As if the leadership of the free world was hanging in the balance, last weekend all eyes were on Jasper when the Drayton Valley Stars rolled into town to play the Midget Bearcats in a two-party hockey showdown. Years of preparation had led to this moment. With elements of rigged outcomes, wall construction, locker room talk, spray-on tans and questionable behaviour, the tension in the arena was, well, presidential. 聽
Midget hockey is fast-paced and this game was no exception. Drayton opened the scoring just three minutes into the race. They applied steady O-zone pressure and were able to slide the puck past Jasper鈥檚 first period netminder, Severin Golla. Jasper鈥檚 Jack Hilworth responded three minutes later, finishing an end-to-end rush by roofing the puck glove side. Undaunted, the Stars upped the pressure, hovering around the Bearcat zone like political refugees at a border crossing following an election loss, scoring three more by the end of the first period for a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes. The back of Golla鈥檚 head was taking on an odd, orange tint.
In the second period, Jake Melanson replaced Golla between the pipes for Jasper who operated a two-goalie platooning system. Drayton Valley kept the pressure up, and were able to expose Jasper鈥檚 weak spots like a bad toup茅e being blown in the wind. Jasper鈥檚 Tegan Barker found paydirt late in the frame with the penalty boxes filled to capacity with bad behaviour, but Drayton had scored two more to extend their lead to 6-2 after 40 minutes. Who knows what was said between periods (it wasn鈥檛 recorded), but clearly it was more inspiring than most locker room talk.
Jasper found themselves down 7-2 just 17 seconds into the third period and the race was looking all but lost for the Bearcats. Worse yet was for the 200th consecutive time, I failed to win the 50/50 in what must have been a rigged outcome. On the ice, the news was more positive, as Jasper mounted a comeback.
Hunter Zenner, who had been buzzing around the net all afternoon, put one past the Stars鈥� goaltender two and a half minutes in. Then Elvis Gorontzky-Slack buried a rebound into a gaping cage less than a minute later to pull Jasper back to within three of Drayton Valley.
Matthew Park stepped into a slapshot from the point near the halfway mark of the period that also found its way to the back of the net and with time to spare, Jasper was back in the race.
But then a wall-related mishap intervened to stifle Jasper鈥檚 comeback. An awkward check on Jasper forward Ty Bangle resulted in a skate flying up and breaking the glass in the Drayton Valley zone. In the 15 minutes it took to replace the pane, Jasper鈥檚 momentum was also shattered. The final three minutes of the game melted away without any more scoring and Drayton Valley drove off with a 7-5 victory. Jasper had suffered their first loss in this young season.
This weekend, the Bearcats play at home against Barrhead (3:15 p.m. on Sunday). The world will be a very different place by then, and let鈥檚 hope that the Bearcats elect to get back to their winning ways. I hope to see you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51暗网
