John Wilmshurst | Special to the 51暗网
Last Friday evening, before the puck dropped on the Bearcats鈥� annual tournament, the Ft. Saskatchewan Rangers came for a visit for some Northern Alberta Interlock league play.
Our boys have been on a roll recently, on a four-game winning streak and a four and two record; good for second place in the league.
This is good enough to make the honour roll.
It usually takes five minutes for either team to find the net in these games, but about two minutes in and 30 seconds after I proudly announced that stat to the few who still listen to me in the stands, Grade 10 honour student Sebastian Golla walked into the Rangers鈥� zone and sniped Jasper鈥檚 first goal, low glove.
I guess that鈥檚 why he鈥檚 on the honour roll and I鈥檓 not.
The first period saw a lot of fast, back and forth action from these well-matched teams, but there was no more scoring until a minute to play when Ft. Saskatchewan equalized, beating Jasper netminder Donovan Fawcett, who is at the top of his class on weekends, if not during the week, on a partial break.
After the first period, the Bearcats and Rangers were knotted at one.
Again, about two minutes into the second, Tanner Carlton, who is a scholar in the rink, perfectly tipped a Dexter Fawcett point shot over a sprawling Ft. Saskatchewan netminder.
Dexter is a hard worker on the ice, and obviously in the classroom as well, making the list of academic achievement in his Grade 9 class.
Two to one Jasper, and despite dominating the play, Jasper could not solve the Ranger goaltender again in the second, despite some aggressive pinching by blueliner Jacob Bouchard, who just missed scoring, and the honour roll, by inches.
Down a goal, Ft. Saskatchewan tied it up late in the second period.
After 40 minutes of play, nothing was solved.
In the third period it was again Jasper鈥檚 defensive play that moved to the head of the class.
Honour student Jacob Bartziokas had an apparent goal called back in the early going and then had some great looks, stepping in from the blueline or on a Bobby Orr rush.
JBart was shut out this night but it looks like he has been reading up on the offensive game.
It was up to Golla to give Jasper their third lead of the game, again with a clean look from the left dot, and then Grade 9 academic achiever and clearly Jasper鈥檚 best on-ice student of the game, Michael Hayashi, wristed one in from the point to give his Bearcats a two-goal cushion.
Carlton set up Jasper鈥檚 next two markers, feeding Golla and then Liam Crozier who is also on the Jasper High School鈥檚 principal鈥檚 list for academic excellence.
Rowan Koss and Mac Carmichael put on a late game charge for the Bearcats, but the game would end six to two in favour of Jasper, extending their winning streak to five.
The high school honour roll won鈥檛 appear in the paper this year, so if you want to check out all the kids who are doing well in school, you鈥檒l have to get ahold of a December newsletter.
The Bearcats are idle this weekend but continue their studies in Devon on Dec 14.
That, you can read about here.
