Lesleigh Campbell | Special to the 51暗网
The U15 Jasper Bearcats hit the road this weekend for a three-game road trip. The team was shorthanded for the trip with sniper Morgan Thomas sidelined with an upper body injury, and playmaker Carson Campbell in COVID-19 protocol pending a negative test, which came back too late to make the trip. Nonetheless, the remaining Bearcats set their alarms for 6 a.m. Saturday morning and made the drive to Whitecourt to test their mettle against the Wolverines.
The Wolverines took advantage of Jasper鈥檚 short bench, peppering netminder Brady Campbell with shots. Campbell kept the door shut, keeping the first 15 out, but the 16th and 17th found their way in. The Bearcats went into the first intermission down 2-0.
Jasper came out strong in the second period, and Casey Peel sprung Jackson Irwin for a breakaway. Irwin then quickly rifled the puck past Whitecourt鈥檚 goalie, getting Jasper on the board. Excitement was short lived, however, when the Wolverines answered that goal with not one, not two, but five of their own. The Bearcats kept their heads up and kept fighting, and Drew Kovacs was able to get Jasper鈥檚 second goal before the period ended.
By the third period of this game, the Jasper Bearcats were down 7-2, and you would have thought they didn鈥檛 have much left in them. However, it was quite the opposite. Louis Campeau got his first assist as a Bearcat when he passed the puck to Justin Bartziokas who found the back of Whitecourt鈥檚 net. The Wolverines then got their only goal of the third period, answered by a beauty pass from Bartziokas to Kovacs in front of the net for the last goal of the game. If the whole game had gone the same way as the third period did, then the outcome would have been much different. But alas, the final score was 8-4 for Whitecourt.
With little time to rest, the Bearcats left Whitecourt and headed to Mayerthorpe for a match against the Mustangs. This game looked promising out of the gate. Both teams battled back and forth and looked evenly matched. But with double the number of players on their bench, the Mustangs got the first goal. Jasper鈥檚 Jackson Irwin was determined to even things up and that he did, when he went end to end and buried his own rebound. The game remained a tie until two minutes left in the period, when Mayerthorpe scored back-to-back goals, leaving the Bearcats trailing 3-1.
The second period was when the early morning and the short bench started to catch up with Jasper, though they put up a good fight. The Mustangs managed to get back-to-back goals halfway through the period that the Bearcats could not answer. Jasper was down 5-1 after two.
The third period began with Mayerthorpe鈥檚 star getting his hattrick goal and then proceeded to net his fourth shortly after that. With Jasper now down 7-1, Drew Kovacs dumped the puck in from the red line and with some puck luck, scored Jasper鈥檚 second goal. However, the Mustangs poured salt on the wound with one more goal in the last minute of the game, resulting in an 8-2 final score for this one.
After a good night鈥檚 sleep in a hotel, the Jasper Bearcats continued on the road to Barrhead. Having played against this team a week prior, Jasper was hoping for a different outcome this time. However, the Barrhead Bruins came out strong once again and got the first three on the board before the halfway mark of the first period. With Jasper finding it difficult to even get shots on the Bruins net, Bode Hofhuis capitalized on a unique situation when Barrhead鈥檚 goalie came out of his net to play the puck, and Hofhuis intercepted the goalie鈥檚 pass and scored on the open net! However, Jasper鈥檚 celebration was short lived when Barrhead came back with three more goals before the end of the first.
The second period went much better for Jasper, starting with Jackson Irwin passing the puck down the ice to Drew Kovacs who did what he does best and buried the puck in the back of the Bruin鈥檚 net. Barrhead answered that goal with two more, but the Bearcats got one more when Irwin went end to end once again, this time passing to Casey Peel who sniped it in. Although the Bearcats were still down 8-3, that period was an even match.
The third period was a bit of a different story. These kids gave it their all. They played with heart, and they tried their best, but they were tired. And beyond the fact that Jasper was grossly outshot in all three games and had half the number of players than the other teams, these games were physical. The hits were hard and some of the players were sore. Barrhead scored four more goals, for a final of 12-3 for this one.
Come down to the Jasper Arena on Sunday, Nov. 21 to support your U15 Jasper Bearcats as they take on the Thorsby Thunder at 1 p.m.
