It was a disappointing weekend for the Cold Lake Ice. The Jr. B team finished their season with one tie, one win and three losses in the Keystone Cup.
Six teams from Northern Ontario to British Columbia gathered at the Energy Centre in Cold Lake from Thursday until Sunday to compete in the western Jr. B championship after winning their respective provincial championships. The host team, the Cold Lake Ice, kicked off the first game of the tournament on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. against the Alberta provincial champions the North Edmonton Red Wings.
After a scoreless first period, a four minute penalty to Red Wings defence Arjun Lotey for high sticking with just 35 seconds remaining in the period left the Ice starting the second on a power play. Forward Devon Hascarl took full advantage of the opponents penalty, putting Cold Lake on the board just two minutes into the second frame.
With a little over five minutes left in the second, the Red Wings answered with a goal from Jared Heisler. The score stayed tied at one a piece heading into the third period. A two minute penalty for goalie interference to Ice's Taylor Anshelm gave the Red Wings the opportunity they needed to nab a power play goal at the 15:28 mark.
It didn't take long for the Ice to even the score once again. Cold Lake forward Brett Bujold fired the puck in the back of the net a little over three minutes later, bringing the score to 2-2. Neither team was able to regain the lead in the game one of the Keystone Cup, which meant both teams would walk away with one point.
Player of the game for the Cold Lake Ice was Tanner Corbeil and Heisler won the title for the North Edmonton Red Wings.
The Cold Lake Ice were back on the ice at 9 p.m. that night taking on the B.C. representatives the Campbell River Storm in game five of the Keystone. In the first period, both teams were able to hold off any goals in an even matched period.
Not even two minutes into the second period, Ice forward Curtis Witney found the back of the net giving the host team the first goal of the game. A four minute high sticking major to Ice player Jamie Miller at the 11:39 mark, proved to be the start of the Ice's downhill slide. A little over a minute later, two quick power play goals from Storm players Gage Colpron and Trent Johnson one minute apart gave Campbell River a 2-1 lead.
With around 2:30 left in the second the Ice found themselves on the penalty kill again. Storm player Thor Rosback sneaked the puck past Ice goaltender Bolton Pouliot, furthering Campbell River's lead.
Penalties continued to be Cold Lake's downfall in the final period. Half way through the third Dane Feeney potted the Storm's fourth power play goal of the game following a two minute tripping penalty to Zach Zarowny. The Ice fought hard to close the gap, with only 5:24 left in the game captain Chad Schultheiss fired one in leaving the host team trailing by two.
Unable to tie up the score, Campbell River gained two points for a 4-2 win. Pouliot was named player of the game for the Cold Lake Ice. Campbell River Storm player of the game was Colpron.
The Ice were back at it Friday morning taking on the Ontario representatives the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks. The Northern Hawks took the early lead, nabbing the first and only goal of the first period thanks to forward Matthew Ray. At the 13:24 mark in the second frame, the Northern Hawks furthered their lead with a power play goal after a two minute penalty to Schultheiss. With just one minute left in the period, Ice defencemen Holden Daley set up forward Christian Nypower for the home team's first goal of the game.
Heading into the third period with a 2-1 score for the Northern Hawks, neither team were able to net a goal. With just 1:30 left in the game, Cold Lake pulled their goalie in favour of an extra attacker. Less than a minute later, Thunder Bay secured their win with an empty net goal from Alex Valliant.
Cold Lake Ice player of the game was Daley and Thunder Bay Northern Hawks player of the game was Taylor Santorelli.
Following game one, Ice head coach Paul Desjardins said the coaching staff were happy with the outcome of the game, especially considering who it was against.
“I think we'll take it as a win. These are the provincial champions and I think we out played them. We were very happy, very excited. Today wasn't quite a full 60 minutes, but I think it's the closest we've gotten all year to playing 60 minutes and that's what we've been preaching.”
Both Desjardins and assistant coach Kevin Krooks said that in a tournament such as the Keystone, it's important to have a fourth line that can play well.
“You're going to be playing five games in three days. You're going to be tired and bumped and bruised. You have to play four lines, if you don't you're going to be too tired out there,” said Krooks.
Desjardins added, “You don't want to burn your guys out, you have to (play four lines). If you're going to only roll two lines or three lines you're going to be in trouble.”
Later that day, the Ice took on the Selkirk Fishermen from Manitoba. With only one point in the tournament thus far, host team Cold Lake was in desperate need of a win and they would get it with what would be the biggest blowout of the Keystone.
Anshelm got the momentum going for the Ice with a goal less than four minutes into the first. Two more quick goals in less than a minute from Cold Lake AP Dillion Kalinski and Miller gave the Ice a 3-0 lead not even five minutes into the game. With 10:22 still left in the first, Mike Harbich notched a fourth goal for the Ice and a fifth just 30 seconds later.
Heading into the second frame with a 5-0 lead for the Cold Lake Ice, both teams found themselves racking up the penalty minutes. Selkirk managed to hold off the Ice until the last six minutes of the period, when Harbich fired the puck in the net for his third goal of the game.
Despite already being up 6-0, the Ice weren't backing down in the third period. Almost two minutes in, Miller netted his second of the game. Less than a minute later, Harbich was still on fire adding a fourth goal to his tournament record and bringing the Ice up 8-0. At the 11:17 mark, Kalinski furthered the Ice's lead even more, firing in his second goal of the night. With just 36 seconds left in the game, the Ice stuck one more nail in the Fishermen's coffin. Bujold found the back of the net to bring Cold Lake's score into the double digits.
“Heart and soul. That kid next year will be wearing a letter,” Desjardins said of Ice player Bujold. “This year I feel bad for him because he was the only guy that we could put on the fourth line and make that line click, he was the one that made that line click all season.”
A final score of 10-0 for the Ice saw the host team adding two more points in the tournament, bringing them up to three. Harbich was named player of the game for the Cold Lake Ice. Player of the game for the Selkirk Fishermen was Daniel Fiebelkorn.
On Saturday, Cold Lake was back on the ice for their final round robin game of the tournament. The Ice were looking for a win against the Saskatchewan representative the Saskatoon Quakers to secure their spot in a medal game. Unfortunately, there was no win for the Ice in the penalty ridden game.
Rhett Kehoe got the scoring started for the Quakers, firing the puck past Pouliot just 20 seconds into the game. The score stayed at 1-0 for the remainder of the period. In the first period alone the Ice managed to rack up 14 penalty minutes and the Quakers saw a total of 28 penalty minutes.
Penalty kills were once again the Achilles heel for the Cold Lake Ice. Two minutes into the second period, Quakers player Terrin Belosowsky netted a power play goal following a slashing penalty to Daley. With the Ice trailing by two, a slashing penalty to Nick Astasiewicz gave the Quakers the opportunity they were looking for to further their lead. At the 3:13 mark left in the second, Cody Pettapiece found the back for another power play goal bringing the score to 3-0.
Heading into the final frame, Quakers Chris Thorimbert sneaked the puck past Pouliot two minutes into the period. With six minutes left in Cold Lake's final round robin game, a short-handed goal from Quakers Graham Lichtenwald crushed any hope of an Ice comeback. Despite a final shot count of 39-39, the Quakers walked away with two points from their 5-0 victory.
Miller was named player of the game for the Cold Lake Ice and goaltender Matt Richard was given that title for the Quakers.
“It's almost like we went away from hockey and getting into getting personal, people chasing people,” said Desjardins following the game.
He added that the first goal scored by the Quakers early on in the game is what ended up being the winning goal, setting the tone for the entire game.
The Ice's three points in the Keystone Cup was not enough to carry them over to either of the medal games, which would see the Saskatoon Quakers take bronze in a 5-4 victory over the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks. The Campbell River Storm headed back to B.C. with the gold medal and the Keystone Cup after winning 6-3 over the North Edmonton Red Wings, who walked away with silver.
