Success is a fickle companion. While it remains true that winning or losing is less important than how you play, it is also true that winning is an easier gauge of success than losing.
It is a rare coach that can draw on the successes in games lost, and it鈥檚 equally hard for the players to learn the lessons that setbacks teach.
This past weekend, the Jasper Atom Bears braved the whiteout conditions that prevailed in west-central Alberta on a two-game road swing through Fox Creek and Whitecourt. The roads were horrible, but the hockey was great, as the Bears skated to their first victory and second defeat of the season.
Game one was in Fox Creek against the Bulldogs.
Last week I said Fox Creek is the home of talented goalies and referees, and while this is still true, the game opened with the ref missing Jasper鈥檚 first, and possibly second, goal.
It wasn鈥檛 until the 11th minute of the game that Fox Creek opened the official scoring to which they would add two more before Jasper could get on the scoreboard.
That goal was off the stick of Connor Wright who was standing stick down in front of the net, ready for Kelan Polard to feed him the puck.
The first period ended 4鈥�1 in favour of the Bulldogs, but Baden Koss pulled Jasper within two, opening the second with a goal after stealing the puck at the blueline and burying it low stick side. This would be as close as the Bears would come, despite Herculean efforts from goal scorers Dylan Dekker and Sebastian Golla and winger Adrian Torres, who is only in his second year of hockey but is clearly a competitor and a strong contributor to his team.
Although the game ended 8鈥�5 in favour of Fox Creek, the Bears played a road game they could be proud of, dominating the later stages of the game and never giving up.
The Bears鈥� second game of the weekend was in Whitecourt Sunday morning. This game had the frustrating feel of a short-sheeted bed, as timekeepers let the clock run. Three hours of driving for five minutes of ice time is a bit tough for a skater, but it didn鈥檛 deter our Bears.
Again, Wright opened up the scoring for Jasper halfway through the first period, poking in a loose puck in the blue ice.
Wright鈥檚 goal counted, as did Jasper鈥檚 second, scored by Dekker with six minutes to play in the second.
Whitecourt opened the scoring in the third with a squeaker that just barely crossed the goal line, and that was all Bears鈥� goalie Polard would allow in a standout netminding performance.
With centres Golla and Dana Angebrandt wheeling and dealing, the Jasper wingers lit up the third.
Dekker scored two more, Koss got his second on the weekend, Golla got another, and blueliner Liam Crozier got his first of the season, with a seeing-eye-shot from the corner.
When the final buzzer sounded, Jasper was ahead 7鈥�1; their first two point performance.
While second-year stars Josh Howes and Camas D鈥橝ntonio did not make the scoresheet, Howes was a force on defence, gracefully moving the puck through the neutral zone and breaking up opposition rushes, and D鈥橝ntonio was digging hard and creating great chances in open ice. Both worked hard to create opportunities for their team.
While the scores were different in each of the weekend鈥檚 games, the outcomes were similar.
Team play, whether you are three goals up or three goals down, will lead you to success, if not in this game, then the next, and if not on the ice, then in the dressing room and beyond.
Next game is against the Bears鈥� close rivals, Edson, Saturday, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. in Jasper.
You won鈥檛 want to miss it.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the 51暗网
