When he came back, we just fit together. The chemistry was great and it gets better every time we play
MANITOBA KEYSTONE MAJOR JR. B HOCKEY JUNIOR LEAGUE HOCKEY LEAGUE
part of the Warriors first line. Magne and Hunter play on a line with rightwinger Elmar Tabler while their former linemate Dustin Wiebe has moved onto a line with Jessi Freund and Jared
Hunter. Five of those six players are in the Top 25 of KJHL scoring.“ Yeah, we have a new line this year,” said Hunter.“ We weren’ t producing as much so you have to shake things up. But our second line is really good.
It’ s like we have two first lines and our third line is like a second line. We have lots of skill and plenty of speed.” And because they have lots of skill, Hunter is convinced this team has a chance to win it all.
“ Oh yeah, if we just come out and play hard, we can beat any team in this league,” said Hunter.“ This team is good because most of us are close friends. We’ ve played a few years together and we hang out together. There is a lot of chemistry on this team. I really love playing with these guys because we know each other and we all know where we going to be on the ice.” The line of Hunter, Magne and Tabler could be the fastest trio in the league. As far as head coach Ralph Collette is concerned, this year’ s Warriors are all about speed.
“ You know they say speed skills and our speed has certainly hurt our opponents,” said Collette.“ Hunter and Magne are just amazingly fast. Last year, we might, at times, have been a one-line team, but we are definitely not a one-line team this year. Speed never takes a day off and our Top line and our second and third lines are success- 32 GAME ON 2016- 17 ROSTER DEADLINE EDITION
ful because they have speed.” Magne loves this year’ s team for many reasons, but a lot of it has to do with his near-lifelong relationship with Hunter.“ We work well together,” said Magne, the Warriors captain.“ We have a good friendship. We communicate with each other really well and we have a bit of history.“ Riley and I grew up together in St. Malo. We’ ve played hockey together for most of our lives. While I played here for a couple of years, Riley went to the Grunthal Red Wings( Hanover Tache Jr. C Hockey League). When he came back, we just fit together. The chemistry was great and it gets better every time we play.” The night we spoke to Hunter and Magne, the Warriors blasted the Fisher River Hawks 16-8. They outshot the Hawks 63-33 and while Magne had three goals and an assist, Hunter had two goals and five assists and Tabler had a goal and four assists.
However, while the Magne-R. Hunter- Tabler line had six goals and 16 points, the No. 2 line, Freund-J. Hunter-Wiebe had four goals and 15 points. When a team gets 31 points in a game from its first two lines, it is a team with balance.“ It’ s special having players like Riley and Jared because I’ ve had them for four or five years and they are just committed to our team and to what we’ re trying to accomplish,” said Coach Collette.“ Speed is such an asset in junior hockey and they work so well together.“ I think these guys realize it’ s their last year and we’ re not here to have a good year, we’ re here to win. Riley and Jared are both 21, it’ s their final year of junior hockey and they’ re going to be very disappointed if we don’ t win it all this year. We’ re good enough, we have skill and speed and the goal is definitely to win it all.” n
When he came back, we just fit together. The chemistry was great and it gets better every time we play