The two sides of the White Mud
By Jordan Parker
It’s a tale of two teams with wildly different plotlines in the White Mud Hockey League.
With the Eatonia Huskies dominating the standings and the Leader Flyers struggling at the bottom, the new league entries this year have had disparate seasons.
The Flyers were 2-6-0-0 and tied for last with the Frontier Flyers in the league going into the weekend. But player Riley Feiffer sees positives.
“It was nice to get the Christmas break and then get back into things. Everyone has busy lives, so the step back was important,” he said. “But the guys are happy to be back in the rink.”
The second-place Gull Lake Greyhounds edged them 11-6 on December 17, just prior to the break. Their first game back was a 10-6 loss to the Cabri Bulldogs.
“We got up by three, but things went downhill from there. We backed off our game and didn’t play the full 60,” he said.
“When you play good for 10 minutes, then bad for 20, and then good for another 10, sometimes it can just get hard to catch up. We need to clean up defensively.”
However, on the other side of the game, Feiffer says he’s very happy with where the team is at.
“We scored six goals in that Cabri game. Offensively, I’m very happy. Other than our games against Eatonia and Maple Creek, we’ve hit the four-to-six goal mark every time,” he said. “We just need to clean up on the back-end.”
That said, their play on their special teams remains a highlight, despite holding over 300 penalty minutes as a team on the season – A league high.
“It can be a rough league at times, and we’ve definitely struggled with discipline. If we could clean up our game, it would help,” he said.
“That said, our powerplay and penalty kill boast great numbers. We’re just good on special teams. But we need to be better in our end.”
He’s hoping the final games of the season can turn some tides in the White Mud.
“It isn’t long until playoffs, and we hope to get some wins in that column, and go from there,” he said.
Eatonia coach Ryan Adams saw his team atop the standings with a 7-1-0-1 record headed into the weekend.
“Things are going really well. We lost our first game back against Maple Creek on December 30 6-4, and lost to Gull Lake 2-1 in a shootout,” he said.
“But we’re still playing well. Our guys are always battling back, and a loss isn’t bad every time.”
He says the goal-scoring marker has gone down a bit the past while.
“It’s been a lot more playoff-style hockey, though,” he said. “These are the type of games we want to see. We’re battling, and the guys aren’t getting down and calling it a game. We’re overcoming adversity.”
He’s seeing a high compete level in the league, and said the effort against Gull Lake was a good one.
“They’re second in the league, and it was a hard-fought game. It was 1-1 for most of the game, went through OT, and there were 10 guys in the shootout,” he said. “We have a few games until playoffs and I’m happy where we are.”