Wow. Hockey doesn’t get more exciting than the playoff series that the Jasper Atom Bears played last weekend against their league rivals, the Fox Creek Bulldogs.
Jasper finished first in the league and cruised past Edson in the playoff semi-finals, playing their usual style of fast passing, puck possession hockey. For their part, Fox Creek finished third in the league, and managed to knock off second place Hinton by shutting down their main offensive weapon through solid goaltending and stifling defense.
On Saturday, the Bears travelled to Fox Creek for Game 1 of its best two out of three league final, feeling confident after beating the Bulldogs 8–4 and 10–3 in previous matchups.
But right off the hop, it was clear that something had changed. Jasper was struggling to find open ice and get pucks on the net, despite dominating the play.
Fox Creek had amped up their defensive game, focussing on Jasper’s top shooters, clogging up the slot and springing their speedy forwards for fast breaks and quick shots. And while Jasper held the lead at one point in the second, and mounted a last-minute comeback that had them within one of the Bulldogs with five minutes to play, they couldn’t pull it off and went down 6–4 for their first defeat of the season.
Despite this loss, the Bears didn’t get down on themselves. They played hard, and they knew that the rematch in Jasper would be very different.
There is no other way to describe Sunday’s Game 2 than thrilling. Fox Creek clearly came to play, and despite early dominance by Jasper, they stuck to their defensive, fast-break game plan and held the Bears off.
Mid-way through the second period the score stood 2 for Fox Creek, 0 for Jasper.
Dylan Dekker, on a line with Lucas Oeggerli and Ty Crozier, got Jasper on the board burying a beautiful rush and feed from Crozier, with 3:18 on the second period clock. At the same time, Jasper’s defense, led by Jacob Bartziokas and Owen Kearnan, and solidified by Michael Hayashi, Dylan Skinner and Dexter Fawcett, kept Fox Creek’s shooters to the outside, leaving goaltender Donovan Fawcett to coolly pick the Bulldogs’ high hot shots out of the air.
Down a goal heading into the third, you could sense the tension in the building and the energy in the Bears as they kept the pressure on the Fox Creek defense. It would be Dekker again who would equalize for Jasper, picking up an Oeggerli pass at the blueline and muscling his way to the net for Jasper’s second goal with 11 minutes left on the clock.
Both teams put the pedal to the floor and it looked a couple of times like the Bears’ hard-charging forwards, Tanner Carlton, Baden Koss and Nash Hilworth, were going to end it. But the Bulldogs’ netminder stood tall.
At the other end of the ice, if it wasn’t for some incredible defensive plays by Skinner and Kearnan, Fox Creek would have ended it. However, after 60 minutes the game was still tied.
The Atom rule book says no to shootouts, and it took two overtime periods for this game to be settled. Overtime is where the players vie to be heroes and where the fans only get to use the edge of the seat they’re sitting on.
Donovan was brilliant between the pipes for Jasper, even stopping a nail biting three on zero breakaway for Fox Creek, when a bad bounce caught the Bears’ defense unaware.
With eight minutes to go in the second overtime, blueliner Bartziokas picked the puck up off the faceoff and pounded it in blocker side from the point to win the game for Jasper. The Bears had their hero. The bench erupted, the fans lost it and, more importantly, the series was extended to a third and final game.
That game will be played this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Jasper Arena. Win or lose, it is guaranteed to be excellent hockey. For sure one team will be disappointed, but both teams are already winners, playing fast, hard hockey with plenty of excitement and a ton of heart.
Like the Jasper champions at the PeeWee and Bantam levels, our Atoms have already made us proud.
I’ll be in the stands, taking in this thrilling final game of the season, and I hope to see you there.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
