Lucas Habib | Special to the 51暗网
Mother grizzlies are known for being some of Jasper National Park鈥檚 most aggressive animals 鈥� at least when protecting their cubs. So, if a group of angry mama grizzlies met a gang of vicious bears right in the middle of town, who would win?
Lucky for the townsfolk, this epic battle of nature took place not in a back alley or on the Bench, but inside the Jasper Arena. The U9/U11 Grizzlies (Jasper鈥檚 nascent team for girls under 10), was taking on the U9 Bears (a co-ed team for those age 8 and below) in the second of two matches. The Bears won a tight first game 10-9.
A few things made these tilts unique. For the Grizzlies, this two-game series represented their first-ever games. They formed in the heady days of fall 2020, when we thought things were going to be more or less 鈥渂ack to normal鈥�, ahead of COVID鈥檚 third wave. Coupled with the endless arena renovations, that meant that they had intermittent practices through the winter, but no actual games. The pent-up demand to cheer on their daughters was evident in the raucous hockey atmosphere generated by the Grizzlies鈥� parents.
For the Bears, Hockey Alberta rules meant that their league games were played four-on-four on half ice. The idea is to hone the kids鈥� skills rather than having them focus too much on strategy (when skating fluidly while stickhandling is still a struggle for some). So, playing a couple of games on full ice brought a lot of new challenges.
In this rubber match, Grizzlies head coach Wendy Hall seemed determined to have fun (but also probably really wanted to beat the Bears, coached by Mike Kliewer). Other dramatic storylines included multiple brother-sister grudge matches (Fin vs. Molleigh McGrath, Kenny vs. Ruby Olson, and Alice vs. Henry Wannop).
The game featured a lot of end-to-end action, starting with Bears netminder Dion Valencia stopping Macy Irwin on both her streaking breakaway and her determined second effort on the rebound. Shortly after though, Ruby Olson bested her brother to open the scoring for the Grizzlies.
Power forward Hudson Murray 鈥� scoring the first goal towards his hat trick 鈥� barely got by Abby Caputa to claw the Bears back into the game. Kenny also had to score; if he hadn鈥檛 matched his sister鈥檚 tally, no doubt he would have heard about it all night. He put the Bears up 2-1.
The Grizzlies had learned from the last game and got a lot more pressure in the Bears end; however, both teams were still trying to figure out the finer points of hockey like 鈥渋cing鈥� and 鈥渙ffside鈥� and 鈥渃hanging on the fly鈥� and 鈥渢he fact that faceoffs aren鈥檛 always at centre ice鈥�.
Many on both teams were vying for their first-ever goals; Lorenzo Zaniol got his along with many others. Other memorable moments as the game progressed included Molleigh McGrath scoring back-to-back goals, Marshall White stopping mid-play to wave at his fans, Morgan Staneland blocking a slapshot, and Alice Wannop with some acrobatic netminding. The clear highlight of the night though was Kenny losing a tooth on the bench between shifts.
After early dominance by the Grizzlies, Juniper Habib 鈥� one of three girls on the Bears, along with Zephy Korogonas and Julianna Walker 鈥� potted one to deadlock the game near the end of the second. Then the Bears started sinking their teeth into the third period and the game got away from the Grizzlies. Anna Gifford got one past Dion near the end to bring the Grizzlies within three for a final score of 10-7. But when the game ended with a two-team pizza party in the curling lounge, there were sure to be no hard feelings. If you鈥檙e looking to catch some more action from these two teams, the Bears will be hosting their home tournament (featuring the Grizzlies) Dec. 18 and 19.
