The last time the Jasper Bantam Bearcats played the Devon Drillers was back in November on Devon’s home turf. The Drillers won that game 10–3 and now sit on top of the league with 39 points. Jasper—who’ve been playing very well as of late—sit in fifth place with 32 points. So while the rematch that took place last Sunday here in Jasper was no foregone conclusion, the smart money was on Devon to walk away with another entry in the win column.
But right off the puck drop, you could tell that the Bearcats had something entirely different in mind. Rhys Malcolm set the pace with his aggressive play, that landed him in the sin bin early with an interference penalty, and announced that Jasper had come to play.
Indeed, one minute after that penalty was over, Elvis Gorontzy-Slack standing with the puck behind the net, faked a pass, stepped out in front and fired Jasper’s first goal. Cooper Hilworth would earn Jasper a two goal lead a minute later with Devon in the box for tripping. But before the period was out, Devon would equalize. Nothing was decided after 20 minutes.
The teams traded goals in the early going of the second period, Jasper’s goal coming off of Malcolm’s stick finishing an end-to-end rush. But with seven minutes to play in the middle frame, Elvis put Jasper ahead and goaltender Severin Golla shut the door on some hot Devon shots turning the tide decidedly in the Bearcats’ favour.
Before the 40-minute mark, Matthew Park would score an absolute beauty of a goal from an impossible angle, and then Jax Kading buried the puck with a minute to play in the second. After two periods it was Jasper six and Devon three.
In the third, Golla continued his strongest performance of the season between the pipes aided by physical play by defensemen Eric McMahon and Tyler Carlton. Using some great puck movement Magnus Stenlund and Trenton Rea, who was coming off of a two goal performance in his previous game, kept the puck deep in the Drillers’ end.
There would be no third period scoring by either side, but Jasper had done more than enough damage in the second to carry the day. After 60-minutes the score would stand at 6–3.
This wraps up the Bearcats’ 2015-16 regular season. Playoffs start right away against local rivals, Edson, Friday afternoon here in Jasper.
I’ll see you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the Fitzhugh
