Coaches—and just ask Bantam Bearcat chief Gary Hilworth—will tell you that if you want to win a hockey game, you have put in a full 60 minutes of effort.
Although it is axiomatic, Jasper has recently seen a lot of games won and lost in the final minute of play. Last weekend the Jasper Bantams invited the Edson Warriors and the Stony Plain Predators to town, in theory, to play two 60 minute hockey games. The reality was much different, as were the outcomes of the two games.
On Friday night, Edson rolled into Jasper with an unfavourable record against our Bearcats, having lost 8–3 and 8–3 in their previous two games against Jasper. So you could forgive our boys for being a bit smug when the puck was dropped.
But for the opening two periods, it was hard to recognize the Bearcats. Edson scored first on a power play slapper from the point that eluded Jasper netminder Severin Golla. The Bearcats’ Jax Kading equalized a couple of minutes later, alertly stuffing in a loose puck in a goal-mouth scramble.
But early in the second period, the Warriors would reclaim the lead on a two-on-one that they converted easily. Then for the next 20 minutes or so, Jasper more or less refused to engage. I have to give some credit to the Edson goalie, who after two periods had faced 22 shots, but Jasper didn’t seem to want ‘it’ very badly.
With 1:30 to play in the second, with Edson now sporting a two-goal lead, Elvis Gorontzy-Slack finally lit the fire under his team, beautifully tipping in a Matthew Park point shot for Jasper’s second goal. Then, in the third, Jasper engaged. Its defense of Park, Tyler Carlton, Eric MacMahon and Drew Tank kept Edson to the outside, allowing Golla to play 20 minutes of shutout hockey. And snipers Cooper Hilworth and Rhys Malcolm each scored, giving Jasper a one goal lead early in the period. Jasper would cling to that goal for the final 16 minutes of play.
The final score was Jasper 4, Edson 3, but Jasper can be happy that they got away with one.
On Saturday, the Stony Plain Predators visited Jasper and, in this case, the Bearcats had no room to feel smug, having lost to their 16-60 league rivals in their last two outings.
Indeed, Stony Plain jumped out to a four to nothing lead after 20 minutes of play, with Jasper apparently suffering the same malaise as the day before. The only bright sparks for Jasper were Gorontzy-Slack, Kading and Troy Jackson who were digging hard and paying the price.
And you had to feel for Jasper netminder Duncan McLeod who was struggling to track down the hot shots from Stony Plain as he back-stopped his teammates who were struggling equally in front of him.
Jasper scored twice in the second, the first a strong individual effort by Malcolm, who won a puck battle deep in the Predators’ zone, wheeled in front of the net and tucked the puck in under an unsuspecting goalie. The second was a backhander from Hilworth, who converted a pass from Gorontzy-Slack. But the Predators, for their part, scored five more goals in the second, padding their lead.
In the third again, Jasper finally came alive. Gorontzy-Slack scored his second of the weekend, in the first minute of play, burying a nice feed from Hilworth.
Then three minutes later, Malcolm, replicating his earlier effort, pulled Jasper to within five. Jasper’s sudden rejuvenation was enough to prompt the Warriors’ coach to call a timeout to settle his team down.
This staunched the scoring for the time being, but did little to re-spark Stony Plain’s scoring deluge of the previous two frames.
Hilworth would draw Jasper to within four at the halfway mark of the third period, but this would be Jasper’s last goal of the game, despite a second day of fine third period efforts.
While on Friday, showing up for 20 minutes was sufficient for Jasper to overcome Edson, it was clear that 60 minutes was needed on Saturday against Stony Plain.
The final score was Bearcats 5, Predators 9.
The Bearcats will hopefully put in 60 minutes of hockey this weekend against Athabasca here in Jasper at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday.
See you in the stands.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51°µÍø
