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Drillers look to end mini-slump |
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Written by Gerry Prince
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Saturday, 15 January 2000 |
After rattling off nine straight wins at Skyreach Centre to open the season, the Edmonton Drillers have struggled on home turf in the new year.
Kansas City blew into town last week and halted the Drill's reign of terror on the Skyreach carpet with a 12-10 win. To prove it was no fluke, the Attack followed up with a 14-6 shocker to sweep the two-game series.
Apart from their lopsided victory over North Division rival Detroit on Dec. 19, the Drillers have just one win in their last four starts.
Thanks to the mini-slump, the sputtering Drillers have slipped into second spot and trail Milwaukee in the North Division standings.
So much for going wire-to-wire to win the division.
"We've got some people that need to start putting the ball in the net," offered head coach Ross Ongaro as the indoor side prepared for tonight's NPSL date with the Wichita Wings (7:05) at Skyreach Centre.
"Kansas City is a very good team but we could have played a lot better than we did. We've lost three of our last four and we don't want to keep it sliding.
"We definitely made amends this week. We've have some good practices and we've got to get a good performance out of everybody come tomorrow."
Wichita is coming off that most dreaded of all NPSL phenomena, the tripleheader - which entails playing three games in less than 48 hours, with predictable results.
Despite outscoring St. Louis 12-5 in the final quarter, Wichita wound up dropping an 18-17 decision to the Ambush last Friday. The Wings chased that setback with road losses in Cleveland and Montreal.
With a three-game losing skid and 2-8 road record, not to mention an 0-2 log at Skyreach already this season, Wichita could be just what the Drillers ordered.
Although Nikola Vignjevic scored for the cycle and the Drill routed Wichita 23-8 to complete a two-game series sweep back in October, the locals aren't taking their opponents lightly.
"Since then they've gotten stronger," said Drill goalkeeper Paul Shepherd, who draws the starting assignment tonight.
"Playing three in three nights takes a toll on you. We can't take teams lightly anymore. No teams are dominating the league any more and every team is a strong team.
"Losing two straight is not good, especially for a team like ours that prides itself on winning at home. Losing two straight is not time to hit the panic button, but there's definitely something wrong."
Wings forward Jason Dunn leads the NPSL in scoring with 93 points, while linemate Braeden Cloutier is third in the scoring derby with 84 points.
If nothing else, Wichita can put the ball in the net which is something the 10-5 Drillers didn't do a whole lot of in the back-to-back losses to Kansas City
The defensive-minded Drill averaged just eight points per game versus the resurgent Attack.
Vignjevic, the Drill's leading scorer with 65 points and the straw that stirs the indoor side, was shut down by K.C. The Serbian-born midfielder netted three points in the 12-10 loss and was held off the scoresheet in last Sunday's series finale.
"I was a little sick and that's why I didn't play like I did before," offered Vignjevic, who netted 42 points in his first seven games but only has 22 in his last eight.
"We also had a two-week break for Christmas and we were a little flat. Now we've had a good week of practice. I'm much better now and I should be back to normal. It doesn't matter if I get points, I like to win. I'll try to do my best, though."
CORNER KICKS: Midfielder/defender Chris Handsor (pulled groin) missed training this week and will sit out tonight ... midfielder Nebojsa Vignjevic is being hampered by a nagging back ailment but figures to be in the lineup tonight ... Dunn's twin brother, James, leads the NPSL in blocks. The six-foot-one Wichita defender has 68 blocks ... The Dunn brothers, along with Cloutier, were voted to Team USA for next month's NPSL all-star game slated for Skyreach.
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