There are a lot of tools that coaches use to fire up a group of nine and 10-year-old hockey players before a game: rousing dressing room speeches, player of the game awards and assigning personal goals.

Near the bottom of that list would be a long, long day and a sleepless night prior to a big game, but it turns out that this was the key to the Jasper Atom Bears’ triumph in Pool “C” at the 2012 Edson Atom B Hockey tournament over the weekend.

The Bears’ games started early on Saturday, and it was clear from puck drop that they had a tough draw in this round-robin tournament.

Jasper started off strong against a talented Morinville squad, getting up 2-0 eight minutes into the game. Both goals came from the stick of Elvis Gorontzy-Slack.

But then the gritty Mustangs from north of Edmonton found their stride, scoring eight unanswered goals over the next two periods of play. Jasper rallied late in the third to score the last two goals of the game, one more from Gorontzy-Slack and another from Drew Tank, but ultimately went down in an 8-4 loss.

Game 2 on Saturday was an evening event, uncommon for kids this age, and the long gap from the morning game did not treat the Bears kindly against the very tough, Tier-3 Edmonton Eagles. Although it took five minutes for the Eagles to find the net, when they did, they lit it up, potting eight quick markers behind the Jasper netminders who were the busiest players on the ice. Jasper managed two goals, both from Gorontzy-Slack, one in the second and one in the third period, but by then the game had been long decided.

The two Saturday losses earned Jasper a berth in the “C” Pool final on Sunday. 

But the excitement began much earlier than anyone expected. At 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning some rocket scientists felt it necessary to set off the hotel fire alarm. After about an hour hanging in the hotel parking lot with a lot of very sleepy kids and the Edson Fire Department, everyone was allowed back in, but the chance at a full night’s sleep was gone.

The 6:30-a.m. wake-up call for the 8:15 “C” final was about as welcome as a frozen puck to the shins at Pyramid Lake, but this drowsy team somehow got it together, hitting the ice against the Rangers from Fort Saskatchewan.

And whatever that midnight tonic did for the team, it may be worth repeating, as the Bears started pouring in the goals from the first shift. Jasper’s Matthew Park scored six goals, Gorontzy-Slack scored four, Hyunki Kim netted three and Nathan Howes and Magnus Stenlund each had singletons against three markers from the Rangers.

No need to reach for your calculator; the final score was Jasper 15, Fort Saskatchewan 3.

The Bears are the 2012 Edson Atom Tournament “C” Pool champions. 

Success in round-robin tournaments is all about the company that you keep. This time Jasper played both the eventual “A” and “B” victors in the preliminary round, demonstrating that they had it pretty tough. The kids played very well, displaying the impressive progress they’ve made from the beginning of the season. They can hold their heads up high having played some tough games. 

For their efforts in these three games, Bears Gorontzy-Slack, Severin Golla and Eric MacMahon earned MVP honours and Stenlund, Kim and Howes earned Heart and Hustle awards – all richly deserved.

The jury is still out on what award to give the clown who pulled the alarm in the hotel on Sunday morning.