The Strathmore Wheatland Kings hit the ice again this weekend and came home with a win and a loss.  

Head Coach Ron West explained that they fought hard against the Okotoks Bisons on Friday night. 

“Friday, we were in Okotoks, playing one of the better teams in the league. The guys all pushed very hard. The end result was a 4-3 loss, but on the same level, we came away very positive, we had our opportunities. We tried to keep it as a tie, but we made three different errors and that cost us the game.” 

While the team felt a little defeated, they sure made up for their loss the next night at home.  

“We played the Kainai Junior Braves on Saturday, they had a short bench so the result of our 7-1 win may be a little bit more glamorous than it should be for the fact that I think they were missing three of their better players. But on the same level again pushing hard with the systems that we are doing, we came out with that win.” 

According to West, the future of the team lies in the hands of recruitment. A couple of their players unfortunately aged out last year without getting to play their last season due to COVID-19 restrictions.  

“We've got a couple of younger players that have come on because we're getting older, so we have a lot of 20-year-olds on the team. We're looking at starting to bring in some younger guys slowly going forward so we can keep our roster full.” 

This year, the team is allowed to play against other teams in the league as long as everyone is vaccinated, or has a negative COVID-19 test that has been taken 72 hours before game time.  

West explained that there have been some challenges but not much else has been different this season.  

“I think the biggest part is when we have to do some rapid tests for guys that hadn't had the shot yet, so they have to go through that. That's been a little challenging just for the fact that some of them were doing it on Friday of last week and showing up to game the game 30 minutes before.” 

All fans and staff must also be fully vaccinated or tested to watch games in the arena. 

Ponoka and Stettler’s teams have dropped out of the league this year due to complications with COVID-19 restrictions.  

Due to the teams dropping out, the Kings schedule has been moved around a bit. They will be facing Okotoks again on Saturday night at home.