Whether he knew it or not, George Lucas created the perfect hockey allegory when he put Star Wars on the big screen.
A talented kid from a small town develops mad skills on the farm, leaves the farm, applies his skills, saves the galaxy from an evil Empire, passes his skills on to an apprentice and retires in obscurity.
Except perhaps for the evil Empire bit, the hockey narrative has played out this way hundreds of times, making it hard for me to take in a hockey game without seeing Jedi knights and Stormtroopers every time I’m in the stands.
Last weekend was no different as the Jasper Bantam Bearcats hosted their annual tournament inviting five teams from far, far away to do epic battle over two days, complete with triumphant underdogs, dysfunctional father-son relationships, guys in masks and a kid named Luke.
The adventure began early for the Bearcats with a 7 a.m. Saturday start against the Whitemud Warriors.
The best, and the most unsettling, thing about tournaments is that most of your opponents are alien. It took almost 10 minutes of back-and-forth hockey for Jasper to solve Whitemud. But solve them they did, and before the game was half over, Jasper had built a four-goal lead on the strength of markers from Cooper Hilworth (2), Jax Kading, Rhys Malcolm and Elvis Gorontzy-Slack versus one from Whitemud.
Despite letting Whitemud back in the game when play resumed, Jasper poured it on with five more second-half goals, clearly outpacing the Warriors for a 10–4 victory for our hometown Jedi.
The Bearcats had several secret weapons on their side worth noting. Matthew Park was back from holidays and was a Force on defense. Park’s usual blueline partner, Magnus Stenlund, was moved forward for the weekend and was stellar at dishing the disc. And joining Stenlund up front was skier, and occasional Bearcat, Luke “Skywalker” Eady who enjoyed his first non-practice ice time of the season.
The Bearcats’ second game, much like the latest Star Wars flick and the team’s first game, had the same storyline. They added a few new characters, some old faces, a new opponent and the same outcome.
A team called the Edmonton Oil Kings sounded like a formidable foe, but they were no match for Jasper’s hard-hitting, free-wheeling Stormtroopers. In fact, after 60 minutes of 3D action—in which Jasper outshot the Oil Kings 39-16—the Bearcats had once again prevailed by a score of 10–4.
Power forwards Hilworth and Malcolm netted a hattrick each. Troy Jackson contributed a pair that looked as easy as bulls-eyeing womp rats back home. Add singletons from Joel Peleshaty and Trenton Rea and you get 10 goals, versus the four Edmonton could put in the back of Jasper’s net.
The kid named Luke quite deservedly earned player of the game honours for Jasper.
Two decisive victories landed Jasper in the gold medal final on Sunday afternoon against the Outer Rim(bey) Renegades; the top team in the B pool of round-robin play.
The dark side ruled the ice in the early going with more action in the penalty box than in the blue ice for the first 15 minutes of play.
But then came Park’s point shot goal, with 5:36 on the clock in the first, to open both the scoring and the flood gates. Elvis followed suit two minutes later for the Bearcats, then Hilworth and Malcolm to give Jasper a 4–0 lead.
Rimbey finally scored with less than a minute to play in the period, giving their team “A New Hope” going into the first intermission, but this was quickly dashed by Stenlund who fired a pinpoint laser past the Renegades netminder to regain Jasper’s four-goal lead before the halfway mark. Rimbey would get that one back early in the third, but then the forces of the dark side would re-emerge with a steady march to the penalty box in the game’s final stages.
Goals from Elvis and another point blast from Park would round out the scoring in this 7–2 final. Kading walked away with MVP honours for the Bearcats.
Congratulations to St. Albert and Whitemud, winners of the bronze and silver finals respectively, and of course to our Bearcats for prevailing in the gold medal game.
The Bearcats board the Millennium Falcon and make the hyperspace jump to the Stony Plain and Slave Lake systems next weekend.
Patience you must have to find out the results here next week.
John Wilmshurst Special to the Fitzhugh
