Last weekend the Jasper Midget Bearcats hosted teams from High Prairie, Grande Prairie, and Edmonton in their annual home tournament. The format was pure round robin, with the team with the most victories walking away with the hardware. Manager Marci DeWandel, together with coaches Chuck Barker, Steve Malcolm and Dino Buttazzoni did well to find four well-matched, visiting teams to create some exciting and competitive hockey.聽
Jasper鈥檚 weekend started early with a Friday evening tilt against the team from southeast Edmonton (aka SEERA). SEERA are a scrappy bunch that never give up despite lacking pure goal-scoring talent in their lineup. Hard-working, defensive teams like this are easy to dismiss in the early going, but they tend to hang around and are never really out of a game. Indeed, Jasper鈥檚 powerful offensive game struggled to get going against SEERA, and didn鈥檛 manage a lead until the third period. So with 15 minutes left on the clock, and Jasper finally out in front by a goal, and dominating the play, it seemed like a victory was inevitable. But SEERA did what they do best. They put pucks on net and bodies in the blue ice to walk away with a 6-5 victory over our Bearcats. A disappointing loss for Jasper, but a valuable lesson learned.
Saturday morning鈥檚 game was an entirely different matter. Lining up against the Knights of Columbus Spurs, another Edmonton team like SEERA, but with bigger bodies and a tougher style, the Bearcats were prepared. In this game, Jasper got out front early, building a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. But then penalty woes set in, and the Spurs capitalized, scoring two power-play goals to draw even after 20 minutes. In the second period, the Bearcats put the pedal down scoring three goals against the Spurs鈥� lone goal to take a commanding two goal lead. The scoring highlight of the period was when Jake Melanson, who normally plays between the pipes but was playing out for much of the tournament, scored his first goal, and got a penalty on the very same play. Improbable, but it happened. The Bearcats extended their lead in the third, and netminder Severin Golla was solid leading Jasper to an 8-4 victory in their second of four games in the tournament.
Saturday evening, the Bearcats faced off against High Prairie in the highlight game of the tournament. High Prairie simply outworked our Bearcats for 40 minutes, but solid defensive play, particularly by Matthew Park and Brendan Auger kept Jasper in it. High Prairie scored a goal per period to take a 2-0 lead into the final frame. Make this 3-0 early in the third on a High Prairie powerplay goal. But then Jasper roared back on the strength of three unanswered goals from Tegan Barker, Elvis Gorontzy-Slack and Eric Paukstat to tie the game. Add another from Jack Hilworth and a fifth from Ty Bangle and Jasper suddenly held a commanding lead. But again, more penalty trouble for Jasper allowed High Prairie to tie it up. Needing the victory to advance in the round-robin, coach Barker pulled the goalie with a minute to play. But this ploy would not work and Jasper went down 6-5 to High Prairie, who would eventually take home the first-place trophy for the tournament.
The Bearcats wound up in the tournament vying for second place against the Grande Prairie Knights on Sunday. This was another penalty-laden affair that simply went to the team with fewer players in the box. When the final buzzer sounded, Jasper had hung on to a 4-3 victory, including a pair of goals from Hilworth, and singletons from Auger and Dimitri Buttazzoni.
Despite the win, Jasper needed to wait for the outcome of the Spurs-SEERA matchup on Sunday afternoon to learn how they placed. With a victory, SEERA earned second place, and Jasper settled for third.
Hats off to all the hard-working parents who made it possible. Next weekend the Midgets play Drayton Valley in Jasper, on Dec. 4 at 2:45 p.m. I hope to see you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51暗网
