Just like the Lloydminster Bobcats can bank on the presence of imposing newcomer Landen Ward, the 19-year-old forward can count on familial connections to help his progression in junior hockey.
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From his father Lance in Red Deer and his brother Mason in Edmonton, Ward has no shortage of hockey resources to tap as he settles in with the junior A Bobcats.
“Yeah, with my brother playing five years of junior and now U of A, and my dad having a pretty long pro career, it’s just nice that you can lean on them whenever you need it and go to them for advice,” he said.
“They usually know what’s right and wrong, so I can always give dad a call, or whenever he’s here, just talk to him about hockey. He knows what it’s like to be in my shoes.”
Lance Ward, a former NHL and minor-league defenceman, played 12 years of pro hockey, including his final five seasons in Europe.
The Ward family moved to Red Deer two and a half years ago, but their Lloydminster roots remain strong, even more so after Landen joined the Bobcats a few weeks ago, on the eve of the Jan. 10 trade deadline. Easing his return to the Border City is his new billet, his grandmother Susan.
“It’s just me and my grandma,” he said. “She’s been great. I lived with her, too, when I played my last year of midget (U18 AAA) here. So, yeah, I’m pretty comfortable with her in her house.”
Measuring in at six-foot-three and 215 pounds, the physical Ward hopes to make life a lot less comfortable for the Bobcats’ opponents in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“Just a big, heavy forward that likes to get the boys going, finishes his checks, and just does whatever he can to help the team out,” Ward said about his playing style.
After two years in the WHL with the major junior Moose Jaw Warriors and Lethbridge Hurricanes, Ward spent the first half of this season in the BCHL with the junior A Victoria Grizzlies.
After the Grizzlies traded him to the Surrey Eagles on Dec. 30, in exchange for the BCHL playing rights to 19-year-old goaltender Mitch Kathler, Ward weighed his options for the rest of this season.
“This (past) summer, I signed with Victoria and that was the plan, to play out the year there and just see where it goes,” he said. “Then, I got moved and decided to come back here. I’m pretty happy here, though.”
Going to a championship-contending team poised for a playoff push, in his hometown to boot, made Lloydminster a desirable location for Ward.
“Yeah, it’s exciting,” he said. “When I was deciding where I was going to go, this was a big spot. A good team this year, a new rink, lots of excitement around the team. We’ve been doing good so far, so let’s hope we can get in those later playoff series and bring home a Cup here to Lloyd.”
During his BCHL stint, Ward scored three goals and 11 points in 25 games with Victoria, while accumulating 101 penalty minutes.
In his first five games with the Bobcats, he had picked up a goal and three points, before scoring the lone shootout goal in Monday’s 3-2 comeback victory over the Olds Grizzlys at Red Deer.
Ward went from forehand to backhand to beat new Olds goaltender Cole Prelusky in an entertaining start to the AJHL showcase at the Centrium, home of the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels.
That contest gave Ward’s parents and other family members a chance to see him play at home. Not to mention a group of scouts in the building.
Ward’s family also came back to Lloyd to watch his home debut with the Bobcats on Jan. 10. He scored his first AJHL goal in that 3-2 shootout loss to the Bonnyville Pontiacs.
In Ward’s first game in the junior A league, the previous night, Lloyd won 5-1 at Bonnyville.
In becoming a junior A Bobcat, he has been reunited with three of his former U18 AAA Bobcats (now Lancers) teammates in Kade Fendelet, Jaxan Hopko and recent acquisition Oakley McIlwain, a six-foot-four defenceman. Ward was also already familiar with another Lloydminster newcomer, six-foot-six blue-liner Ryder Ellis, because they were WHL teammates in Moose Jaw last year.
“Those four, I know pretty well,” Ward said. “It made the transition easier, for sure, coming to a new team again, just knowing a couple of guys and getting into the group. But everyone has been good so far. I’m buddies with everyone now.”
Ward and his buddies believe the new-look Bobcats — fortified with more size, physicality and skill — can strike fear in opponents during the stretch drive and into the playoffs.
“I hope that our team, when we’re going into other teams’ rinks, they’re scared to play us, they’re nervous to play us, and they don’t want to play us,” he said. “It’s a good thing that’s happening.”
At home last Friday night, the Bobcats gave up a goal in the first 10 seconds and went on to lose 4-3 to the visiting Camrose Kodiaks. The next day, Lloyd regrouped and defeated those same Kodiaks 2-1 at Camrose.
MONDAY: Lloyd goalie Jaiden Sharma stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, including the final save on Olds defenceman Owen Hutzul, the next shooter after Ward potted the eventual winner.
The last-place Grizzlys opened a 2-0 lead in the second period, before the Bobcats responded with third-period goals from Gus El-Tahhan, on the power play, and Quinn Smith, with 3:31 left in regulation, to force the scoreless overtime.
Smith redirected a point shot from Hopko, whose assist was his seventh point in the past four games.
The Bobcats’ top scorer, Jadon Iyogun, didn’t dress because of injury. Three Grizzlys were sidelined with fighting suspensions stemming from their previous game in Fort McMurray.
Lloyd won for the third time in four games, beginning with a 6-3 home victory over Bonnyville last Wednesday (Jan. 14).
SATURDAY:Raphael Messier’s power-play goal with 5:28 left in the third period gave Lloydminster its victory at Camrose. El-Tahhan put the Bobcats up 1-0 in the first period, and the Kodiaks’ Deacon Drummond evened the score 6:36 into the third. Sharma made 37 saves as Camrose outshot Lloyd 38-26. Connor Knorr tended the Kodiaks’ net.
Matthew Hikida, the Bobcats’ second-leading scorer, served a one-game suspension. He was ejected from Friday’s game with a major penalty for charging midway through the second period.
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