For the second time in as many weeks, the Jasper Bantam Bearcats found themselves in Whitecourt on a fine, sunny weekend to take on the hometown Wolverines.
If you recall last week, the Bearcats eked out a 6 to 4 victory—I reported 6-3, but I apparently missed a goal somewhere—and the team was eager to return to show that they could do even better against their perennial rivals in the Boreal heartland.
Although Jasper would get the first penalty of the game, Edson would be the first to pay for its sins as Cooper Hilworth would bend the Whitecourt twine with a powerplay marker early in the first period. The Bearcats have two goaltenders this year, Duncan McLeod and Severin Golla, and when both are at a game, they share duties, switching half way through the match.
This time, McLeod lead off and played his best game of the season, keeping the slate clean for the Bearcats in the first 20 minutes. At the other end of the ice though, Elvis Gorontzy-Slack was making hay, playing the puck off of the Whitecourt netminder and into the net for Jasper’s second goal as the first period wound down.
Two nothing Bearcats after one.
In the second period, McLeod was again a standout, shutting down the Wolverines for his 30 minutes of the game, facing about a dozen shots and giving his team the confidence to wheel in front of him. When Golla took over the post, the Bearcats had a 2–0 lead and McLeod had his first shutout of the season.
Golla’s first save was a race-to-the-puck poke check at the hash marks that miraculously worked out, keeping the Wolverines scoreless.
The subsequent parade to the penalty box for both teams, yielded nothing for Whitecourt but was punctuated by two beautiful goals by the Bearcats. The first, with 3:28 to play in the period was a howitzer off the stick of blueliner Matthew Park, beating the Whitecourt goalie glove side, top shelf.
The second was a gravity defying deflection by Hunter Zenner from a Joel Peleshaty point shot that found the back of the net.
At the end of two, the score was 4–0 in favour of the Bearcats.
Five minutes into the third period, Zenner poached his second deflection goal of the game to put Jasper up by five, while Golla gobbled up everything coming into the blue paint in his end. With six minutes to go, Gorontzy-Slack dished the puck across the crease to Hilworth who made no mistake, extending Jasper’s lead to six.
A few more penalties later, but no more goals at either end, the final buzzer resonated in the rafters of the Scott Safety Supply Arena.
The game ended with a shared McLeod-Golla shutout and some very pretty goals from the hardworking Jasper forwards. The Bearcats are now 3 and 1 on the season.
Next week the Bantams travel to Athabasca for yet another road match.
You can read about the action here.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
