The Bantam Bearcats invited teams from Grande Prairie, Spruce Grove, Hinton, High Prairie and Grande Cache to Jasper last weekend to take part in their annual home tournament.
Tournaments are a weekend hockey marathon, organized by team managers—in the case of the Jasper Bearcats Doreen Zenner—and run by parent volunteers, too numerous to name, but easily identified with their tired, pallid expressions and their Shirley’s breakfast burger and coffee in hand.
Although managing and volunteering takes commitment, playing is no cakewalk either. The kids are in for three or four hard, fast games over two days and are facing largely untested opponents who are drawn to our fair burg for the ice, the beauty, the competition and the hospitality.
Lopsided victories and losses are the norm. Nobody goes home disappointed, win or lose, because even if they aren’t successful on the ice, Jasper offers travelling players and families no end to its entertainment.
On Sunday, the Grande Cache Rockies emerged as the C-final champs, the Grande Prairie Knights prevailed in the B-final and Jasper’s Bearcats faced off against local rivals, the Hinton Rockies, in the A-final.
Jasper was in tough, and while they rallied in the final 20 minutes of the game, on the strength of goals from Matthew Park and Cooper Hilworth—adding to Eric MacMahon’s first period marker—they were unable to rebound from Hinton’s five first period goals.
Despite strong performances by call-up goaltender Kelan Polard, defenseman Kolby Kongsrud and forwards Brendan Auger and Rhys Malcolm, Jasper’s push wasn’t enough to counter Hinton’s hard work and scoring acumen. In the end,
Jasper was defeated 9–3, with young MacMahon walking away with MVP honours.
Our boys (and girl) finished as runners up in the A-final, but showed solid hockey talent over the course of the weekend, scoring 28 goals in the two round-robin games versus only two goals scored by their opponents.
With the league season already all wrapped up for the Bearcats, and now their home tournament under their belts, they will end the season with the Extreme tournament here in Jasper in April. Congratulations Bearcats for a successful tournament.
John Wilmshurst
Special to the Fitzhugh
