Everyone loves a bargain. Last minute sales, two-for-one, doorcrashers. These are all musical terms to the shopping orchestra. So when the manager of the Jasper Midget Bearcats struck a deal with Fort McMurray Junior Oil Barons to find a location halfway between Jasper and Fort Mac to play a home and away series it looked like a red-tag sale to us. Last weekend our Bearcats drove the comparably short distance to Spruce Grove to go two rounds in Liquidation World against the Barons and our boys filled their cart.
Game one got off to a slow start. Both teams looked like they were strolling past the high-priced shelves looking for the bargains in the early going. But seven minutes in, the Barons started filling the cart, sneaking a puck through Bearcats goaltender Jake Melanson鈥檚 pads. This woke Jasper up, and a few minutes later Elvis Gorontzy-Slack buried a pass from Hunter Zenner to draw even on the power play. Rhys Malcom roofed a rebound from a Tegan Barker slapper three minutes later to give Jasper their first lead of the game. But the Barons weren鈥檛 just hanging around and they equalized on their first power play of the game with three minutes left in the first. However, with a minute on the clock, Barker fired a puck top cheddar and the Bearcats took a one goal lead into the dressing room.
In the second period Jasper put 26 shots on the net but only Gorontzy-Slack was able to beat the Barons鈥� goalie. His lone goal would be the only marker for either team in the second as Melanson settled down between Jasper鈥檚 pipes and held Fort Mac scoreless.
Then in the third, Jasper鈥檚 only scoring came off the stick of blue liner Matthew Park. Celebrating his 16th birthday, he chugged end-to-end, dangled the entire Fort Mac team and cashed in his birthday gift card for Jasper鈥檚 fifth goal of the game. Again, Melanson was perfect in net, backstopping Jasper to their first victory in 2017.
Game two on Sunday was an absolute fire sale. Coach Chuck Barker put rookie goaltender Severin Golla in net, and he had a strong outing, holding the Barons to their third straight scoreless inning. Jasper though, cashed in a singleton when D-man, Jack Hilworth, not to be outdone by his linemate Park, charged through a flat-footed Barons team and rang up the Bearcats鈥� first goal. One nothing Jasper after one period of play.
In the second, Fort McMurray held a door crasher special and Jasper got their credit cards out. The Bearcats scored eight goals, most of them on the power play as the Barons seemed to mistake the sin bin for the bargain bin. The most noteworthy Jasper goals came from our two Hinton imports, Jayden McDonald and Dimitri Buttazzoni. These kids have game, play hard and have accumulated a ton of assists so far. But in the sixth minute MacDonald changed all that, blasting a feed from Eric Paukstat into a gaping cage for his first goal of the season. Then in the 14th minute, Buttazzoni absolutely hammered home his first goal of the year, and Jasper鈥檚 eighth for the period. For their part, Fort McMurray ended their drought, solving Golla halfway through the period and making the score 9-1 after 40 minutes.
Although the game was already in the bag, the third period had some excitement. Fort Mac mounted a comeback of sorts, scoring three times, catching Golla with a bit of sticker-shock. Gorontzy-Slack got one of those back for the Bearcats to round out Jasper鈥檚 scoring and setting the final score at Jasper 10, Fort McMurray 4. Victory two for 2017 is in the bag.
This weekend, the Bearcats travel to the Prairies east of Edmonton to take on Vegreville and Battle River. I鈥檒l be on the bus and you can read all the action here next week.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51暗网
