklin Erichuk and Harrison Rosch. It’s now unclear whether either of the acquisitions will be wearing Coyotes jerseys.
“We’re working on trying to turn things around and become competitive again,” said a frustrated Bedard, the Coyotes’ owner.
He noted that the Coyotes played well in the pre-season and in the first two regular season games, when they beat Kamloops in the opener, and only lost 2-1 against Kelowna, which now leads the division with 17 points.
“We’re going to have to make some changes, and we will,” said Bedard.
Most of the current Coyote roster is made up of rookies, approximately 16, and with trades and suspensions, only a few veterans remain in the line-up.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
