It was a tough weekend for the Cold Lake Ice as they came up just short at the provincial championships in Stony Plain, losing two and tying one en route to an early round robin exit.
The first game came on Apr. 2 against the North West Junior Hockey League champions North Peace Navigators. Cold Lake got the game off to a quick start, less than 30 seconds into the first, with Christian Nypower nabbing the first goal of the game.
At the 5:51 mark into the period, the Ice got their only power play of the game after a roughing penalty to Navigators Lowen Lambert. One minute later Ice forward Connor Fynn used the man advantage firing the puck in and bringing the Ice up 2-0. With three minutes left in the first a goal a piece from Navigators Cole Diewert and Sidney Gladue evened up the score.
The Navigators continued their streak in the second frame. Not even three minutes in another goal from Lambert gave the Navs the lead. Two more goals five minutes apart brought North Peace up 5-2. Cold Lake wasn't giving up yet. Only 2:46 remaining in the period, Nypower notched his second goal of the game closing the gap to 5-3.
Heading into the third period it was all down hill for the Cold Lake Ice. Three goals for the Navigators in a little over 11 minutes from Parker Sharp, Dustin Long and Matthew Grant brought them up 8-3. Following a two minute slashing penalty to the Ice's Dillon Kalinski, Sharp stuck another nail in the coffin with a power play goal three minutes left in the game. The Navigators finished the game with a final score of 9-3 over the Ice.
The following day, in game two of the tournament for the Cold Lake Ice, it was evident that whether in the Lakeland or Stony Plain, no matter where the Ice went the refs were against them. Just 45 seconds into the game, the Ice were on their first penalty kill. While they managed to hold off the Flyers for the duration of that penalty, around 30 seconds after returning to even strength the Ice found themselves back in the box.
The tournament hosts weren't giving up another advantage. At the 3:56 mark into the period, Joseph Berget sneaked the puck past Ice net minder Bolton Pouliot, giving the Flyers an early lead. Heading into the second, the Ice managed to fend of two penalty kills keeping the score at 1-0 for the period.
Heading into the third, the Ice again spent a fair bit of time in the penalty box. Just over five minutes into the final frame, Markus Lovsin took advantage of a power play netting the Flyers' second goal of the game. With Cold Lake down 2-0 and only 6:37 left in the third, captain Chad Schultheiss fired the puck in the net and brought some hope to his team. Stony Plain managed to hold off an Ice come back for a final score of 2-1.
On Saturday, the Ice played their third tournament game against the reigning provincial champions the Blackfalds Wranglers. The Ice took an early lead thanks to a goal from forward Connor Fynn 2:25 into the first. The Wranglers answered 40 seconds later with a goal by Bryce Marshall. With just over five minutes remaining in the period, Schultheiss scored from the top of the circle giving the Ice a 2-1 lead.
Cold Lake managed to hang onto that lead until the 12:24 mark in the second, when the Wranglers' Trent Hermary tied things up. Heading into the third with the score at 2-2, neither team was able to find the back of the net, ending the Ice's tournament run.
Ice head coach Paul Desjardins said following the final game that the team played well against the Wranglers despite the amount of time they spent short-handed.
“The boys played well. I think we played well enough to be able to win this game but when you play short-handed for most of the game it affects your line up. We couldn't play our fourth line and we used our PK a lot and they were tired when they played on their regular lines.”
Desjardins expressed that even though the outcome wasn't what they had hoped for, competing in provincials was a good experience for the players. He noted that the level of hockey was a lot better then what they are used to in the NEAJBHL.
“To be quite honest the Cold Lake Ice is the only Jr. B team here. We have one WHL guy and that's our goaltender and he played well for us. These other teams, there's a lot of money tied into theses teams because you don't get five WHL players in your line up and not toss anything,” said Desjardins.
He added, “It's huge for our kids to go out there and skate with them and be able to play hockey against them. To me that's the learning curve. We're a low budget hockey team and the high budget hockey teams are pretty good out here.”
The Ice has three more practices now to focus on preparing for their next major tournament - the Keystone Cup. Canada's premier Jr. B hockey tournament will run from Thursday, Apr. 16 to Sunday, Apr. 19 at the Energy Centre in Cold Lake. Joining hosts the Cold Lake Ice in the tournament will be the North Edmonton Red Wings who won gold at the 2015 Alberta Jr. B Provincials.
