Lucas Habib | Special to the 51°µÍø
The first weekend of the New Year brought with it the U11 Bears’ home tournament.
Teams from as far away as Okotoks descended on the Jasper Arena for a weekend of matches and medals. The Bears defended their home arena well, going 2-1 in the round robin phase of the tournament; they beat the Wolverines (Calgary) and KC Spartans (Edmonton) but lost a nailbiter to the powerhouse Grande Prairie Knights at a rare (and painful) 7:30 a.m. ice time.
That sparkling record put the Bears into the Sunday morning bronze medal game against the Bentley Canucks. The crowd was amped and the music was pumping. Kalahari Harvey had the crowd gasping as he split the D in the second minute of the game; he couldn’t convert but Hudson Murray potted the rebound.
Goaltending phenom Dion Valencia made a nice glove save late in the first to relieve some of the pressure Bentley was applying and maintain the Bears’ narrow lead into the second. Unfortunately, early in the period the Bears finally let one through after being hemmed in their own end for close to ten minutes.
Bentley was able to keep the Bears running around in their own end for a good chunk of the middle section of the game. Valencia, a couple of posts, and some tight backchecking from Juniper Habib and Milo Michaud and stellar defence from Alexis Lahaie kept the Bears in the game. Bentley’s bigger bodies were winning a lot of the puck battles and they took a 2-1 lead.
However, the Bears’ Cale Makar-esque smooth-skating offensive defenceman, Zoti Korogonas, returned from his vacation just in time for the game; he proved how much the team had missed him by evening up the score on a beautiful breakaway late in the second.
Tension was high as the teams skated out for the third to the tune of the Top Gun anthem. There were close chances at both ends with gaping nets going unfilled by rubber. A wrister from the point from James Handerek was turned away by Bentley’s goalie; a similar play was repeated a few seconds later by Elliot Vassallo.
After an undisciplined roughing penalty to the Canucks’ top player, the Bears were able to capitalize with another bar down shot from Korogonas to put the Bears in front; soon after, Jack Currie went coast to coast through the whole Bentley team to extend the lead. Late in the third, Bentley drew within one on a power play goal.
A bench minor was delivered to the Bears for too many players on the ice with just 1:58 left in the game, giving the Canucks another power play for the remainder; there was a lot of nervous tension among the parents cheering on their kids (and probably among coaches Reg Currie and Steve Lahaie).
With multiple faceoffs in their own end and the Bentley goalie out for a six-on-four advantage, the Bears did not buckle and were able to hang on to win the bronze. A satisfying weekend for all, especially the raffle table winners.
