Thunder prepare to defend crown

Most teams would like to improve on their previous season.

Sometimes, that’s just not possible.

Take the Airdrie Thunder, for example.

Let’s re-cap their 2018-19 campaign: It started with a franchise-record 35-3 regular season, followed by a 11-2 run en route to a Heritage Junior Hockey championship, and was topped off with a perfect 5-0 gold-medal run at the provincials.

“I don’t think you can ever top a season like we had last season,” says Thunder head coach Derek Stamp said. “If you talk to anyone who coaches, those come along so infrequently, so you enjoy them when they happen and then you start fresh again.

“We just want to make sure we continue with the culture we’re building.

“Last year’s team was really professional. We had a lot of guys who had played Junior A and higher. They understood what it meant to be playing junior hockey, how you show up, the preparation.

“That’s what we want to carry forward.”

The Thunder might not put up the eye-popping numbers from a year ago, when they out-scored the opposition by an absurd 335-96.

But they won’t bottom out either.

“We think we’ll be competitive and be in a position to be successful on most nights,” Stamp says. “We’ll go in with the same focus and make sure we have the right people in the right spots, and then when things come together, we’ll see what happens.

“Who knows if we can repeat what we did last season. All we know is that it will be different.”

But not drastically so.

Jordan McConnell, who re-wrote the HJHL record book with a 125-point campaign, will be back to terrify goaltenders across the league.

But linemate and fellow 50-goal man Rylan Plante-Crough has aged out along with Zac Giroux.

The club’s third- and fourth-leading scorers, Cooper Page and Jason Wenzel, will be joined by blueliner Tyler McCarry at the University of Providence Great Falls in Montana.

Goaltender Ryan Simpson will be between the pipes for the Boise State Broncos and Brett LeGrandeur is off to the SJHL to suit up for the Yorkton Terriers.

Barrett Sheen and captain Jacob MacDonald are also out with school and work commitments.

Losing a large part of the championship roster is certainly no surprise to Stamp.

“We were an older team, for sure,” Stamp said. “The way our roster started coming together at the end of pre-season and the early part of the regular season, we knew we had an opportunity to be something special.

“We threw our chips in and we were OK carrying a lot of 20-year-olds, knowing that we’d get into a situation like we’re in this year.

“Of the 24 guys we had last year, I think we’ll lose 12 or 13 of them.”

As much talent that is walking out the door, there’s a boatload that remains.

“McConnell, Tristan Paquette and Kirkland Spencer will be three of our four 20-year-olds,” Stamp says.

“We’re still trying to figure out the fourth spot. There’s a possibility it will be (provincial overtime hero) Brayden Dunn, assuming his ankle will hold up.

“So we have a good group of 21-year-olds to take the lead and we have some returning rookies. Jackson Little is back in net so we have expectations for him taking a step forward in his second season.”

Jonny Lake, who played for Stamp when he coached the Airdrie midget AA team, is back after going away to school in Kelowna for a couple of years.

He’ll be expected to centre one of the squad’s top two lines.

“He’s been at the summer skates all summer long and has looked real good,” Stamp says. “I kind of know what to expect from him and we’re excited to see what he can do in his year with the Thunder.”

Stamp and his staff will begin piecing together the 2019-20 edition of the Thunder when training camp kicks off on Sept. 3.