Warriors defence shines in loss to Rush

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The Vancouver Warriors record fell to 5-6 following a 10-7 loss to the Saskatchewan Rush on Friday. With the loss, Vancouver falls out of a playoff spot. The Warriors are tied  with the Philadelphia Wings and San Diego Seals. The Ottawa Black Bears sit at 5-5, and all four teams are battling for a playoff spot in a race that will come down to the wire.

Despite the disappointing result, head coach and general manager Curt Malawsky was quick to praise the play of some of his squad.

“Aden Walsh was okay coming off the flu and not practicing this morning or going to shoot-around. He was in bed until he got to the rink at three o’clock, so he’s around 70 percent. I like the way he played. I thought Ryan Dilks was outstanding, and, I thought Keegan Bal was really good. (Alec Stathakis) battled against a tough face-off guy from Duke, he was really good too, and played hard. Our defense has been great.”

The Warriors have played games for eight weeks in a row, and with so many consecutive games, injuries are inevitable. Fortunately for Vancouver, it has a bye this upcoming week so they can get players back healthy. Malawsky says the bye week is important to his team.

“We are so beat up. We didn’t think Owen Grant was (going to play), (Jeff Cornwall) wasn’t going to (play), our goalie didn’t practice today, (Aden Walsh) went home and went to bed, and he came back here. (Cornwall) could barely run last night, and we put him back in the lineup because he played well the other night. So, we’re chopped up, and (Brayden Laity) is nicked up now.”

Defender Steph Charbonneau scored his first goal of the season in the fourth quarter as the Warriors started to make a comeback after falling behind 10-4. Charbonneau explains how Vancouver needs to stick to its game plan and put in a full 60-minute effort to be successful.

“(We) just need to keep putting together a full 60 minutes. Maybe we lapsed a few times, we had our game plan and stuff that we prepared for, but we slipped up. So just sticking to the game plan, keeping that stuff in mind. But we’re great defensively, and our goaltending is great when we play our way. So just a matter of, like I said, sticking to the game plan, playing where our feet are, and playing a full 60.”

Just like his coach, Charbonneau also noted the play of the defense as well as Walsh. He added that being a tough team to play against is important if they want to have success the rest of the season.

“We’re playing well defensively, goaltending was great. (Walsh), as always, is outstanding. Just being tough to play against, playing a full 60, we know our job, and we know what to do. It’s just a matter of doing it for a full 60 and being tough to play against.”

After the bye week, Vancouver heads down to San Diego to face the Seals on March 7th.