Wawa has the goose, Sudbury has a nickel and Melita, Man., has a banana (I kid you not). Canada is peppered with proud displays of local heritage masquerading as a super-sized, roadside attractions and Alberta has its fair share of these. Last weekend the Jasper Midget Bearcats travelled to the province鈥檚 Ukrainian heartland to play some hockey and admire some celebrated highway hardware.
The first stop was Vegreville where a gigantic Easter egg dominates the skyline and the Vegreville Midget Wranglers ply the ice. Rolling into town with a short bench, with one of their top scorers on the disabled list, a suspension and a captain away for diploma exams, Jasper鈥檚 nine skaters were in tough. The Wranglers have had success against the league鈥檚 top teams, and with a full roster were going to make the Bearcats work for their kubasa (Mundare, Alta).
Jasper had a great first period, outworking Vegreville for the most part and grabbing the lead 10 minutes in as Ty Bangle snapped in a wrister on the man advantage. But the Wranglers struck back with two quick goals just before the first intermission to take a 2-1 advantage into the dressing room.
In the second, the Bearcats struggled to get their skates under them and, despite having a handful of power play opportunities, failed to score. The Bearcats also lost their lone goal scorer, Bangle, with a knee injury that took him out of the game. Vegreville scored twice more to extend their lead to three.
Things got better for Jasper in the third with Jack Hilworth feeding Rhys Malcolm who made no mistake just over a minute in. Then Elvis Gorontzy-Slack buried Jasper鈥檚 second power play goal, finishing a passing play from Matthew Park and Dimitri Buttazonni to draw the Bearcats to within one. But playing with a now shortened short bench really started to take its toll. Even Hunter Zenner, Jayden McDonald and Liam Fengler-Wood were struggling to pursue loose pucks. The fresher legs of Vegreville were pummeling pucks at Jasper netminder Jake Melanson, but he was stopping everything in the third. That is, until just over a minute to play, the biscuit ricocheted to an open Wrangler in front and he zipped it past Melanson鈥檚 glove to put the game out of reach. Vegreville snuck past our exhausted Bearcats, 5-3.
On Sunday, the Bearcats found themselves in Killam, home of a famous road sign that plays off the town鈥檚 evocative name to promote safe driving. Okay, not up to the standard of Moosejaw Moose, but on par with Duncan B.C.鈥檚 gynormus, but lame, hockey stick. Killam鈥檚 rink plays home to a number of regional teams, and Jasper was there to play the Battle River Knights.
For once this season Jasper, whose team had swollen by one skater upon the return of Brendan Auger, outnumbered their opponents who had only nine on the bench. Netminders at both ends held all players off the score sheet for the first period, but the ice was clearly tilted in Jasper鈥檚 favour. After two, the teams were all knotted at one, as Gorontzy-Slack ripped an Auger pass into a gaping cage nine minutes into the second and Golla relinquished a power play goal four minutes later.
Early in the third, Park fired a knuckle puck from the point and past the helpless Knight goaltender to put Jasper up by a goal and then Gorontzy-Slack capitalized again, finishing an end-to-end Hilworthian rush, by stuffing a loose puck into the net. It was 3-1 Jasper with half a period to play.
Then the penalty minutes mounted. Playing the bulk of the second half of the third short-handed and suffering a pair of ejections to boot, Jasper handed Battle River the game on a platter as big as Vulcan鈥檚 UFO landing pad. The Knights beat Golla three times, twice on power plays, and Battle River left the building with a one goal victory, 4-3.
This weekend, the Bearcats travel to Ponoka, Alberta鈥檚 rodeo capital, for another two-game road swing. You can read all about it here.
The Jasper Hockey Improv challenge
Every week John Wilmshurst regales readers about the latest hockey scores using a variety of topics and ideas. From Monty Python to the presidential election south of us, he often gets inspiration from hockey players or parents, but this time wants to throw it open to readers and fans. Let improv improve John鈥檚 hockey coverage.
If you have an idea or topic you鈥檇 like to see John use in his next story email [email protected] or tweet John directly @JasperMse.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51暗网
