The Jasper Arena came out of its temporary hibernation this week, with a fresh coat of paint and a rental Zamboni. While it’s been sleeping, Jasper’s hockey teams have been wide awake, playing home games on the road thanks to our Hinton neighbours.
This past weekend the Jasper Bears faced their rivals, the Whitecourt Wolverines, in the first round of the Atom playoffs.
In the two previous meetings between these adversaries, Jasper has come out on top both times. So it was with high hopes that Jasper hit the ice on Sunday in the first playoff game that most of these players had ever experienced.
Game one of a two-game, total goals series.
Followers of the Bears will know that fast starts are not their strength. True to form, Whitecourt scored early in the first to take the early lead that at least seemed to wake the sleeping bruin. And that grumpy Bear was Dylan Dekker, dancing down the ice and moving the Wolverine’s goalie left, while shooting right.
All tied up at one.
Having rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and still in the first, Dekker wired another shot that, while it didn’t elude the Whitecourt netminder, served up a juicy rebound. Baden Koss, working hard for turf in front of the net, pounded that rebound home.
Two to one Jasper.
Just before the halftime flood, Dana Angebrandt buried a puck five-hole off a feed from her linemate, Sebastian Golla and, on the clean ice, still in the second, Golla himself found paydirt to put the Bears up by three.
Four to one Jasper at the end of two.
Angebrandt would score her second from Golla and right-winger Camas D’Antonio early in the third, but then Whitecourt came charging back late in the third, solving Polard twice.
By the final buzzer the score was 5–3. Jasper seized an opening game victory and an important two-goal advantage in the series.
Game two was on Monday in Whitecourt, and the dominant Angebrandt scored off the opening faceoff, catching the Wolverines dozing. An uncommon start for our Bears.
A minute later Josh Howe ripped home a goal to give Jasper an early two goal jump, and with Polard playing another stalwart game between the pipes, it took Whitecourt until the last minute of the first to get on the board.
Early in the second it was Angebrandt again catching the Wolverine goalie napping. But Jasper’s two goal lead would last only the blink of an eye as Whitecourt fought back. By the mid-game flood, Jasper was clinging to a one goal lead at 3–2.
The Bears hit the ice for the second half with a new look as coach John Polard shuffled the lines with immediate impact. Jasper buried three unanswered goals off of the sticks of Lucas Oeggerli, Golla and, again, Angebrandt for her dream hat trick. She was simply on fire all weekend long, scoring five goals over two games and, with linemate Golla, dismantling the Whitecourt defense.
Something about the four goal deficit woke the Wolverines from their slumber and they managed three unanswered goals in the third that had coach Polard living his nightmare. But with seven minutes to play in the game, Golla stepped up to end his coaches’ bad dream with a shot through a crowd that found the back of the net and reclaimed the Bears’ two goal lead. This advantage was too much for the Wolverines to overcome, and despite heavy pressure in the dying minutes of the game, goalie Polard and the Jasper defense led by Justin McIsaac and Owen Kearnan shut Whitecourt down.
The game ended 7–5 in favour of the Bears, with Jasper taking the series by four goals.
Fox Creek is next in the playoffs. Stay tuned for those games in two weeks.
There is a lot of hockey left.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the 51°µÍø
