With the playoff hopes fading with each passing loss, younger players on the Calgary Hitmen roster are beginning to emerge and showcase themselves to the front office for future consideration.
Last night, the Edmonton Oil Kings knocked off the Kelowna Rockets in a shootout, dropping the Hitmen to the basement floor of the Western Hockey League.
Tonight, the Hitmen dropped their league-tying 16th home game when they welcomed the Saskatoon Blades to the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Don’t let the 5-1 final fool you; the Hitmen played the Blades hard and if one rookie had a couple bounces go his way, the score could have easily been reversed in the Hitmen’s favour.
Cael Zimmerman, 16, for the most part has been stationed on the fourth line this season alongside Zach Huber and Justyn Gurney.
With five goals under his belt in 54 games this season, a game where the Engelfeld, Sask. product was held off the score sheet could be overlooked with general ease.
But even Zimmerman said it himself, that this was one of his better games this season and was a few breaks away from having a monster game.
“Personally, I thought I had a pretty good effort tonight. We had lots of chances, but at the end of the day we didn’t get the two points that we needed,” said Zimmerman.
To say that the newly formed line of Zimmerman, Carson Focht and Tristen Nielsen had a lot of chances, is putting it mildly.
One shift alone in the second period, could have easily produced a pair of goals for the rookie Zimmerman.
Early in the second, Zimmerman was sprung on a breakaway on a slick pass from Focht. Tearing in on the 16-year-old netminder Nolan Maier, Zimmerman deked but lost the handle at the last second.
The same shift, Zimmerman poked the puck away from Maier, who was attempting to cover it, only for the puck to glance off the far post and out.
“(Cael) is a hard worker; he loves getting in there and going hard to the net. He is definitely a special player and has a bright future with this team,” said Zimmerman’s teammate Jakob Stukel.
Throughout the remaining 40, Zimmerman was buzzing around the net, shooting whenever he had a window of opportunity.
There were also chances like his in the third, when Focht backhanded a pass out from below the goal line to Zimmerman at the top of the blue paint. Zimmerman tried to steer the puck into the open cage, but was again robbed of a scoring chance due to a bouncing puck.
“The Focht line has good chemistry right now. The big thing is that they can all skate and pursue the puck. They have been able to generate scoring chances by attacking through the neutral zone,” said Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson. “It was good to see Cael get some chances, now we need to work with him about shooting the puck a little quicker and in better spots.”
The bouncing pucks could be the result of a heavy schedule at the ‘Dome lately. Friday night, the Calgary Roughnecks played a home game against the Vancouver Stealth. Last night, the Calgary Flames hosted the Florida Panthers. An hour and a half before puck drop, the Flames took to the ice for a quick skate. Needless to say that the ice wasn’t in pristine form and could have cost the Hitmen a couple of goals.
Some players said the ice was soft, some didn’t even notice — some said it was just the bounces of the game.
The Blades (30-27-2-1) didn’t seem bothered by the ice conditions or the fact that they were on a semi-difficult stretch of their season that sees them play four road games in six nights.
Over the past two years, Braylon Shmyr has had a knack of lighting the lamp against his hometown team. Including tonight, he has produced nine points in his last six games against the Hitmen.
Playing his final WHL game in the ‘Dome, Shmyr put on one final show for family and friends, as he powered the Blades with a hat trick.
The Shmyr show started in the first when former Medicine Hat Tiger Max Gerlach was tied up by Focht at the side of the net but still managed to slide it over to Shmyr for the tap in.
At the 5:18 mark of the second, the 20-year-old Shmyr broke the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career when he chipped in a loose puck at the side of the net with Orca Wiesblatt in the box for kneeing.
Trailing 4-1 late in the third, Ferguson opted to remove Schneider with 1:29 remaining. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Shmyr shoveled in the half court shot with 65 seconds still on the clock.
Brad Goethals and Gerlach also recorded snipes for the Blades on picture perfect shots past Schneider.
Another 20-year-old that is having an extremely consistent season, has been the alternate Hitmen captain Jakob Stukel.
Down 2-0 in the second, Stukel was the only one that knew where his rebound went following a patented one-armed rush down the wing. His initial stop was blocked by Maier and bounced over the Yorkton, Sask. product. Continuing his momentum, Stukel circled the net to find the puck land near the other post, as he popped in his 27th of the season in his 250th career game.
That was all the damage the Hitmen (17-33-5-2) could do on Maier, who picked up his 21st win with 32 saves. Earlier on the Central Division swing, when the Blades downed the Kootenay Ice 3-2. With that, Maier became the first 16-year-old goalie to record 20 wins since Calvin Pickard did so with the Seattle Thunderbirds during the 2008-09 season.
When the Hitmen fell into last place last night, the drop in the standings didn’t go unnoticed by the club. Stukel mentioned that seeing his team that low fired them up a little and the team responded that way and proved they won’t go down without a fight this seasom.
In the third period, 20-year-old Blades captain Evan Fiala clipped Jake Kryski with a knee in the Hitmen zone. Without hesitation, the 17-year-old defencemen Layne Toder jumped in and started feeding Fiala his lunch. It was the second fight of Toder’s young career.
It’s that type of energy and willingness to go to war for the guy beside them that will keep the Hitmen going through the rest of the season.
The Hitmen will be back at it Wednesday night when they host the Red Deer Rebels (20-26-10-3), who have recently found themselves within the playoff picture. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. in game four of the Hitmen’s seven-game home stand.
