Fourth-year Strathmore Wheatland Kings defensemen Zach Suntjens is your Strathmore Motor Products King of the Week.

Zach who is originally from Drumheller has been playing hockey in Strathmore since he was 12, and getting the opportunity to play a full season for his last season with the Kings has definitely been one among many highlights.

There is one highlight that does stand out, “Just getting to play with all those local guys.  I think it's an awesome opportunity and I really like playing with them and the fans.  I can't really think of one specific moment, but it's been really fun though.”

Continuing to play hockey after his time with the Kings is done is something that is at the forefront of Zach’s mind, being on skates since he was four, he is not ready to hang them up just yet.

“I plan on training during the summer and hopefully try out for the SAIT hockey team or just pretty much anywhere I'd love to play next year.”

After a quiet year in 2020, the 2021-2022 season has been busy for the Kings and Zach is grateful to see his last season wasn’t cut short. The team has had some successes this year and coming off of a few wins over the last couple of weeks, they are looking to carry that momentum into the last two weeks of the regular season before heading to the playoffs, and there is still work to be done to get ready.

“We've actually been playing some pretty good hockey the last couple of weeks and getting lots of shots. We just need to figure out a way to score a lot more on those opportunities, we feel pretty good though, our next a couple of games we got coming up are definitely winnable games.”

Zach is putting in the extra effort to make sure that he is giving everything he has to his team to get those much-needed wins in the last games of the regular season. Setting personal goals he is working on his footwork and his speed, “I'd like to work on just being a little bit quicker, I used to be quite a quick little player, but now it kind of regressed a little bit.”

Over the years playing in Strathmore, Zach expressed his gratitude for great coaches,  the players and friends he met along the way, and as a Kings player, he said the fans are the best ones in the league.

Right now in the standings, there is a good possibility the team will meet the High River Flyers in the best of 3 first-round matches so the next few games are key to maintaining that momentum.

The Strathmore Wheatland Kings have 2 more weeks of regular-season games with their last regular-season home game on February 5th against the Airdrie Techmation Thunder.