U13AA Hurricanes ready for second half

By Lethbridge Herald on January 4, 2024.

Herald File Photo by Justin Seward U13AA Hurricanes captains Jake Gerstenbuhler and Easton Mattersdorfer work on a passing play at practice in November.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge U13AA Hurricanes hockey club open the post-Christmas break schedule tonight with the hope of continuing to build on their torrid start to the South Central Alberta Hockey League season.

The team is undefeated at 20-0 in league play and are ranked second in western Canada according to My Hockey Rankings under the U13AAA Category.

“I just hope the kids had a good break over the Christmas holidays and just bring the same energy really to the second half for now,” said head coach Charlie Mattersdorfer.

 Mattersdorfer thinks attitude will be the biggest thing heading into the second half.

“You know making sure at this age, being undefeated, that you have the same winning mindset every game no matter what happened in the first half,” said Mattersdorfer.

Mattersdorfer’s focus in the second half will be to see what the players are doing away from the puck in the team’s systems and tactics.

Teams have been adjusting when they play Lethbridge.

“Teams are making adjustments as they play us and they’re seeing kind of what we’re doing from their perspective,” said Mattersdorfer.

“But at the same time, when they make adjustments, our coaching staff does the same thing. So teams are definitely making adjustments but we’re not going to make it easy … because we’ll continue to do the same thing and I guess motivate the kids to come out ready to play every game.”

“Like at this age, when you haven’t lost, every day coming to the rink is a good day,” he said.

“So (the) excitement’s definitely high and I think everyone’s ready to keep putting in the work to continue the same path.”

The Canes play the Foothills Bisons tonight at Logan Boulet Arena at 6:45 to kickstart the post-break schedule.

Lethbridge has scored 211 goals and have only surrendered 34 on the season so far.