The Lake Country Timberwolves faceoff with the Saskatoon Riverkings. (Toporowski Photography/submitted)

By Logan Lehmann

U18 AA

Timberwolves head coach confident as final stretch looms

Jan 25, 2025 | 8:00 AM

The Lake Country Timberwolves have been a force to be reckoned with this season.

The Prince Albert based U18 AA hockey club currently sits in the middle of the pack in terms of the standings, repping a 13-5-0-2 (W-L-T-OTL) record while having played as many as six less games compared to some other teams.

Now in the back half of the season, Timberwolves head coach Derek Simonson said he hopes the team can use that game differential as a boost when it comes time to push for the playoffs.

“We got four, five games in hand on a lot of teams, so hopefully we can take advantage of those games in hand and that should shoot us somewhere closer to the top. For the most part, I think we’re in a good spot.”

P.A. began the year on a heater, winning their first three games of the season without giving up a goal, outscoring their opponents 26-0 in that span. They went on to start the year at 7-3-0-0 through their first 10 games.

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Now in their last 10, the Timberwolves are still cooking at 6-3-0-1 and Simonson said he’s not worried with their play but does think there needs to be some touch-ups here and there.

“We had a really strong front half of the season and in early January, we were in Regina and didn’t fare so well there. However, I thought we played some really good games. Sometimes you know if you’re playing good hockey and not getting the wins, it can be frustrating. We’ve got a few losses here in our last five games, however, there’s not any massive changes that we have to do – tweak a few things here and there. The foundation of our success, we’ve always told our players, is our work ethic and we get that back to where we want it to be, and we’ll be just fine.”

Looking at the stats, the Timberwolves rank fourth in powerplay efficiency at 27.17% and P.A. is near the top of the penalty kill too, ranking fifth at 85.23%. Leading the charge in scoring as of Jan. 24 is third year defenceman Gareg Painter with 11G-16A-27P in 20 appearances. Not far behind is second year forward Trey Mudry with 17G-7A-24P in 17 games, and trailing him is second year blueliner Caden Stumpf with 4G-19A-23P in 20 games.

“We’re doing something right,” said Simonson. “In the second-half, like all teams do, we just want to crank it up a notch and finish off the regular season on a strong note.”

The Lake Country Timberwolves have 13 games left before the end of the regular season, with their next contest slated for Saturday against the Humboldt Broncos. Puck drop is set for 8:15 p.m. at Dave Stuart Arena.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com