The Rockyview Raiders can attest to the cruel nature of elimination hockey.
Just one minute away from advancing to the playoff round of the Sutter Cup, the Midget 15 Raiders were stung by the Lethbridge Hurricanes who scored a last second goal with the goalie pulled to secure the 2-1 win on March 9.
“At the end our guard got caught and weren’t really expecting them to pull away with that last minute play,” said Raiders defenceman Sebastian Kilcommons of Okotoks. “I went into shock almost. I couldn’t believe that it happened. I thought we were definitely going to the next round and with one minute left it all changed.”
Needing only one point to advance to the playoff round of the Sutter Cup, a round-robin playoff tournament for the M-15 Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League, the Raiders lost out on the second seed in their pool to Lethbridge. The Hurricanes needed to win the game to advance.
Okotoks blueliner Mason St. Martin gave the Raiders the early lead before Lethbridge’s Tanner Thompson answered back to tie it 1-1 with 34 seconds left in the first period.
An offensive stalemate ensued before Hurricane blueliner Logan Boulet’s heroics with 59 seconds left in the contest.
“The bounces didn’t go our way. It went off the far post and went across the line and hit the other post and went in,” said Raiders captain Eric Theander, an Okotokian. “It was very disappointing.”
Rockyview was at the other spectrum of emotion after earning a dream start to the Sutter Cup via a 4-2 win on March 7 over the Red Deer Chiefs, the prohibitive favourites as the top team in the regular season.
William Conley, Shane Fraser, Kilcommons and Theander bulged the twine for Rockview. Netminder Jacob Standen was busy between the pipes and kept his focus in turning aside 38 shots from Red Deer.
“That was a huge confidence booster and the perfect way to begin the tournament for us,” said Kilcommons, part of a Raider team who twice beat Red Deer in the regular season. “We were somewhat worried, but we had a bit of confidence going in because we’ve played them a decent amount of times and knew how they played.”
Following the auspicious tournament opener, the Raiders skated to a 0-0 tie with the rival AC Avalanche out of Airdrie. Goaltender Carter Seminuk and a stout Raider defence held the Avalanche, the eventual Sutter Cup champions, off the board. However, mining for gold on offence was equally challenging for Rockyview.
“We were there we just couldn’t find the back of the net,” Theander said. “We had lots of opportunities. It was a very close game.”
The Sutter Cup exit marked the sudden end of a solid season of play for the Raiders.
Rockyview finished the campaign in the middle of the pack at 14-13-5. For the Raiders’ players, the M-15 experience has come to an end.
“I really liked it,” Kilcommons said of the season.
“There was a lot of really nice guys and really great coaches and I thought I learned a lot.”
UFA Bisons eliminated
The UFA Midget AAA Bisons’ run to a league championship came to a crashing halt at the hands of the defending national champions.
The Bisons were ousted from the Alberta Midget Hockey League South Division semifinals after losing out in the best-of-five series 3-1 to the vaunted Red Deer Chiefs.
Red Deer took command of the series with a 6-1 romp in Game 1. The Bisons answered back by earning a 2-1 overtime victory in Game 2 with Okotokian Kurt Fraser playing the hero in the extra session.
At the other end of the ice, Okotoks netminder Richard Palmer stood on his head in stopping 41 of 42 Chief shots.
However, the Chiefs proved to be too much to overcome and skated to a 7-2 win in Game 3 and a then a 5-3 victory in the fourth and final match of the series on March 6 in Strathmore.
Red Deer and the Calgary Buffaloes will meet for a chance at a spot in the league championships. For more information go to www.amhl.ab.ca.
