The Cold Lake Jr. B Ice's season came to an end this past weekend after a valiant performance at the provincial championships in Grande Prairie saw the team narrowly miss out on a spot in the medal round.
After enjoying the most successful regular season in the organization's history, culminating in an enthralling NEAJBHL six-game championship victory over the Wainwright Bisons, the Ice traveled to Grande Prairie full of hope and expectation as the team sought to go one better than last year's third place finish and seal a first ever provincial title.
That dream was brought to an end early on Saturday though, as the Ice went 1-2-0 in round robin play to finish last in their pool. Although he was disappointed with the outcome, Ice head coach and GM Neil Langridge took a lot of positives in his team's performance throughout the tournament.
“Coming into provincials, we knew it was going to be a tough, tough ride and that was exactly what we got,” Langridge said. “We really had our chances to win, and that's all I can hope for from the boys. I'm proud of the performance of each and every one of them and now we can hold our heads high on another successful Cold Lake Ice season.”
The Ice kicked off the tournament with a 4-2 loss to the heavily favoured Fort Saskatchewan Pyramid Hawks on Thursday, but followed that up with a huge 5-3 victory over the hosting Grande Prairie JDA Kings the next night to give the team hope of progressing to the medal round for the second consecutive year.
In the team's third and final game they met the eventual gold medal winning Blackfalds Wranglers. After taking the lead early on in the first period through a Christian Nypower effort, the Ice were continuously put on the back foot in the second and third periods, giving up 40 shots en route to a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat.
That game marked the end of an era for the Ice as longtime forward, and this year's team captain Dallas Ansell joined goaltender Brandyn Garth in waving goodbye to the Junior B scene. Ansell leaves with three NEAJBHL titles and a provincial bronze medal, while boasting an overall record of 285 points in just 92 regular season games, and 72 points in 36 post-season match-ups.
Speaking to the Nouvelle following the defeat to the Wranglers, a clearly emotional Ansell reflected on what he described as “one heck of a ride” with the Cold Lake Ice.
“It's been a blast playing my three years with the Cold Lake Ice, I knew coming over from Jr. A what to expect and I think I really took advantage of the opportunity I had here. I met some awesome people and learned so, so much,” Ansell said.
He added that while it was disappointing to bow out at the round robin stage, he was simply honoured to lead the team into a provincial tournament as captain and said the team could look forward to what he believes will be a great season next year.
“It was such an honour playing for this organization and playing my last season as captain just added to it all,” Ansell said. “Now that we're done, I'm expecting next year's team, especially with hosting Westerns, to be really strong. Neil (Langridge) is going to do his best to put the best Ice squad possible out there and I'm sure the off season is going to be a productive one.”
The Ice's regular season scoring leader Christian Nypower spoke of his disappointment at dropping out of provincials at the round robin stage, but commended his teammates for a fantastic effort throughout the 2013/2014 season.
“Losing that final game and realizing the season has come to an end was heartbreaking and it definitely hurts, but we can't really complain. It's an honour to even be here at provincials and we just need to try and keep our heads held high because we had a good season,” Nypower said.
With this season now fading into the sunset, Langridge said preparations towards next year would be starting shortly as the organization gets set to host the 2015 Keystone Cup.
“It's going to be a really busy off-season for both myself and the club,” Langridge said. “We're going to work to put on one heck of a tournament for everyone to remember and do our best to put a product out on the ice that's going to be competitive at that level.”
He added, “Hopefully we'll be back at provincials next year in Stony Plain so that we can really earn our way to Westerns rather that being there just because we're the host. It's going to be an exciting off-season, but I'm anticipating an even more exciting 2015 season.”
