St. Brieux’s Ethan Rheaume brings valuable experience to the Junior B Carrot River Outback Thunder.
Last season the son of Marc and Jackie Rheaume played for the Melfort Mustangs in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Before that the 6-foot-1, 178-pound defenceman suited up for the Prince Albert Mintos in midget AAA.
“Playing Junior A and AAA, players are on the ice every day and they hone their skill set as well as their mindset,” said Trevor Logan, the Outback Thunder’s head coach.
Rheaume has brought that experience to the Carrot River squad. Last week the Outback Thunder fell to the West Central Rage, 5-2, on Saturday and, 6-3, on Sunday. The team is 6-3-4 on the season and sits fourth in the Prairie Junior Hockey League’s Bob Dybvig Division.
Carrot River hosts the Outback Thunder’s next four games. This weekend the Regina Silver Foxes visit on Saturday, while the Saskatoon Westleys are in town on Sunday.
This season, Rheaume has a goal and eight points in 13 games. Logan said that Rheaume is solid on the defensive side of the puck and keeps good gaps. He also has the ability to jump into the play on offence.
“He’s a great skater and solid passer so he is able to be that guy who can move the puck north for us with his feet or with a quick pass trapping opponents,” Logan said.
After playing for the Mustangs last season, Rheaume opted to move to Saskatoon to study agribusiness at the University of Saskatchewan. He knew many of the Outback Thunder players and actually had won a bantam provincial championship with some of them.
“I thought it would be cool to get back together and hopefully have some success this year,” said Rheaume, who turned 19 this week.
He has been happy with his decision.
“I’ve enjoyed just being a part of a character group of guys,” Rheaume said. “We have been able to battle back from a couple deficits and taken teams to overtime after being down. It just shows it’s a group of guys that want to win and succeed and being able to be a part of that is great.”
Rage 5, Outback Thunder 2
On Nov. 11 in Kerrobert, the Outback Thunder were unable to score until the third period. That cut the Rage’s lead to 3-1, but the Outback Thunder couldn’t get the lead under two goals. A short-handed Carrot River tried to match the Rage’s physical play. West Central had 13 power-play opportunities, while the Outback Thunder had nine. Neither team was able to take advantage of the man advantage.
“Playing with a short bench, you can’t get into penalty trouble and expect to keep up,” Logan said. “We had moments where we had chances but just couldn’t take advantage of our scoring chances as well as they did.”
Nick Petersonscored both of Carrot River’s goals. Outback Thunder goalie Kolton Holmen stopped 41 of the whopping 46 shots the Rage threw at him.
West Central netminder Vince Benedetto had 18 saves. Keegan Tiringer had a hat trick for the Rage. Lyndon Jellison and Zach Dubois also scored.
Rage 6, Thunder 3
The Rage got out to another early lead on Nov. 12. West Central led 2-0 after the first period. Logan said his squad carried the play for most of the period, but that the Rage capitalized on two missed assignments on trailing players on the rush. West Central took a 4-0 lead in the second session before Carrot River scored. Both teams scored twice in the third period.
“I will say that at least the boys did not give up and gave what we had to try to fight back but we just didn’t have enough,” Logan said.
Tyrell Wenig, Justin Cay and Connor Tuffs had the Outback Thunder’s goals. Peterson and Austin Linnen each had two assists. Ben Gilbertson started for Carrot River. He made 22 saves on 26 shots before giving way to Holmen, who stopped 15 of 17 shots.
Benedetto made 46 saves. Tiringer and Blake Oborowsky both scored twice for the Rage. Cole Bohnet and Landon Longmire also had goals.
