Copperheads limp into holiday break

By Lethbridge Herald on December 22, 2025.

Cindy Adachi PHOTO Coaldale Copperheads Nathan Verloop battles for a loose puck with Hunter Cobb of the Carstar Okotoks Bisons during Heritage Junior Hockey League action earlier this season. Verloop was one of a few key players to hit the injury list before the holiday break.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The holiday break could not have come at a better time for the Coaldale Copperheads Heritage Junior Hockey League  team, as they limped into it with an 0-5 record in December and a large part of that had to do with many key injuries sustained in last number of weeks.

“I’d say the last two, three weeks we’ve been hit with (the) injury bug, so we’re just limping through (and) haven’t really performed all that well,” said Cody Moskal, Copperheads head coach.

Moskal talked about how much injuries have made an impact.

“Oh, huge,” said Moskal.

“Just (our) starting goaltender went down about a month ago (and) waiting to get him  back. Nathan Verloop … had an MCL tear about two weeks ago. He was second in the league in scoring, so yeah I gotta lot of offence on the sidelines right now. So, it hasn’t been great.”

Coaldale has six of their top guys out of the line-up currently.

“I (have) got some depth guys that are out now too,” said Moskal.

Moskal anticipates getting  players back by early January.

“Just need guys to step up into higher roles and just push through it,” said Moskal, on what the team has learned about themselves while dealing with injuries.

Prior to the injury bug hitting,  Moskal liked how the Copperheads depth had clicked in the season up to that point.

“ I would  say probably depth and offence would be the bright spot (s) of our club,” said Moskal.

The Copperheads sit in fourth place in the HJHL’s South Division with a 14-11-2 record at the break.

The Copperheads  play seven of their nine January games on the road to open their schedule after the holiday break.

“We’re going to have to play well on the road, for sure, that’s going to be the big thing for us,” said Moskal.

Coaldale begins a stretch of four straight road games on Jan. 2 when they travel  to play the Mountainview Colts in Didsbury.