The Airdrie Techmation Thunder are sitting comfortably atop of the entire Heritage Junior Hockey League, and, at the end of 2018. are looking forward to firmly securing the first place spot for the rapidly approaching playoffs.

 The Thunder have been one of the highest offensively producing team in the league, and head coach Derek Stamp says it's been a lot of fun to watch. When asked which part of his team play he's most proud of, he immediately mentioned their success so far.

"The easy answer is the level of success that this team has seen over the first part. We knew that we had a veteran hockey team coming into this season and we knew we had a lot of talent and had expectations of competing and being one of the top teams in the league but to see the level of offence and the goals that we've been scoring, to see the win/loss record has been a really great surprise."

They have been so successful offensively thanks in part to having two of the highest point scorers in the league in Rylan Plante-Crough and Jordan McConnell. Stamp says he expected big things from the returning Plante-Crough and though pairing him up with the new McConnell seemed natural.

"It's awesome to see. We knew Rylan, he was a veteran, he played for us last year, (and) was one of our top players. We knew the level of talent that he brought and knew that in his 21-year-old year, he was going to be a force in the league. Jordan came to us from playing Junior A last season, so we knew as well that he would have a bit of an impact. We put the two of them together and it's been a lot of fun to watch. They've just sort of taken off. They've enjoyed playing with each other, they're great in the dressing room, so it's been really fun. There have been nights where Jordan gets six points or Rylan scores four goals, and it's great to be part of that experience."

With the playoffs looming, Stamp is preparing his team for the increased difficulty of play.

"Obviously, we want to make sure that we're playing the best hockey that we can when we head to the playoffs. The style of the team is going to change, the level of the opponent is going to increase. We're going to work and prep for that. We have ten games left (...)and we'll see what we can do throughout the rest of the regular season with that focus on making sure that we're all set come playoff time."

With such good hockey being played by the Thunder, one would think they have almost no room for improvement. But Stamp says he would like to increase their focus defensively so they see a bigger gap between scores.

"I think our focus is our team game. Some of the areas of the structure that we need to stay focused on might be our defensive zone coverage. We need to make sure that all those details are taken care of and that we're focusing on them and obviously that sometimes gets tough during the regular season when you might be up on a team by four or five goals, so we just need to make sure in the second half, as we get closer to the playoffs and we know the games are going to get tighter, that we're focusing on the right details when we don't have the puck"

The Thunder's first game of the new year goes on Friday, January 4th against the Blackfalds Wranglers.

 

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