BEN COPPINGER (17) WITH A CHANCE
Winnipeg Wild head coach Paul Krueger has never seeked the
spotlight. Being the centre of attention has never been a motivation
for what he does. In fact, he’s diligent in trying to avoid it. However,
when you’ve had the type of success he’s had, for as long as he’s
had, you can become the focal point without asking for it. Fact is,
when you win as much as Paul Krueger does, reverence occasionally
pursues you.
A
t 48, Winnipeg Wild head coach
Paul Krueger has spent most of his
adult life coaching hockey, espe-
cially in the Winnipeg AAA system and more
specifically as the head coach of the Provin-
cial Midget Winnipeg Wild. Fact is, he’s been
the Wild’s head coach for the past 14 seasons.
In that time, he’s won seven Manitoba Midg-
et AAA Hockey League titles, seven regular
season championships and advanced the fi-
nals of the TELUS Cup regional on three dif-
ferent occasions.
This past season his Wild finished first in
regular season play and then repeated as
MMAAAHL champs with a sweep of the Yel-
lowhead Chiefs in the final. The team then
moved on to regional tournament in Stein-
bach in late March. Through it all, Krueger
has maintained his understatedness and hu-
mility.
“I never seek out the limelight,” said
Krueger. “And the truth of it is I actually feel
uncomfortable in a lot of situations like that.
There are so many other people that are in-
volved in this. There’s a team of people. It’s
not just me. I’m just the figurehead.”
This year, the Wild were terrific. Led by the
likes of leading scorer Cedric Chenier; high-
scoring captains Ben Coppinger and Brett
Namaka; WHL Draft Picks Eric Fawkes and
Kyle Bettens and goaltender of the year Nik-
las Anderson.
“We’ve been pretty successful, the last
couple of years,” said Coppinger. “Kruegs
is a real good coach and he did a great job
getting the younger players to buy into our
system. You have to have everyone on the
same page and buying into the program ev-
ery game in order to be successful and that’s
the way this team was all season.”
The Wild finished the regular season in
first place with a record of 35-6-0 and then
stormed through the playoffs, taking three
straight from Parkland before beating a
strong Eastman club in five games in the sec-
ond round. Then, they took out Yellowhead in
three straight in the final, winning the cham-
pionship game 4-1 at MTS Iceplex. In that final
game, MAAAMHL First Team All-star Nicho-
las Cicek led the way with two goals while
Coppinger and Griffin Leonard added singles
and Anderson won his ninth playoff game in
net.
“We had such good balance all season,”
said captain Brett Namaka. “I think we had
a team that just wanted to win so badly. We
had one goal all season and we accomplished
that goal with a sweep in the final.”
Despite his team’s success, Krueger isn’t
prepared to take all the credit. In fact, he’s
quick to point out that his current staff of as-
sistant coaches Tim Rothwell and Calvin Bu-
gyik, trainer Jordan Vertone, athletic thera-
pist Mike Gobenciong and longtime husband
and wife duo Rick and Dianne Rogers, as
managers, are all strategically important to
the success of the Wild program.
This is illustrated by the long-term commit-
ment to the team and amateur hockey in the
area. Rick Rogers has been with Krueger for