Last weekend the Drayton Valley Stars came to town for a rematch against our Midget Bearcats. Their last meeting, in the first week of November, ended in a 7-5 setback for the boys from Jasper. But a late rally by the Bearcats in that game, despite the loss, gave us all hope that there was some fight left in the Bearcats. On Dec. 4 Jasper took to the ice to see what they could do.
But things didn鈥檛 go Jasper鈥檚 way from the get-go. Drayton has some big skaters and they established their dominance by scoring 35 seconds into the first period, blasting an unstoppable wrister top cheddar past Jasper鈥檚 battling netminder, Jake Melanson. Jasper regrouped, aided by a power play a few minutes later, but were unable to apply any sustained pressure on the Stars, despite the call-up of talented Bantam forward Jax Kading and the return of Rhys Malcom to the lineup from the injured list. Building off a successful penalty kill, and capitalizing on their own power plays, Drayton extended their lead to 3-0 by the end of the first period.
When you are struggling to keep up with an opponent and get on the scoreboard, it is important to stay out of the box. Jasper had only three shots on net in the first period, so in the second they needed to generate some chances. But the offence did not materialize, the frustration manifested itself into Bearcat penalties and more Drayton scoring. Melanson was making some huge saves, but Drayton had an efficient powerplay that produced a pile of shots and four more goals to give the Stars an insurmountable 7-0 lead going into the third period.
Jasper managed in the third to find a bit of redemption. Forwards Elvis Gorontzy-Slack and Dimitri Buttazzoni were both buzzing, with Gorontzy-Slack finding the back of the net at the 12-minute mark and Buttazzoni ringing one off the post halfway into the frame. Liam Fengler-Wood鈥檚 puck pursuit also generated some shots off the forecheck. Hunter Zenner tipped in a Matthew Park point shot to wrap up Jasper鈥檚 scoring with about a minute to play, but this was far from enough to even things up. Indeed, the Stars scored two of their own in the third. The final score would be recorded as 9-2 in favour of Drayton Valley, but this was not the story of the game.
To be successful against the top teams in this league, like Drayton Valley, this Jasper team has to improve on its full-strength opportunities. They are working hard in practice on their offensive pressure, and when they gain the offensive zone and get the cycle going, you can see how effective this is. There will be times when a player has to take a penalty to prevent a scoring opportunity. That is part of the game. But another part of the game is skating back to the bench after the whistle blows.
Next weekend, the Bearcats hit the road. They have two games on the slate; Barrhead, Dec. 9 and game three in the series versus the Drayton Valley Stars. Against both of these teams, the Bearcats will need to log a lot of full-strength minutes to be successful. Find out how they do next week.
John Wilmshurst Special to the 51暗网
