Ken Law, the veteran head coach and general manager of the Osoyoos Coyotes, says this year’s squad has the talent, commitment and work ethic to be a serious contender for the KIJHL championship. (Keith Lacey photo)
There is a lot of tough hockey to be played, but the Osoyoos Coyotes have proven over the past four months they are one of the heavy favourites to win the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) championship this season.
The Coyotes have played terrific hockey so far this season while accumulating an extremely impressive 28-6-1 record – not including their final pre-Christmas contest Wednesday afternoon in Princeton – which gives them the best record in the entire league.
The Fernie Ghostriders have put together an equally impressive 24-5-1-2 record, good enough for 51 points, which means they trail the Coyotes’ by sixpoints, but have games in hand.
Ken Law, who is now in his fifth consecutive season as head coach and general manager of the Coyotes, believes this team is every bit as talented as the 2010-11 Coyotes squad that captured the KIJHL championship.
That team lost only two games in regulation time during the entire 50-game schedule and only lost a couple of games in the entire playoffs.
“I believe this team might be even better because we might be a bit deeper than we were my first year here,” said Law. “That year our goaltender Kyle Laslo was arguably the best player in the league and he made a huge difference in a large number of games.
“This year’s team doesn’t rely as much on one player or one line. We’re a very deep team with talent at every position and we can roll four lines and wear teams down.”
Law, who has been coaching hockey for 36 years, said he knew this year’s team was going to be strong after a strong summer recruiting players. When veterans Aaron Azevedo and Troy Maclise -who have been named co-captains – and Jackson DeMatos returned, he believed the Coyotes could be a powerhouse.
“Getting those three guys back was huge,” he said. “I knew we would have a lot of talented young guys, but getting those three veteran guys back to lead our team has obviously been a really nice bonus.”
Because of the team’s sensational start, Law admits he won’t be making many changes heading into the final 20 games of the regular season and playoffs, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t mind adding a couple of players if it will improve the team.
“If it’s something that would make us a better team without messing with our team chemistry, we would look at it,” said Law.
The recent trade that brought in goaltender Brett Soles from Nelson Leafs in exchange for goaltender Brandon Locket and forward Drew Carter gives the Coyotes solid depth in the netminding position as Soles and veteran Lawrence Langan are both capable of being outstanding goaltenders, said Law.
The Coyotes have scored an impressive 162 goals in 33 games – or almost five a game – while allowing only 80, which clearly indicates they don’t have any trouble putting the puck in the net, said Law.
“But we’re still looking to improve in our defensive zone,” he said. “There will come a time when we’ll be facing teams in big games that will test our defence and we have to continue improving and being committed to defensive hockey because I’m not worried about creating chances once we get the puck out of our zone.”
The “entire town went crazy” when the Coyotes marched to the league championship four years ago and Law said he’s excited about creating the same kind of excitement over the next few months.
“The fans in this town give us great support and I remember how exciting it was to be involved in a great playoff run to the championship,” he said. “We’ve had some great success the past couple of years winning our division and making the league semi-finals the past two years, but we want to take that final step and get back into the finals and see what happens.”
This year’s team is much bigger physically than it has been the past two seasons and that’s vitally important in the playoffs when there’s less space and the opposing teams try and impose their will against his players, said Law.
“Last year against Kamloops, we let them dictate the play because of their size and strength and we didn’t want that to happen again,” he said. “We’re a much bigger and stronger team this year and I think that will pay off once we get to face some really big and strong teams in the playoffs.”
If the Coyotes accomplish their goal and win the KIJHL title this season, it would be the third league championship in 10 years for an Osoyoos-based team as the former Osoyoos storm won the championship back in the 2004-05 season.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
