On the surface, hockey is all about math. Wins and losses, goals against, plus-minus, best three out of five. If you score twice, and they score once, you win.
There is even a name for this stuff—analytics—and there are people who dedicate their lives to it. But like astrophysics, another computationally intense field, if you focus only on the numbers, you miss out on the beauty of the stars.
Last weekend the Jasper Bantam Bearcats travelled to Stony Plain and Slave Lake to solve the hometown Predators and Thunder, and if you only focussed on the numbers, you were missing out.
The weekend started Friday night in Stony Plain in a road rematch between the Bearcats and the Predators. The last time they met was in the pre-season, when the Predators bested our Bearcats by five goals with a score of 8–3, so the Jasper boys knew that the equation was unbalanced going in.
And the first period did nothing to dispel this sense, with the first two Stony Plain shots eluding Jasper netminder Severin Golla, and the Bearcats skaters looking like they had never left the bus.
The first Predator goal in the second period happened so quickly, the Zamboni driver was credited with it, and halfway through the period, Stony Plain scored again to go up by four.
Thirty minutes in and it looked like the game was over. But then with four minutes to play in the second, Magnus Stenlund scored the most beautiful Bearcat goal of the season. It started with an outlet pass by Cooper Hilworth to Elvis Gorontzy-Slack. Gorontzy-Slack traversed the neutral zone, gained the blue line along the boards and held the puck long enough to attract three Stony players. This left his winger, Stenlund wide open in the slot. A perfect pass by Elvis to Stenlund, a blast to the numerator and Jasper was on the board.
One minute later, Rhys Malcolm would add to Jasper’s total, finishing Hunter Zenner’s hard work behind the net, taking his pass in the front and burying it.
At the end of two, Jasper had life but was still down by two goals.
In the third, Jasper came on and Zenner brought the Bearcats within one, with a goal at the halfway mark. It was looking positive for Jasper, until Stony netted a couple of quick ones and then another to regain its four-goal spread with time running out.
Malcolm’s last minute marker was insufficient for the Bearcats, and the team went down in a 7–4 defeat. It was a rare mark in the loss column for Jasper.
On to Slave Lake for a 12:15 p.m. Saturday start against the Thunder.
The talents on the Thunder are the inverse of those on the Predators. In Stony, Jasper struggled to contain the Predators’ fast, hard-hitting forwards, but in Slave Lake, Jasper had difficulty getting past their opponent’s patient, stand-up defense.
The game began the same, with Jasper quickly getting down 2–0, but then Hilworth pulled Jasper to within one before the first break.
Stenlund equalized for the Bearcats halfway through the second, picking up a pass from Troy Jackson and poking it under the Slave Lake netminder. A few minutes later, it looked like the Thunder was sure to regain its lead when an errant bounce resulted in a two on none from the neutral zone.
In that moment, I watched as Jasper goalie, Duncan McLeod’s eyes grew very, very large; then out of the blue, Bearcats defender Tyler Carlton caught up to the surprised Slave Lake forwards, separated the puck carrier from the rubber with a bodycheck and cleared it harmlessly to the boards. It was the second breathtaking play in as many games, and a fine demonstration of how a little guy can use measured contact against a larger opponent to make the play.
The teams entered the third tied at two, but a bad line change for Jasper three minutes in gave the sputtering Thunder offense the opening they needed and Slave Lake took a lead they would not relinquish.
The game ended 4–3 for Slave Lake, with Malcolm yet again adding late game heroics that were nevertheless insufficient to change the math of the outcome.
The numbers didn’t add up last weekend for the Bearcats, but that was only part of the equation. Some great play making tipped the balance.
Our Bantams are idle this weekend, but resume play at home on Friday, Jan 22 at 7:15 p.m.
See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the Fitzhugh
