51°µÍø

Lesleigh Campbell | Special to the 51°µÍø

The PeeWee Bears played their first two playoff games against Devon this past weekend. 

Leaving their den on Saturday, the Bears wandered off to the home of the Drillers.  

The first period was a battle.  Fans could sense just how much each team wanted to win.  But after 17 minutes of scoreless hockey, Jasper was first to get on the board when Joshua Doyle passed the puck to Drew Kovacs, who sent it flying past Devon's goalie.

 However, the celebration quickly turned sour when the Drillers answered back with three goals in under three minutes. 

Down two goals going into the second, Brennan Anderson buried one, two minutes in with some help from Paige Hugie.  The rest of the period stayed 3-2 until six minutes remained on the clock, at which time, Devon drilled back to back goals into the Bears' net.

Leaving the score 5-2 after two periods. 

Just like the previous two periods, Jasper started the third with a goal.  This time it was Austin Schmidt, scoring off a pass from Callum Campbell.  5-3 wasn't so bad, but then Devon scored two more, and Jasper's hopes began to fade.  

However, the way it works in the play-offs is that the team scoring the most goals between the two games wins the round.  So with that in mind, Casey Peel scored one last goal for Jasper, one minute before the final buzzer.  

This meant that with the score being 7 to 4, Jasper just had to win the next game by four goals to win the round.  Brennan Anderson was The Real Deal of this game.  

The second game of this round was played in Jasper, Sunday evening.
Devon opened up the scoring, four minutes into the first period.

 And then after some back and forth battle, Callum Campbell tied it
up, with Jackson Irwin and Georgia Bell getting the helpers.  

Then a few minutes later, Irwin took the lead and made it 2-1 for Jasper,
Campbell getting that apple.  

The second period was where Jasper's chances began to go up in smoke.  Devon evened the score and then shortly after that, scored another on a power play.  

Unable to regain control, Jasper gave up another power play goal by the end of the period, making it 4-2 after 60 minutes.  

Now, remember what I said about needing to win by four to win the round?  Jackson Irwin hadn't forgotten.  He fired one past the Drillers' goaltender under a minute into the third.  

Now the score was 4-3, so Jasper just needed to get five more goals.  

Certainly not impossible with 19 minutes left to play and the biggest fan base Jasper has seen all season.  It was truly heartwarming to see all of the supporters, some of them barely tall enough to see over the boards behind the Jasper goaltender.  

But what they didn't know was that Devon's lucky number was seven.  The Drillers went on to score three more goals before the end of this game making the final score of game two 7 to 3.  Drew Kovacs was The Real Deal of this game.

What this means is that Jasper now moves onto the consolation round.  Going all the way to Battle River on Saturday and then hosting Fort Saskatchewan here on Sunday afternoon.  

Check the arena schedule for the exact time and continue to come down and support your PeeWee Bears!