by John Wilmshurst | special to the Fitzhugh
The Jasper Bantam Bearcats completed their inaugural Edmonton hockey season with a two-game road swing at the beginning of March.
Why am I surprised that these kids get better than the opposition during the regular season? It happens every year with this group. They gel as a team, they mature as players and their coaches know best how to mix the lines. It’s a potent formula that shocks both fans and opponents.
Saturday’s game against Northwest Zone Mavericks matched Jasper against a team that had creamed us in tiering and eked out a 3-2 victory mid-way through the season. At oh and two, Jasper had something to prove against the Mavericks, and you could see it from the opening shift.
The Bearcats laid down one of the most complete games we’ve seen. Although there was no scoring in the first period, not unusual for this group, they dominated possession and frustrated their opponents.
Coach Jim Koss matched Sebastian Golla with Owen Kearnan and Lucas Oeggerli in forward line that cycled the puck and created countless scoring chances. Meanwhile Baden Koss, Camas D’Antonio and Liam Crozier were punishing off the rush, crashing the net, creating chances with speed and size. The Mavericks never had a chance.
It wasn’t until almost half-way through the second period that this one-two punch paid off. Koss picked up the puck in the neutral zone, lugged it across the Maverick’s blue line and dropped it off for Aidan Deagle on defense. He fed it across to his D-line mate, Jacob Bartziokas who hammered a shot toward the net that Koss picked up and buried. One nothing Bearcats. Jasper kept up the pressure, and any chances NWZ were able to generate were snuffed out by goaltender Kelan Polard, back in net after a hiatus in Quebec, and playing his usual, solid positional, hot-glove-hand, game.
Early in the third, the desperate Mavericks snuck a forward behind our D and sprung him for a centre-in breakaway. Facing down a confident Polard, he likely had little scoring opportunity, but to ensure that was the case, Deagle chased him down from the blue line and cleared the loose puck. An amazing play that we’ve grown used to from Kelan and Aidan. Jasper even killed off a five on three power play for 32 seconds, making it look like a walk in the park.
With 5 minutes to play, Oeggerli scored on a second-effort wrap-around to seal the deal for Jasper. Polard earned his first shutout of the season skating off with a turning-the-tables 2-0 victory against the Mavericks.
On Sunday, Jasper travelled north to St. Albert against whom they’ve both won and lost. A more different game from Saturday, you could hardly imagine. The Rangers are a big, physical team who play a solid positional game and keep the front of the net squeaky clean. Compared to the myriad chances that Jasper on Saturday, scoring opportunities were few and far between on Sunday, with St. Albert trapping us in our end and breaking up rushes in the neutral zone.
If it wasn’t for the incredible defensive play of Dana Angebrandt (who’s name means “luckiest kid ever” according to her dad) and Josh Howes, as well as some simply impossible saves from Polard, this game would have gotten out of hand quickly. But, the scoresheet showed just a few penalties and no goals until 15:29 had elapsed in the third. Bartziokas fired a waist-high slapper from the point that Golla tipped past the unprepared Rangers’ netminder to give the Bearcat a one to nothing lead.
Baden Koss would add to that lead about four minutes later in a display of impressive tenacity. Howes cleared the puck from the Jasper zone, putting it on net from 180 feet away. With Koss bearing down on him, the Rangers’ goaltender bobbled, and Koss poked the puck inside the stick-side post to give the Bearcats a two-goal cushion with under 2 minutes to play.
Although St. Albert was able to get one past Polard as the clock approached the final minute, Koss salted this one away with an empty net cannon to give Jasper a 3-1 victory. A skilled, if not dominant, performance.
The regular season is done, and playoffs begin (and could end) this weekend. You can read about it here.
