John Wilmshurst | Special to the 51暗网
This is going to be as short as the Bearcat鈥檚 bench last Saturday morning.
At full strength, the Jasper Bearcats ice only 12 skaters, rolling four defense, two centres and three winger combinations.
With Christmas holidays taking hold like a kid on a candy bar, the Bearcats were down to eight skaters; three defense and five forwards.
When the 17 visiting Drayton Valley Stars looked over at the Bearcats鈥� diminished ranks during warmup, they must have smelled blood.
While their legs were still fresh, the Bearcats held their own.
For the first 13 minutes of the first period, Jasper held Drayton Valley scoreless and limited chances.
Sebastian Golla almost had the Bearcats up early, wiring a backhand from the slot that was stopped at the last second by a sprawling Stars netminder.
Drayton Valley broke the ice 13:20 into the game, and then scored twice more, in the final two minutes of the first period to give the Stars a 3 - 0 lead heading into the first intermission.
One of the Jasper players on the ice on Saturday was first year bantam, Rowan Koss.
A week before I had a chance to sit down with Koss to ask him about his season so far.
Quiet in the dressing room, Koss is thoughtful as he reflects on his play.
鈥淢y strength is my work on the offensive blue-line, keeping the puck in deep and foiling their breakout,'' said Koss when I asked about the best, and worst, parts of his game.
鈥淏ut I need to work on the breakout in our own zone,'' he confided.
Koss described in detail to me his first goal of the regular season, whipping the puck just inside the post from right in front of the net where he鈥檚 gotten all of his goals so far.
鈥淚 just shot my arms into the air,鈥� he recalled.
鈥淚 was so happy.鈥�
Koss鈥� work along the blueline came into good use in the second period against Drayton Valley as the Bearcats tried their best to pin the Stars deep in their own zone.
Mac Carmichael picked up a few of those loose pucks for shots but couldn鈥檛 beat an alert Drayton Valley netminder.
The Stars are a defensive-oriented team which limited the chances of high-velocity Owen Kearnan who can normally break through for five or six quality chances per game.
He was shut down in the second period, as was the entire Jasper side.
It was up to the defense, led by Dexter Fawcett and the grinding forechecking of Kalan Sawchuk to keep it close.
Although there were a few in the game that Jasper goaltender, Donovan Fawcett would have liked to have back, he was solid in the second period, stopping six of seven shots.
Jasper still had a chance going into the third period down by four.
But it doesn鈥檛 get any easier in the final 20 minutes when you are rolling a short bench.
The Bearcats had a few chances on the power play as the Jacobs, Bartziokas and Bouchard, were bombing shots in from the point.
And although they mustered 20 shots on the game, Jasper couldn鈥檛 get sustained pressure on the Drayton Valley net and came up empty.
The final score was 9 - 0 for Drayton as they exploded for five goals in the third period.
The Bearcats get this weekend off but are back on the ice at 4:45 p.m. on the first Saturday in 2020 against Fort McMurray here in Jasper.
I鈥檒l see you in the stands.
