Benny Walchuk:
Emery, thanks for taking the time. I’m sure it was quite an emotional weekend — a tough loss on Friday, followed by a nice bounce-back win in Warman the next night. How do you even describe that kind of swing from one night to the next?
Emery Olauson:
To be honest with you, Benny, it was a tough one. We felt ready to go and excited for the Flin Flon game, but maybe it was just an emotional letdown. The first shift really told the story — we threw a big hit, they came back with one, then they scored right after, and it just seemed to deflate us completely. We couldn’t blow the balloon back up, and it turned into a domino effect.
Our defensive-zone play wasn’t good, and every mistake seemed to end up in the back of our net. Usually, when you pull your goalie five minutes in, you hope the group settles down and competes the rest of the way. That didn’t really happen. That said, when you look at the analytics, it probably should’ve been something like a 6–3 game.
It’s one of those nights you have to learn from. We had a lot of tough discussions with the group afterward and carried that over into the next day. Sometimes games like that can galvanize a team — nobody wants to be embarrassed twice. That brought us to Saturday night, and I was proud of how the group responded. It was a strong bounce-back effort and we got the result we wanted.
Benny Walchuk:
Like you mentioned, a game like that can either fracture a team or refocus it, and it looks like you got the response you wanted. What else did you see from your group on Saturday besides another big night from William Lorne with four goals?
Emery Olauson:
Our power play was strong again — two for six — and I really liked our discipline. We didn’t give them many chances on the man advantage, though they did get one on us. Overall, it was a complete effort. There wasn’t a five-minute stretch where I felt like we let things slip.
The bench was steady emotionally — no big highs or lows, just a focused group that played the right way all night. Flin Flon was obviously a bigger challenge than Warman, and we knew they’d bring intensity. On the flip side, Warman was coming off a good emotional win, and maybe we caught them at a good time to jump on them early.
Benny Walchuk:
Now you’re getting set for a matchup with the Nipawin Hawks on Tuesday night. They started the season strong but have struggled a bit lately. What do you expect heading into that game at The Cage?
Emery Olauson:
Nipawin’s a veteran team — big, physical, and tough to play against. We’ve got to be ready for a physical game and be prepared to move the puck quickly. That rink is smaller, so everything happens fast.
We’ll need to use our strengths — our speed and puck movement — to work around their size and physicality. If we can draw penalties and get our power play opportunities — say, six to eight times a game — and stay disciplined ourselves, we give ourselves a great chance to win.
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