OAKBANK, Manitoba — As the calendar prepares to turn the page to January, a handful of teams are emerging as contenders in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Winnipeg Free Press Division, and among them are the Springfield Collegiate Institute Sabres.

Led by a pair of dynamic talents pacing the team’s offense, combined with a goaltending tandem that gives the team a chance to win on any given night, the Springfield Collegiate boys hockey team find themselves at an impressive 10-1-0 start to the season. The Sabres sit comfortably in third place in the WFP East Division with a handful of games in hand on the first and second place teams.

“It feels great to be back, to have high school hockey back again this year, especially for the players,” said Sabres head coach Jeff Bleue. “I know for me, as a former player, I couldn’t imagine not having hockey for a season so the biggest thing for me is the kids being able to be back and playing again this year and having fun. With so much uncertainty, we have tried to keep it really fun this year and make sure the players come to the rink and have a good time with the last two seasons not being a ‘regular’ hockey season.”

Fun doesn’t always translate to success, but that is certainly the case for Springfield Collegiate. The team is led by veterans Nolan Van Den Bussche and Kaden Bruchanski. The pair is scoring at a 1.9 and 1.8 point per game rate, respectively, despite the ladder Bruchanski manning the blue line.

“The thing that amazes me about Kaden is he doesn’t cheat the game for offense as a defenseman,” Bleue said. “He always makes the high percentage, smart play and doesn’t go looking for offense. But he knows when to pick his spots and we give him that freedom to make offensive plays if the chance presents itself.”

The team’s lone blemish this season came nearly a month ago against division leading College Beliveau, who have already collected 15 wins this year and have played considerably more games than the Sabres. The two clubs battled it out to a 2-1 final but with second place Powerview-Sagkeeng up next on the schedule, followed by a date with West Division leading Stonewall to end the calendar year, the Springfield squad has its work cut out for them to keep their season long six game win streak intact.

The team has relied heavily on goalies Alex Cavanagh and Josh Rach throughout the first half of the year and will look to the tandem to continue to shoulder the load night in and night out as the team battles for postseason positioning.

“Josh and Alex are a massive part of our team,” Bleue said. “We know every game we are going to get great goaltending from them. And this just leads to so much confidence in our team, knowing we are going to be in every single game and going to get big timely saves from the both of them. It for sure makes my job less stressful and the team’s as well, but most importantly, making sure we play the right way in front of them and don’t rely on them every game.”

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