Coming off a magical season and playoff run that ended by hoisting the Turnbull Cup, Brody Beauchemin, the heart and soul of the Winkler Flyers, believes this group is ready to do it all again.
With the recent 12-game winning streak getting much of the attention, Beauchemin says it's great to see the group finding different ways to get the job done. "We're playing the right way, everyone is buying in and doing their part to help us win", the veteran forward says. "We're sticking to our system and it's working out for us."
Always a team-first guy, Beauchemin says having everyone chip in some way to the overall team success makes everyone feel a part of the magic. "We're a close group. We're always talking in the room, always building, even when we're down we believe we can come back. We were down 1-0 the other night heading into the third and we felt like if we got one, we'd roll and we did. We're all buying in, we're all playing our roles and every guy helps us get wins."
The 20-year-old says coming off that run last year, having the mentality of a champion goes a long way toward team success. "It can come down to knowing how to win. A bunch of guys from last year learned that. That Virden series, when we were down, we could have just packed up but we battled back. The coaches this year have built on that. Our core group laid the foundation and we just keep taking strides as a team."
Having a strong year himself, Beauchemin is quick to praise his teammates for what they've been able to accomplish to this point. "(Jayce) Legaarden has been on fire, Nick McKee has come alive here of late, you look all around and every guy is contributing, every guy is having an impact. We put the work in every day, we want to get better every day and it's been a lot of fun to do it with this group of guys. We've got a lot of winners in this dressing room."
With the team success also comes individual success and a large number of Flyers are heading to the MJHL/SJHL Showcase, something that the leader Beauchemin takes a lot of pride in. "It's great to see the hard work paying off. Having, I don't even know how many, a handful of guys going, I think it's going to help with the chemistry there, having that comfort of knowing how each guy plays. We want to go there perform well."
It'll come as no surprise, Beauchemin says they're not going there just to skate around, they want to win. "I've been to the Showcase now for two-years and I don't think I've got a win under my belt. We want to play well, yes, but we also want to win."
As the playoffs get closer and closer, despite all the success to this point, Beauchemin says what makes the Flyers truly dangerous is that they believe they haven't played their best hockey yet.
"We've got so much room for improvement" the confident captain says. "We've been talking here as a team and we haven't hit our peak yet. At times, we're not playing our best but we're finding ways to win. We want to be at our best consistently and that will lead us to where we want to be."
Beauchemin and the Flyers are in Neepawa on Tuesday before back-to-back home games against the Northern Manitoba Blizzard on Friday and Saturday.