The Prairie Hockey Academy’s Elite 15 squad put together a solid weekend on home ice as they skated to a pair of wins over the Edge School for Athletes.

PHA picked up a 5-2 win on Saturday and skated to a 4-1 victory on Sunday at the Barkman Arena out in Caronport.

"We played really good, we cleaned it up in our D-zone, tied up a lot of sticks in front of the net, got the puck out and we were just getting bounces in front of their net, scoring goals and I was doing my job, stopping the puck," said Coward.

Both of PHA’s goalies put together solid performances in the wins over the weekend. Coward turned away 24-of-26 shots during Saturday’s win over Edge, while Nathan Airey turned in a 29-save performance on Sunday morning.

Coward said that the team played really well in front of him to make sure he could stop the puck.

"The defence and forwards were back-checking hard, defence was tying up sticks, keeping the shots from far out and not giving up too many high scoring opportunities," said Coward.

PHA now sits at 7-6-0 this season in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.

Coward feels the team is getting stronger every time that they step on the ice, "We’re going good," he said. "We’ve played a couple of top teams over the past few weekends and we’re seeing that we can be a top team. We’re right up there, just have to clean up a few things."

The Swift Current product has been a key component of PHA’s success this season with a 3-3 record, 3.16 goals against average and 0.811 save percentage.

He said he’s confident in his second season with the program, "You get so much more experience in the CSSHL and practicing every day, you get that much better," said Coward. "Being in the gym every day, at the end of the year, you can see your performance start growing."

On Saturday, PHA jumped out to a commanding 4-0 on Edge School after 40 minutes. 

Atley Calvert, who was recently listed by the Moose Jaw Warriors, started the scoring with a power-play goal with 4:37 remaining in the first period and then Ethan Peters potted another power-play goal only 58 seconds into the second.

Noah Barlage scored PHA’s third straight power-play goal with 6:02 gone in the second and Connor McGrath finished off a strong start with 3:35 left in the middle frame.

Edge came out with an early goal from Tegan Skehar just over two minutes into the third and they cut the lead down to two with a power play goal from Rhett Parsons with 3:57 to play.

Calvert slid his second of the game into an empty net to seal the win.

On Sunday, Warriors draft Kirk Mullen got things started for PHA with his tenth goal of the season only 5:53 into the game.

Samuel Vincent tied the game up for Edge early in the second period, but Easton Ediger responded for PHA, scoring on the power play with 5:18 left in the middle frame.

PHA pulled away in the third with Christopher Otterson extending the lead to 3-1 only 3:13 into the period and then Calvert scored his second empty net goal of the weekend to seal the win with 2:19 to play.

PHA’s Elite 15s are off now until Nov. 16 when they travel to Delta, BC for four games in three days.

PHA Fires Elite 15 Head Coach

There was a change behind the bench for the Prairie Hockey Academy going into their weekend games against the Edge School.

PHA relieved Rodney MacPhee of his duties as head coach of the program’s Elite 15 squad after just over a season with the team.

Both sides declined to comment further on the move.

Kelvin Watson has taken over as the interim head coach while PHA searches for a new coach.