Lucas Habib | Special to the 51暗网
Being on the west end of the hockey zone, generations of Jasper hockey parents have logged a lot of miles travelling to Alberta towns they鈥檝e never heard of. Doing the long-haul is never pleasant, but it鈥檚 still better if some of that driving comes in October and not January.
Some families left the warmth of their Jasper homes at 5 a.m. to drive through the dark and dawn and make the morning ice time. Smartly dressed in their matching jackets, the U11 Jasper Bears marched through cold, hard rain into the Millet Agriplex for their game against the aptly-named Millet Storm.
This year鈥檚 version of the U11 Bears hadn鈥檛 yet had a lot of time to gel, given a delayed ice-in at the Jasper Arena and last year鈥檚 pandemic cancellations (but let鈥檚 not talk about that anymore). For a lot of the players, full-ice play and pesky rules such as 鈥渙ffside鈥� and 鈥渋cing鈥� were taking some getting used to.
The Bears had been playing well so far this season, but this road trip was the first real test. Millet came out hard, but goalie Carter Schmidt came up with a couple of big early saves 鈥� including putting up a wall against a 3-on-0 breakaway 鈥� to weather the early Storm. Antony Gagn茅, a brand-new recruit making his debut with the Bears after being called up from the QMJJJJHL, opened the scoring with a nifty backhand past a sprawled-out goalie, after a great play from Arie Hofhuis to drag his skate and just stay onside.
Later in the game, sharpshooter Arlo Kennedy scored a highlight reel goal, picking up a defender鈥檚 stick at the blue line and then barrelled down on the goalie - extra stick caught between his arms - and popped the puck into the net before barreling into the goalie and the net.聽
Jasper closed out the first game 7-0, notching a shutout for Schmidt. The evening brought a faceoff with the undefeated Wetaskiwin Kings. Matteo Artiaga scored just five seconds into jump-start the Bears; shortly after, rookie Kenny Olson slickly fed Artiaga on the side of the net but this goal wasn鈥檛 to be. The crowd got nervous when Cohen Fitzgerald went down hard into the boards, but he got back up and went right back to digging in the corners. His doggedness was rivalled only by Jack Currie鈥檚 drive and stickhandling prowess.
During the Bear鈥檚 first penalty kill of the weekend, Jasper fans unanimously agreed that James Handerek鈥檚 blistering shot 鈥� after he stole the puck and streaked up the boards 鈥� was successfully potted by Ash Habib for a shortie. Unfortunately, the refs didn鈥檛 see the back of the net move before the puck quickly bounced back out. The lack of technology for a coach鈥檚 video review challenge hurt the Bears on this night; regardless, the Bears hung on for a 7-5 win to close out the evening.
Sunday brought new challenges. A game against the Camrose Vikings started slowly; the Bears were pressing early but couldn鈥檛 convert. This tight, close-fought defensive match was an adjustment from the last two, with coaches Reg Currie, Dave Hofhuis, Trevor Groth, and Cliff Kennedy switching up the lines for maximum effectiveness.
The Vikings used their big farm kid bodies to box out the Bears and force them to work hard along the boards every possession. Jasper鈥檚 defensive core 鈥� including the reliable Jesse Groth and the tenacious Ben Derksen 鈥� did the same in return. In the third, the Bears continued their relentless pressure but had difficulty breaking through the Viking defence for quality scoring chances; still, smooth-skating defenceman Zoti Korogonas鈥� shot from the point was redirected by Ruby Olson right in front of the net to Kennedy鈥檚 waiting stick, which tapped it in for an easy marker.
Unfortunately, after three games, lots of car time, and maybe a bit too much energy expended in the hotel pool, the Bears were unable to close out the third win of the weekend. Camrose鈥檚 star player scored with 90 seconds left to tie it and again with 20 seconds left for the go-ahead goal, handing the bears an 8-7 loss. After their torrid start to the season though, these Bears could use a bit of hibernation time to regroup for Saturday鈥檚 home game at 2 p.m. against arch-rivals Hinton.
Hope to see you there.
