The St. Albert Merchants will try their luck with Wes Werhun as the bench boss after the departure of head coach Terry Moser.
Merchants’ officials refused to comment on the dismissal of Moser. Last year Moser was promoted from assistant coach when Adam Sharpe resigned barely four months into his first season as the team’s head coach.
Despite the change, the Merchants (4-7) managed to achieve the same result that has troubled the junior B squad this season with a disappointing 6-4 defeat Sunday to the visiting Spruce Grove Regals.
“We turned the puck over in the offensive zone and there were a lot of odd-man rushes throughout the game against us,” said Werhun of the team’s sixth loss in the last eight games.
After two periods the Merchants entered the locker room with a 3-2 lead on goals by Chris Clark, Dustin Robinson and Kyle Beddows.
The third period, however, played out like an entirely different game. With a shot total heavily tilted towards the Regals (7-3-0-2), they scored four unanswered goals after Zach Caines put the Merchants up by two early in the period.
“We had a good two periods, then we kind of lost our focus in the third and things got away from us,” he said. “It’s kind of the same old thing that gets us at the end, mainly our defensive zone.”
Even though Werhun has moved from his assistant’s post to the role of head coach, fans shouldn’t expect a drastic change to the style of play by the Merchants.
“The systems are staying the same. Terry had put in some very good systems. We just need to now make the players more accountable for the mistakes on the ice and have them learn throughout the course of the season,” said Werhun.
While maintaining a sense of accountability on the ice is an important feature when building a championship-calibre team, Werhun believes keeping balance on the ice and in the locker room is also important.
“We don’t want them to be afraid to make mistakes, that’s how they grow on the ice as players,” he said. “Hopefully by February however, when the games mean a lot more and we’re in a playoff run, those mistakes will become less frequent.”
After a month into the season, Werhun sees signs of improvement.
“We’ve cut down on our penalties and that’s making our players on the ice better. We can play any team in the league five on five, it’s usually when we run into penalties that we get into trouble.”
The Merchants play the Edmonton Royals (10-2) Friday at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena. Sunday’s game against the rival Morinville Jets (4-7-0-1) starts at 2 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
