Another week, another chance to be a hero.
Last week, it was Jacob Bartziokas, winning Game 2 for Jasper in double overtime with a blast from the point. With the league title on the line, Game 3 of this best of three series against the Fox Creek Bulldogs went down in Jasper on
Sunday, in front of an expectant albeit nervous hometown crowd.
Cool on the outside, tense on the inside, it was anyone’s guess who would be the hero this week, but the Bears were there play.
To recap, two Saturdays ago, the Bears lost the first game in this series, marking their first loss of the season. The following day in Jasper, the Bears prevailed in a nail biter, forcing Game 3.
Fox Creek, who finished third in the league, knew they were in tough against league-leading Jasper, and adopted a defensive strategy of shutting down Jasper’s talented forwards and hoping for the best against Jasper’s gifted goalkeeper, Donovan Fawcett.
This meant that Sebastian Golla, the Bears’ first line forward and one of the Atom leagues’ elite players, had a Bulldog stuck to him on every shift and had to battle through sticks and skates and bodies for three games to get the puck to his linemates, let alone the net.
The Bulldogs’ strategy worked perfectly in Game 1, partially in Game 2 and, and as it turned out, failed in Game 3.
While Golla was held scoreless for two games, he still managed a handful of assists and his teammates, including Dylan Dekker who has a bomb of a shot and is a gifted goalscorer in his own right, stepped up to fill the void.
In Game 3, it was Tanner Carlton who, for the second game in a row, would be the hero for the Bears. And, rather than waiting for double overtime to announce his ascendancy, he picked up a Golla pass off the opening faceoff and buried the puck only 21 seconds into the game.
Dekker would get Jasper up by two just 28 seconds later, picking up a feed from Michael Hayashi and rifling it top shelf.
For all intents and purposes, that was the game.
There was a lot more action, with both Carlton and Dekker scoring hattricks, and Lucas Oeggerli breaking a multi-game scoring drought as the Bears piled it on.
Donovan had a shutout in his sights, but I have to take responsibility for its ruin in the third, when Fox Creek scored mere seconds after I mentioned to my neighbour and Jacob’s uncle, Jason, that Donovan was looking like he was going to put up a goose egg.
Sigh, never underestimate the power of sports superstitions. Sorry Don, but nevermind, you saved the team, particularly in the second period.
In the end though, the story was told in the final score. Jasper 7, Fox Creek 1.
When the buzzer sounded, with the hum of the Zamboni idling in the background, the Bears flooded onto the ice with sticks and gloves flying. Donovan was mobbed, the kids rejoiced, and parents and fans cheered from the stands. Pete
Bridge shut down the Zamboni as he waited patiently for the equipment to be collected, the handshakes, the awards and the banner presentation. It took a while, but uncapping the elation of ending a perfect season with a playoff victory and a new award to hang from Jasper’s esteemed rafters needed a few moments.
That’s it for the Bears’ very successful 2014-15 league season. And an amazing season it was. Win or lose these kids forged lifelong friendships and did our little town proud.
Thanks to the coaches, Steve Malcolm, Jim Koss and Geoff Skinner, and the managers, Christine Oeggerli and Michele Kearnan for pulling it all together.
League play is over, but the Bears aren’t quite done. They play in the Edmonton NorthStars tournament this weekend here in Jasper, with their first game scheduled for 3:15 p.m. on March 27 against the Edmonton NorthEast Atoms.
See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
