(Submitted photo/Stacey Simpson)

By Ben Tompkins

Continued Improvement

Trojans’ effort and compete showing more in win column during first half

Jan 14, 2025 | 2:30 PM

The Tisdale Trojans have begun 2025 the way they had hoped, as they’ve earned at least a point in each of their first three games.

Taking five out of a possible six points to begin the new year has allowed them to improve on their best first half in the last few years.

After just six wins in total in the 2022/23 campaign and 13 wins through their first 28 games last season, the Trojans are 16-7-6 in 29 games played this year, sitting in a tie for fourth place in the SMAAAHL standings.

“I think we’ve maybe exceeded our expectations a little bit, at least from the start of the year, but our younger guys have stepped up and the older guys have filled their roles. We’ve really come together well,” said Tisdale head coach, Wes Rudy.

“I’m really proud of the boys for what they’ve accomplished so far. I hate to say that we’re maybe overachieving a little bit, but I think we’re just meeting our potential. We’ve met our potential here for the first half, and I think there’s room for growth in the second half. I’m proud of the boys and the efforts, sacrifice, and determination they are putting in.”

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Tisdale is especially happy with where they are considering how they started the season.

The Trojans began the year 2-5-5, before rattling off a 10-game win streak to get things going.

While both sound like a tale of two tapes, Rudy believed the tides just levelled out.

“We had some overtime losses to begin the season and played some pretty good teams. We could have just as easily been 7 and 5 to start the year, I think we deserved some better fortune early, and then maybe in the 10-game win streak, we only deserved to win seven or eight of them. The hockey just kind of levelled itself off there for the playing field a little bit and evened out,” he told northeastNOW.

“We’re a team that’s built on effort and compete, and as long as we keep doing that, I like our chances. We’ve got a lot of one-goal games where we’ve just been competing hard and staying in games and giving ourselves chances to win. We just need to stick to our identity, which is a hard-working, play-in-your-face hockey kind of team.”

The club has continuously evolved since Rudy showed up ahead of last season, with a playoff-round win already under their belt.

The bench boss just wants to continue to build rapport with his players and use the experiences gained along the way to fuel this team as far as they can go.

The Trojans will next play on Saturday when the Battlefords Stars visit the Recplex in Tisdale at 7:30 p.m.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8