Reid’s return to AAA Stars should help ailing power play

Single out the past five games and that number reflects an even uglier 4.4 per cent – or one-for-23.

This is not lost on Stars head coach Jean Fauchon.

“It’s been abysmal this year,” he said after practice on Wednesday. “Our penalty kill obviously is real good but our power play – we continually need to work on that everyday.”

It’s a good thing the AAA Stars are getting a stud defenceman back.

Luke Reid missed the past four games because he was representing the province at the U-16 Challenge Cup in Calgary.

Saskatchewan finished fourth in the four-team tournament, losing to team Manitoba in the bronze medal game 4-1.

But the experience was invaluable for the 15-year-old.

“Every guy was skilled out there,” Reid said. “There were no weak players. It was really fun though.”

Team Alberta won the tournament, taking down Team B.C. in overtime in the gold medal game.

Reid said Alberta was the most difficult opponent, thanks to an incredibly skilled lineup.

Surprisingly, he said he wasn’t nervous about suiting up on a bigger stage.

“You can’t really be nervous in those situations. You just have to take it as another game,” he said. “You have to play your game. You can’t do anything different.”

The hope in the Battlefords is that Reid can be part of the solution on the man advantage.

“He’s coming back with probably a lot more confidence,” Fauchon said. “When you’ve got a guy like that who can move the puck and shoot as well as he does, yeah it’s going to help our power play.”

Reid said it feels good to be back in his team colours.

He wants to help the power play by not being rushed or pressured into making plays that aren’t there.

“[It’s about] puck control more than anything,” Reid said. “Just clam things down and get pucks to the net. Hopefully get a few tips and score.”

He won’t have much time to rest before the Stars play a flurry of games. On Thursday they’ll visit the Contacts in Saskatoon and then on the weekend they’ll play the Notre Dame Argos in Wilcox twice.

Fauchon said the team is improving, as they have won two of their last three.

“We’re showing signs of what we can be,” he said. “We’re still a little bit undisciplined … but I think we’re going to hopefully get on a little bit of a role here and get some confidence.”

The AAA Stars are currently 3-4-0-1, good for eighth in the 12-team league.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Reid’s return to AAA Stars should help ailing power play

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