The Leduc MNP Riggers have an extra bounce in their step as of late, and came away with another win on Jan. 15 against the Beverly Warriors at the LRC. “We started with a short bench with injuries,” said coach Dean Gauvreau.“Going into the game I was concerned about playing Beverly because they are a top team in their division. I wanted to come into the game competing hard without any injuries.”

The Riggers scored the first goal of the game with under three minutes remaining in the first period. Rigger Tyler Roberge got one in on the power play, assisted by Josh Dugas and Jon Young. Five minutes into the second period, Rigger Brandon Forbes found the back of the net with some help from Kyle Michalsky and Derek McNallie, putting the Riggers up by two. The Warriors cut the lead in half with a goal just before the end of the second period. The Riggers kept up the pace in the third and Dustin Dehaan put his team up by two with a goal assisted by Dugas. Two minutes later, teammate Young got a goal, assisted by Dugas and Dehaan. The Warriors got another one in with 6:24 remaining in the third, but that was it for the Warriors.

The Riggers beat Beverly 4-2.

The coach is quite pleased with the Riggers’ winning ways of late. “The last seven games they have started to come around as a team. The last five games actually we have taken nine out of a possible 10 points. Things are starting to come together. They are working hard and they are playing a lot better positionally.” He said the team is also taking fewer penalties, which is helping their game.

“I have gotten it across to the guys – especially when you have 14 or 15 skaters – the more penalties they take, the more tired the teams get because you have to use certain players to kill penalties and if they are always on the ice, we are going to get tired quick. If we stay out of the box and keep the penalties to a minimum we are successful.” Check out the Riggers tonight at the Sobey’s arena at the LRC at 8 p.m. as they battle it out against the West Edmonton Wild. Gauvreau said it’s a very important game and he wants the guys to keep their momentum going.

Don’t forget to go to the LRC on Wednesday, Jan. 27 as the Riggers will be honouring their sponsor MNP. Game time is at 8:45 p.m. and the Riggers will be battling rival Beaumont. See you there!