(Photo courtesy/Carrot River Outback Thunder, Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Rollercoaster year

Carrot River Outback Thunder look back on ‘bumpy season’

Mar 13, 2023 | 4:59 PM

The Carrot River Outback Thunder’s season has been over for two weeks, and the team is forced to watch the rest of the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) playoffs.

The Thunder, who finished the regular season with a 17-19-0-4 record, lost in the league’s survivor series, in the Bob Dybvig (North) Division.

They were swept two games to none by the Delisle Chiefs, who finished a point behind them in the standings, after a 4-3 overtime defeat at home in Game 1, and a 3-2 loss on the road.

Dean Hardie, the team’s general manager told northeastNOW despite the unfortunate ending to the year, he was proud of his team’s play considering the circumstances.

That included himself in his first season as the team’s GM, as well as Brian Noad taking over the reins as the new head coach.

Thefts in Humboldt

Thefts from Humboldt businesses under investigation

13h ago

Garbage bin fire

Suspicious garbage bin fire in Melfort

20h ago

Veterans memorial

Choiceland was a village without a war memorial, until now

22h ago

“Learning the whole operation was fairly new, never managing before, I learned a lot over the year, what not to do, sometimes the hard way,” Hardie explained. “The season did come to an end, probably not the way we’d like it to, but we had some pretty key injuries towards the end of the season, and then playoffs hit and our team had the flu and we were missing some of our best 20-year-olds.”

The organization also had to deal with the fact that Brian Noad was let go in early December after the team had a bit of a poor stretch.

This forced the assistant coach to step into an interim role, while Hardie filled in as the team’s new assistant coach.

Both men are farmers, so they are actively looking for a bench boss, to come in for next season.

“It was tough when we let Noad go, he was a real good guy for the community and had some really good ideas,” Hardie said. “I think probably coming into a team that was almost already built before he got here, maybe it was a bit of an issue that some of the players didn’t respond to him.”

For the Junior B team, they will have a lot to work out before the 2023/24 year and Hardie knows that. In a final statement, however, he was sure to not discredit his squad.

“I think overall we had a fairly good year, the league was fairly even, we beat some top teams, and we lost to some teams who were right with us,” he added. “The parody in the league was really well, we had really good games with everybody, a lot of one-goal games and we were in everyone, so I can’t really say we had a terrible season. It’s just sort of a good league to play in now too, which is great, and we just fell short at the end.”

–

Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8