Game over for Lac La Biche at Peewee A Provincials

It was a tough way to end the season for the Lac La Biche Peewee A Clippers, falling 8-1 in a do or die game against the Okotoks Oilers at the provincial championships at the Bold Center on Saturday.

Oilers assistant captain Grady Hale got Okotoks on the board just 59 seconds into the game, and the Oilers kept up the pressure as the period wore on. The increased pressure forced the Clippers into some penalty trouble, which Okotoks took full advantage of.

After an interference call against the Clippers at 7:14 of the first, Okotoks went on the powerplay, and just 17 seconds later, Hale scored his second of the game, with the assist going to captain Sydney Trotter.

Lac La Biche took three more penalties in the frame, leading to two more Okotoks powerplay goals and a 4-0 deficit after one period for the host Clippers. The team took 12 penalties overall. Head coach Rick Rosychuk said being on the penalty kill for a good portion of the game was a huge hurdle.

“That’ s the turning point right there. They got on us early, and they scored a couple. We couldn’ t get any momentum,” said Rosychuk. “We took some dumb penalties, there’ s no doubt about it, but I don’ t think we deserved all of them.”

The Oilers never looked back after the first period, adding three more goals in the second, and another in the third to take an 8-0 lead.

The Clippers did manage to break through Oilers goalie Mitchell Dudak early in the third period, when Adam Abougouche banged in a loose puck at 5:48, with the assist going to Lucas Meyer.

Despite the tough loss to end the season, Rosychuk was pleased with the performance the team put forward on the season overall.

“Our boys had a great season,” adding that the team’ s record on the year, including playoffs, exhibition, and tournaments was 27-4. “We’ ll take that anytime. We had a good year, it was fun.”

Check back with the POST’ s Facebook page and website at www.laclabichepost.com for final results of the provincial tournament.