CHL Notebook: Warriors’ Halbgewachs focuses on squad goals after a quick 50

Moose-Jaw-Warriors-forward-Jayden-Halbgewachs.-(Robert-Murray/WHL)

Moose Jaw Warriors forward Jayden Halbgewachs. (Robert Murray/WHL)

A congratulatory tweet from one of the Moose Jaw Warriors’ most distinguished alumni helped Jayden Halbgewachs appreciate his rare scoring feat.

It is hockey code not to dwell on what you just did. The scoreboard will always read 0-0 when the next game starts. That said, major junior hockey’s top scorers typically hit the 50-goal mark sometime around early March – not on Jan. 19, like recent San Jose Sharks signing Halbgewachs did last week for the Western Hockey League-leading Warriors. The Emerald Park, Sask., product also became the first Moose Jaw player to have two 50-goal seasons since Theo Fleury did so 30 years earlier, and the NHL great acknowledged Halbgewachs’ feat.

“I haven’t really looked at all the records, but to get that many goals, you never expect that,” says Halbgewachs, whose counter is at 51 goals in 48 games. “It (his 50th goal) happened in Regina and everything just blew up after that. I’m just playing hockey and to find the back of the net, to get that many goals in so short a time, is just unheard of. No junior player goes into a season thinking they’re going to get to 50 goals that early.

“To get recognized by someone who’s done what he has is incredible,” Halbgewachs said of Fleury’s shout-out. “And to be up there with him in the record book is definitely something I’m going to cherish forever.”

Job 1, of course, for Halbgewachs and the Warriors (.823 points pct., first overall) is playing deep into the Saskatchewan spring. Halbgewachs steers credit for his goal-a-game pace to his team – “just how good the team is this year helped me get to where I am” – and says Moose Jaw has carefully developed a group chemistry. Fellow 20-year-old Brayden Burke has a two-point lead on Halbgewachs (93 to 91) in the points race.

“The really big thing for us is we have stuck with the group we’ve had,” says Halbgewachs, who has Brett Howden (TB) and Ryan Peckford as linemates. “We have three 20-year-olds (himself, Burke and wing Tanner Jeannot) who grew up the organization, a lot of 19-year-olds who have done so, and we’re establishing a bond. Our end goal is obviously to be in Regina (for the MasterCard Memorial Cup). If we get there, it will be pretty cool. Right now we’re just focusing on finishing first in our division. If we do that, I think our game is just going to take over.”

Halbgewachs hails from the Regina area and played for the Regina Pat Canadians midget team, so the prospect of helping Moose Jaw win the WHL title and play in the Memorial Cup is a beacon. There’s a process to get there, which is similar to how the 5-foot-8, 165-pound forward earned his contract with San Jose last month after being passed over the NHL Draft three times.

“Getting drafted is one thing, but signing that NHL contract is the goal,” Halbgewachs says. “If it takes a little longer for it to eventually happen, that’s cool … the next few years are going to be really exciting for me as I try to work my way up and eventually make that Sharks squad.”

The Warriors have 24 regular-season games left, so Halbgewachs has a shot at the 70-goal plateau. But it’s all about the how, not the how many.

“I just need to be a better player overall,” he says. “The big thing is working on my defensive game and creating offence with a good defensive stick.”

Zadina avoids suspension for head hit

Halifax Mooseheads star Filip Zadina is No. 2 in the NHL draft rankings, just days after perhaps becoming public enemy No. 1 in Bathurst, N.B.

There is a chance, taking the long view, that the 11-1 spent-a-month-there-last-night shellacking that the Mooseheads took from the Acadie-Bathurst Titan last Saturday will become a touchstone in the team’s collective growth. After all, Halifax (.702 points pct., second-best in the QMJHL) is in contention for a first overall with a core that includes significant 2018 NHL Draft hopefuls with Zadina, fellow forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx, defenceman Jared McIsaac and goalie Alexis Gravel and will be good again next season, possibly as the 2019 MasterCard Memorial Cup host team.

How people react when it everything goes wrong can be telling. Halifax was already down 5-0 in the first period when Zadina made contact with the head of Titan goalie Evan Fitzpatrick as he covered the puck. It’s easy to be the expert after seeing the replay, but it looked like Zadina did less than the bare minimum to avoid the head of the opposing goalie.

The QMJHL, going by its actions, decided the checking to the head major and game misconduct Zadina received was punishment enough. In any event, getting kicked out of a game that was going badly, instead of staying and trying salvage something, seems like a teachable moment for the 18-year-old Zadina. It’s also something the Titan will have an easy recall of when the Maritimes Division counterparts have a rematch in Halifax on Feb. 3.

Hay one win away

It seems fitting that Don Hay will become the winningest coach in WHL history during a season when his Kamloops Blazers are scraping and grinding out of an early hole. Hay earned credit for career win No. 741 when the Blazers, bolstered by 10 players who are under 18, won 4-2 at Edmonton on Sunday. That brought him within one win of the all-time mark of 742 that Ken Hodge set with the Portland Winterhawks (née Edmonton Oil Kings) franchise from 1973 to ’93.

As fate and the schedule have it, the Blazers’ next three games are all against the Winterhawks – a double-dip in Kamloops on Friday and Saturday, with a third game in Portland on Sunday. Regardless of when the record W occurs, it bears noting that it’s come during a season that started so roughly. The Blazers were the last team in the entire CHL to win this season, were 2-13 at one point and did not post a win in regulation until November. Starting goalie Dylan Ferguson (VGK) was also away as an NHL emergency recall for several weeks. Those are the type of straits where some of the best coaching takes place and it’s a no small feat that Kamloops, with overage defenceman Joe Gatenby as the top point getter in a by-committee attack, is only six behind Spokane for the final WHL Western Conference wild card.

Hodge set the win record in 1,411 games. Hay, according to HockeyDB, has coached 1,343. They did go head-to-head once, in a 1993 WHL semifinal series that Portland took in five games.

Canadian NHL Team Prospect of the Week: Aaron Luchuk, C, Barrie Colts (WHL)

Some scoring flourishes from Luchuk, the recent Ottawa Senators signing, bookended last week for Barrie. The 20-year-old centre had seven points (2G, 5A) over three games. Luchuk factored into two third-period insurance goals last Saturday when the Colts, playing for the third consecutive day, beat the Niagara IceDogs in an OHL Central Division first-place matchup. Two nights earlier, the Kingston native had three points in a span of fewer than five minutes to propel the Colts to a win against Saginaw. In short, it was a great response from Luchuk after having back-to-back goose eggs on the stat sheet the week prior.

The Victoria Royals’ Matthew Phillips (CGY) also had seven points over three games. The Hamilton Bulldogs’ Will Bitten (MTL) scored a hat trick in his hometown last Saturday during a road win against the Ottawa 67’s that helped Hamilton open a nine-point cushion atop the OHL Eastern Conference.

New name to know: Wyatte Wylie, D, Everett Silvertips (WHL)

Right-shot defencemen can be a scarce commodity, but Everett has come up with a good one plucked right from their backyard with Wylie, a late-birthday 18-year-old who is the first player from the Everett minor hockey association to play for the ’Tips. Wylie, 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, took 109 games to score his first WHL goal, tucking home a backhand against Vancouver on Nov. 25. However, Wylie has recorded at least one point in seven of Everett’s 12 games since Christmas, while also helping Everett (.646 points pct.) take over first in the U.S. Division and first in fewest goals allowed in the WHL.

The best defence is one that can generate offence, as well, and it’s notable that Everett’s top four D-men, including Wylie (22 points in 48 games), have all reached the 20-point mark already. Meantime, Everett and goalie Carter Hart (PHI) enter this week having won seven in a row.

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