Ah, Moonlight Madness. The one night of the year when you can count on the bulk of Jasper citizenry hitting the streets to make a dent in their Christmas shopping.
Not the Jasper PeeWee Bears, though. They don’t play a lot of night games, but last Friday the team headed east in the fading evening light to play a rare night tilt and create a little Moonlight Madness of their own against their rivals, the Hinton Hurricanes.
In their eight-team league, there are really only three other teams that play at the same top-shelf level as the Bears. One of those teams is Hinton, so our kids were pretty amped going into this game; the season’s first meeting between the two squads.
Goals were not going to be discounted this evening.
In the first period, Hinton’s performance was up to expectations. For 10 minutes it was up to Jasper netminder Kelan Polard to keep his team in the game as the Hinton forwards pressed and their defense kept Jasper’s wheeling forwards to the outside, unable to challenge the Hinton net.
The Hurricanes struck first with a perfect shot from the left dot just over Polard’s pad and under his trapper. Less than a minute later, confusion on an icing call left a loose puck in Jasper’s corner that Hinton pounced on and fired to the front of the net. One bad bounce later and the Hurricanes were up by two.
Still road weary, for the rest of the period, the Bears looked like lost kids in a mall, and the first ended with Hinton up by two.
That all changed in the second.
A minute and a half in, the Bears’ Matteo Tassoni put the puck on net and—getting three shots for the price of one—stuffed in his own rebound to put Jasper on the board and back in the game.
Now on the scoreboard, the ACDC line centred by Camas D’Antonio, with Liam Crozier and Adrian Torres on the wings, looked like kids in candycane lane. Matched against Hinton’s top line, Jasper’s players kept their opponents to the outside, effectively holding them deep in their own end.
Hinton couldn’t buy a goal in the second with Polard on his game, and Jasper’s defensive five engaged. Josh Howes and Owen Kearnan were not only keeping the aisle in front of Jasper’s net clean, but jumping up in the rush to put offensive pressure on Hinton. After an exciting second period, the score stood at 2–1 for Hinton, but it was clear Jasper was back in it.
The final 20 minutes was some of the most exciting hockey these kids have played this season. Although it was far from being a fire-sale of goals, it was end to end action with the defense at both ends making it tough.
Eight minutes of exciting hockey in, Dylan Dekker picked up a clearing pass from Jacob Bartziokas at centre, battled through the neutral zone, split the Hinton defense, sold the Hurricanes netminder on a forehand and cashed in on a backhand to tie it at two.
The shopping spree continued less than a minute later when Bears’ centre Sebastian Golla fired a puck on net, and the rebound announced a door-crasher event that Tassoni and winger Lucas Oeggerli snapped up. Oeggerli made the sale, flipping the puck into the Hinton cart to give Jasper its first lead of the game with nine minutes to play.
Oeggerli’s goal would prove to be the game winner, as Polard pulled down the shutters on Hinton and Aidan Deagle and Justin McIsaac used their long reach to put up the “closed for business” sign in the Jasper end.
Hinton pulled its goalie with 40 seconds to play, but couldn’t even gain the Jasper zone before the final buzzer sounded.
This year, the most exciting Moonlight Madness event happened to be in Hinton, with Jasper handing the Hurricanes their first outright defeat of the season.
The Bears play this Saturday at home, 12:30 p.m., against Swan Hills. See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the Fitzhugh
