For much of the Yellowknife Wolfpack bantams, this was the last time they would get to play together this season in tournament action.
And it almost turned into a winning finish.
photo courtesy of Shawn Talbot
The bantams made the trip to the Presidents Day Invitational Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona earlier this month and very nearly pulled out the win, dropping the final of the U14 AA division to the Ridge Meadows Rustlers of B.C. by a score of 5-0. It was their only loss of the tournament.
“It was a good game but the kids were nervous,” said head coach Shawn Talbot. “We were playing an AAA team so we had to work on getting them out of that feeling.”
The road to the final began with the round-robin, which started with a game against the Sno-King Jr. Thunderbirds from Seattle, Washington, which ended in a 6-0 win. Next up was the San Diego Saints from California and that was also successful, 4-0 being the final score.
Talbot said they were two of the weaker teams in the tournament but it was a good way to get the players going.
“We got a chance to find our rhythm,” he said.
The next game, though, would see whether the team was for real.
The Anaheim Jr. Ducks were the final round-robin contest for the Wolfpack and they got the jump on the Wolfpack, taking a 2-0 lead to the third period. That's when the Wolfpack woke up but it took until the midway point of the final frame for them to do it. Logan Cunningham and Alex Cordero scored to tie the game at 2-2 before Tyler Caines scored the winner with less than two minutes remaining in regulation time to give the Wolfpack a 3-2 win.
Talbot said the Ducks were a great team and had plenty of chances to put the game away.
“I told the kids to win shifts because that's how we would come back,” he said. “Get more presence in front of the net and the opportunities will come.”
If the final round-robin game was a exercise in perseverance, the semifinal against the Wenatchee Wolverines of Washington was how to ensure a heart attack for the coaching staff.
The Wolfpack built up a 4-1 lead after two periods but the Wolverines wouldn't go away quietly as they peppered goaltender Etienne Marcoux, who Talbot said stood on his head under the pressure.
The Wolverines did manage to cut the lead to 4-3 but the Wolfpack would hold on, especially in the last two minutes of the game, to win by that scoreline and book their place in the final.
“We were gripping our sticks, for sure,” said Talbot. “They spent two minutes in our end and just let loose but Etienne stood tall. I thought we were still the better team but it was good to see the kids overcome that type of adversity.”
In the final, Ridge Meadows came out the better of the two teams right from the start, scoring before the two-minute mark and added another at the midway point to take a 2-0 lead. They doubled that lead in the second before sealing the deal in the third.
Talbot said it took a period for the team to get into it and it started to look good in the second period.
“I thought we had found our groove,” he said. “We outplayed them in the second period but they got a power-play goal to make it 3-0 and that deflated us. I'm happy with how the kids played but we just didn't get any bounces go our way. I don't mind losing to the better team and they were better.”