(Photo courtesy/Carrot River Outback Thunder, Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Only way to go is up

Outback Thunder believing in better fortunes for second half of the season

Dec 20, 2023 | 3:24 PM

The Carrot River Outback Thunder haven’t had the best start to their 2023/24 campaign, to say the least, but from here on out, it can only get better.

Currently, the Junior B club is sitting in last place in the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) standings, as they’ve now reached their Christmas break.

“We haven’t really seen the results we wanted, but it’s a good group of guys, they’re working hard and we’re just coming up a little bit short,” explained head coach, Steve Percy.

“We set some goals early on, some of which were making playoffs and trying to be .500 at Christmas, but we fell short of that. It’s a work in progress, the guys are buying in, and we just have to find a way to limit our mistakes a little bit.”

For Percy, this is his first season at the helm of this group, and he knows the club is still learning.

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He himself has been shown the parody in the league, despite how the standings may seem, as he believes his team is right there.

“The league is pretty tight, if you look at the records it may not show it as there’s a little bit of separation from the top and the bottom, but on any given night any team can win, so the boys just got to learn to relax a little bit and not squeeze their sticks so tight to put the puck in the net,” Percy told northeastNOW.

“It’s really just stay the process, we’ve been in every game and we’re not out of it yet… there’s still lots of hockey to be played.”

The Outback Thunder have played 23 of their 40 regular season games this season, accumulating 11 points with a 5-17-0-1 record.

Percy added for a team that has dealt with a lack of player personnel from time to time, it will be highly beneficial to have everyone back to work.

“We’ve been bitten a little bit by the injury bug, so we’ve been running a lot of games a little short-staffed. We have a couple of key guys who will be coming back after Christmas who had been out quite a bit in the first half, so that will help a lot for sure.”

In total, three teams from each division are guaranteed a playoff spot, while four teams will battle for the last two spots in a ‘wild card’ format (survivor series).

As of right now, Carrot River would fall short of it all.

“Their attitudes are changing. We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity early on in the season, and they keep working, there’s no quit in them,” Percy mentioned. “I’m really looking forward to the next half… we’re gonna give the guys a little bit of a break over Christmas and then get back to work early, our goal is playoffs and we’re gonna make some noise.”

The Burgundy and Gold will return to the ice for their 2024 portion of the season on Jan. 7, when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Royals.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8