Déjà vu. That feeling you get when you’ve been there before, sometimes to the extent that you can predict what is going to happen next.
Last weekend the Jasper Bantam Bearcats played two games against two different teams, but with eerily similar, albeit mirrored outcomes.
On Friday night, the Bearcats travelled an hour down Highway 16 to take on local rivals Hinton. Night games are not the norm for these kids, so it took both teams about five minutes to get their legs under them. At exactly 14:50 in the first period, Hinton got their offense rolling, ringing a puck off the post and burying the rebound. Three minutes later they were up 2–0 with a powerplay goal, and two minutes after that Hinton scored again on a dump-in that the Bears failed to clear.
Three nothing Hinton after 20 minutes.
Jasper started a comeback a minute into the second period when Brendan Auger dribbled a puck into the Hinton net. For his part, the Jasper netminder, Severin Golla, kept his team in it with a couple of flashy glove saves off of Hinton slappers. But the comeback would stall when Hinton put in their fourth and fifth of the game, the latter a shorthanded goal, before the second period would end.
Five to one Hinton after 40 minutes.
Jasper got rolling for real in the third with goals by Auger, Cooper Hilworth and Nathan Howes, who finished off a great three-way passing play from Hilworth and Hunter Zenner. But this would not be enough to overcome Hinton, who themselves scored twice in the third for a final score of 7–4, handing Jasper its eighth loss of the season.
On Sunday the Wabasca Royals travelled to Jasper for an afternoon tilt hoping to keep up some momentum earned in a victory against Edson the previous day. With a full day’s rest, Jasper looked fresher coming out of the dressing room and at exactly 14:50 in the first period, took the lead with a Hilworth goal from Auger and Crimson Derbowka, who had another solid game on defense.
From there, the game pretty much unfolded just like on Friday night, but in a mirror image for the Bearcats, with Jasper dominating the play for the first period and early in the second building up a three-nothing lead before Wabasca would get out of first gear.
Wabasca finally solved Golla nine minutes into the second period to get on the scoreboard, but just like for the Bearcats on Friday night, this second frame momentum shift would be short lived. With Derbowka and Matthew on defense, the Royals could not penetrate the Jasper zone and Golla was able to steer away all shots that came his way. Hilworth would regain Jasper’s three-goal lead with four minutes to play in the second, but Wabasca would bounce one in past Golla just 20 seconds later to close out the second at 4–2.
Wabasca would pour on the pressure for the final period, pasting Golla with 10 tough shots and were rewarded twice. But it would not be enough to overcome the Bearcat’s roaring offence, dominated by Hilworth and Auger who combined for eight goals on 41 shots for the game.
Sunday’s final score was 8–4 for Jasper.
Like Jasper’s Friday night experience, Wabasca’s comeback was valiant but ultimately too little, too late. And really the Bearcats’ held their own fate in their hands.
On Sunday, the Bearcat defense picked up at least five points (three for Debrowka and two for Park), a product of Jasper cycling the puck in the offensive zone. While there was effective passing off the rush on Friday, this offensive zone domination wasn’t as evident as it was on Sunday.
When the Bearcats take the time to look in the mirror reflecting last weekend’s games, I think they’ll see that success could come in their remaining games.
The Bearcats hit the road next weekend, travelling to Wabasca for a rematch of Sunday’s game, and to Slave Lake against whom they tied their last game.
I’ll have that story for you here next week.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
