With league play over for the Jasper PeeWee Bears, manager Nancy Robbins invited five competitive opponents from Devon, Sherwood Park, Edson and St. Albert (two teams) to our fair town for an end-of-season tournament in the renovated Jasper Arena (thanks Pete).
Tournaments are bread-and-butter for Jasper minor sports, acting as important fundraisers for teams, and giving them a taste of the talent that lies beyond the Sturgeon-Pembina region. They are also meant to be fun鈥攁n opportunity for players to test their skills in an environment where there are no league points on the line.
Over two days of hockey there are nine games played. Even for me this is too much to describe in any detail, so I鈥檓 going to stick to the big picture.
Of course everyone comes out a winner, with the out-of-town teams able to come to Jasper and enjoy a beautiful weekend in our pleasant valley. But, it was the St. Albert Sabres who went home with the trophy, defeating the Edson Mighty Macs in the Sunday A-final. The Sabres came to play, going undefeated in the tournament and icing a fast-skating, pretty-passing squad who clearly had its eye on the prize from game one.
Jasper was victorious in the C-Final after losing out in its round-robin group against the Sabres and the Devon Drillers, who became the eventual B-round finalists.
Jasper defeated the other St. Albert team, the Ice, who came to party, in stark contrast to their hometown colleagues.
This is the other side of tournaments鈥攖he Ice players, parents and coaches enjoyed not only the ski hill and the pool while they were here in Jasper, but also a banquet hosted by Shirley Dorin, and a team party. I guess the consequence of this is to go home winless, but the Ice takes home the prize for affording the team the full Jasper winter experience.
Our hometown Bears played well. They lost to Devon on Saturday, but the game was never out of reach. The final score was 7鈥�6 in a nail biter of a game, featuring Severin Golla鈥檚 return to net, after playing the last half of the regular season as a winger. He, and fellow backstop, Duncan McLeod faced a lot of vulcanized petrochemical and kept their team in the game down the stretch.
Game two for the Bears, on Saturday night was much tougher, as the team faced the eventual tournament champs, the Sabres.
A pair of goals by Matteo Tassoni and a hattrick by Rhys Malcolm was not enough to overcome the double-digit performance from St. Albert. This is despite the heroic efforts we have now grown to expect from defenders Eric MacMahon and Tyler Carlton.
This setback put Jasper in the early Sunday C-Final against the St. Albert Ice.
With the Marmot Basin day passes still hanging from their jerseys, and flecks of pizza hanging on to the coaches鈥� beards, the Ice was no match for the relatively well rested Bears, who took the game with a score of 10鈥�7.
Although, it did look suspiciously like a lot of the Bears had foregone a Sunday sleep-in to catch the Olympic men鈥檚 hockey gold medal game on TV, as the players had occasional lapses on the ice. Nevertheless, it was an exciting match with Trenton Rea adding to his goal-scoring total and MacMahon holding an absolute clinic on how to play a complete game of hockey from the blueline.
The PeeWees don鈥檛 play again until the March North Stars tournament, where their mettle will truly be tested.
In the meantime, don鈥檛 miss the Bearcubs Initiation Tournament this weekend. This is, without question, the most joyful hockey you will see all year and will have you wishing you were five years old again.
聽John Wilmshurst
Special to the 51暗网
