2014 went out like a lion for the Jasper Atom Bears, and 2015 has come in the same way.
In the waning days of last year, the Bears faced rivals from Hinton and Edson, tying the first game at 5 and winning the second on the road 5–3, with a holiday-diminished, but still very effective bench.
Last weekend, the Bears boarded the bus for a two–game road trip against Swan Hills (Saturday) and Fox Creek (Sunday) in Alberta’s oil and gas heartland.
On Saturday, the 8-0-2 Jasper Bears faced-off against the 0-8-0 Swan Hills Grizzlies. Jasper’s Sebastian Golla scored the winning goal less than a minute into the game as the Bears went on to win 10 to nothing.
As we have become accustomed to, Jasper displayed impressive puck cycling throughout the game, with strong defensive involvement from all four blueliners: Dexter Fawcett, Michael Hayashi, Owen Kearnan and Jacob Bartziokas.
Hayashi contributed a goal of his own, joining Golla who had two more, Apollo Hardman who had two, Donavan Fawcett and Lucas Oeggeli with four. Baden Koss was given a penalty shot opportunity after a Swan Hills player threw his stick, but despite beating the Grizzly netminder, his shot rattled off the post.
Dylan Dekker played shutout hockey, and although not tested frequently by the Grizzly forwards, was confident handling the puck and even picked up an assist on Golla’s third goal.
On Sunday, Jasper travelled to Fox Creek to line up against the third place, 6-3-0 Bulldogs. This is a well coached, disciplined team with much more offensive strength than Swan Hills, so Jasper hit the ice trying to put the previous day’s romp out of their heads.
This was going to be a bigger challenge. Nevertheless, within the first minute of play, the Bears had a two goal lead off of goals from Hardman and Golla. With Donavan Fawcett between the pipes on Sunday, Dekker centred his line and picked up a hat-trick for Jasper, adding to two more from Golla, two from Koss, and a singleton from Oeggerli.
Fox Creek notched three of their own, two in the second period and one in the third, but Donavan steered most of his opponents shots safely into the corner, making his busy day look easy.
Behind the goal scoring and stopping by the Bears, there is a cadre of hard-working forwards who impress with every shift. Josh Lee is a swift skating, great passing winger who is still searching for his scoring touch. Nash Hilworth netted two goals in the victory against Hinton the week earlier and is a fearless worker along the boards and in the corners, and smooth-skating Janelle Tank had a great weekend with hard work in front of the net resulting in some sweet assists.
When the final buzzer sounded in Fox Creek, Jasper had won 10–3 and preserved its undefeated season in the Sturgeon Pembina Hockey League.
Lore has it that if you go in like a lion, yaou will go out like a lamb. The way these kids are rolling, this may be one lamb you don’t want to mess with.
The Atom Bears host their annual home tournament this weekend, with our Jasper kids splitting into two teams to face six opponents invited from small town Alberta.
There will be exciting matchups starting at 4:15 p.m. on Friday and going right through to Sunday afternoon.
There will be plenty of opportunities to support your hometown hockey teams. See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
