Archive

Coyotes end regular season in second place

February 17, 2016   ·   0 Comments

The Alliston Coyotes hosted the Shelburne Sharks during their last game of the regular season on Thursday, February 11, at the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre. The Coyotes hammered the sharks 16-2 to end the season in second place in the Central Division of the Greater Metro hockey League.
Photos by Brian Lockhart

By Brian Lockhart
The Alliston Coyotes have wrapped up the regular season with a second place finish in the Central Division of the Greater Metro Hockey League after playing their final scheduled game against the Shelburne Sharks on Thursday (Feb. 11) night at the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre.
It was more of a practice for the Coyotes who scored 16 goals against the visitors.
The win leaves the Alliston team with 35-6 record for the season and 71 points. That’s 13 points ahead of the third-place Bradford Rattlers and nine points behind the first-place Tottenham Steam.
The Coyotes have been a dominant team in the league this year leading the Central Division for most of the season before being eclipsed the Tottenham team in January.
“We have a plan that we have stuck to from Christmas on. We stuck with it in practice,” Said Coyotes head coach Jim Aldred of how the team has worked for much of the season. “With my team, they have a lot of skill up front and a lot of speed. I let them be very creative in the offensive zone, so I don’t do any offensive zone practicing. I strictly do defensive zone coverage. I work on our defensive zone, then basically let everyone from centre ice in, design their own plays.”
There’s no doubt the team has a lot of talent. They list seven players who have notched over 50 points for the season including forward Viacheslave Chegrintcev who tops the points column with 129 including 58 goals, and Nils Niklasson who has 90 points with 41 goals and 49 assists.
“They (the offence) work on it on their own individually. During practice the lines get together and do it themselves. They do their own cycling, they figure it out for hours and practice it for a long time. For systems, I do more of a defensive system. When we get in a close game they know how to do a one-two-two, the one-three-one – I’ll be doing a lot of that come playoffs with the top teams. I’ll play my defensive style and then wait for the offence because I know with their talent up front all they need is a couple good breaks and they will put the puck in the net,” Aldred said.
Going into the playoffs the Coyotes will meet up with the Grey Highlands Bravehearts in the first round which will be a best of five series.
The full playoff schedule has not yet been announced.

Readers Comments (0)