Lesleigh Campbell | Special to the Fitzhugh
The U15 Bearcats played two road games this weekend, with the first being in Barrhead and the second in Riviere Qui Barre.
The Barrhead Bruins are ranked slightly above the Jasper Bearcats in the tier 1-2 category. With the Bruins being in tier 1, and the Bearcats in tier 2. The league amalgamated the two tiers so they would all have enough teams to compete against. The downside of this amalgamation is that on the rare occasion that they should play against each other, they aren't exactly matched up evenly. Nevertheless, this was the match up on Saturday, and it went about as well as anyone could have expected.
In the first period, the Bruins outshot the Bearcats 20-2. They got five of those past Jasper's goaltender while Jackson Irwin was able to find the back of the net for one of his two shots. Carson Campbell and Drew Kovacs with the helpers.
Barrhead had a harder time finding their way around netminder Brady Campbell in the second period, scoring only one goal on 15 shots. The Bearcats could not answer that goal, but they did manage to get three more shots on the Bruins net.
The third period was when you might have thought the Bearcats would have started to look defeated, but being down 6-1 seemed to have the opposite effect. Jasper came out and played harder and better than they had all game. They fired seven more shots at Barrhead's goaltender but couldn't quite put the right spin on the puck. The Bruins however, scored two more. With a final shot count of 50-12, the Bearcats ended up losing this one 8-1.
Sunday's game was a little more familiar for the Bearcats, as they have played against the CR Knights many times before. The Riviere Qui Barre arena has become quite endearing over the years with the friendliest people and the fastest Zamboni in the west.
The first period got off to a great start when Irwin put Jasper on the board early on. Carson Miller with the assist. A few minutes later, Campbell found Kovacs in front of the net for goal number two. The Knights then came back and scored a power play goal, only to be answered by Campbell. Irwin and Bode Hofhuis with the helpers. CR then finished the period off by scoring a short handed goal right before the buzzer making the score 3-2.
Irwin passed the puck to Kovacs, who scored the first goal of the second period. Campbell then passed the puck to Irwin, who scored the second goal of the second period. The third goal of the second period was scored by the Knights, but answered by Irwin's hat-trick, helped out by Campbell and Kovacs. And the fifth goal of the second period was scored by CR. It was 6-4 after 40 minutes.
Irwin wasted no time at all finding the back of the net 20 seconds into the third period. Campbell with the assist. Followed by Kovacs getting his hat-trick goal, helped out by Dustin Derksen and Austin Schmidt. The Knights got one more goal, before Irwin finished off the scoring. Derksen with another assist. The final score for this game was 9-5 for the visiting Bearcats.
This weekend will mark the end of the regular season, but not before the Bearcats host Fort McMurray at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and the previously mentioned Barrhead Bruins at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Come on down and support your U15 Bearcats, and don't forget that the U7 BearCubs are also hosting their home tournament this same weekend.
