The Ridge Meadows Flames may have grabbed three out of a possible four points over the weekend, but head coach and general manager Jamie Fiset put his team on notice that it needs to start playing more consistent hockey if it hopes to have any kind of success this season.
The Flames doubled up the Port Moody Panthers Friday night with a 6-3 win after dropping a 5-4 double overtime decision to the Mission City Outlaws the night before.
“We certainly weren’t happy with the overtime loss to Mission,” said Fiset, who let his players know with a closed-door meeting after Thursday’s loss. “We communicated to them exactly what is expected of them as far as consistency is concerned, ad they responded Friday night.”
The junior B hoceky coach said the team used a balanced attack from all four lines Friday against the Panthers as 13 different Flames registered a point on the score sheet.
Fiset said he has been especially pleased with forward’s Chris Nakamura and Mitchell Plevy’s performance over the past few games.
“Both of them have played some real solid hockey for us lately and it’s starting to show up n the scoresheet,” he said.
However, the coach wasn’t as impressed with his team’s play the night before.
While the Flames showed resiliency bouncing back from a pair of two-goal deficits in the game, the coach said it has been an all too familiar story line.
“You could tell from the drop of the puck that we weren’t firing on all cylinders. You would think that after battling back from a pair of two-goal deficits that we would have the momentum going into the overtime, but it wasn’t there,” said Fiset.
Fiset said he’s hoping for more scoring from his second line on down and addressed the issue by picking up a couple of players on the weekend. The Flames have added forwards Vitalik Morozov of Port Moody and Kurt Thrussell of the North Delta Devils. He said he’s hoping their acquisition can create a more balanced offensive attack. Through the first 16 games of the season, the Flames have scored 49 goals, while giving up 63.
Fiset will also be looking to fill an opening on the back end after learning defenceman Brad Wardner will be sidelined for the remainder of the season because of concussion problems. Fiset said more roster moves are on the way.
• The Flames travel to Richmond to take on the Sockeyes Thursday night before returning home Friday for a rematch with the Mission City Outlaws. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at Planet Ice.