Wheatland Chiefs fall in division final
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
With a second chance to claim the South Central Alberta Hockey League north division title March 23, the Wheatland AA Chiefs couldn’t recapture the glory.
The midget team thought they had claimed the division title March 21, after beating the Red Deer Elks on home ice, only to learn later that the game had to be re-played because the Chiefs had accidentally used an ineligible player.
“It’s been pretty hard on everyone,” said Devin Olson, head coach. A Wheatland Chief player had been suspended in the second game of the series and Olson said they hadn’t heard about any additional suspension, so the player played in the original third game.
“We went through every precautionary thing we could, sending emails and phone calls,” said Olson.
Red Deer protested the game afterwards and the league announced that an illegal player was used who was supposed to be suspended.
Olson said that according to the rules, if an illegal player is used the game should be forfeited, but the president of the league didn’t want that, so an additional game was played.
The third game was originally played in Strathmore and the re-scheduled game was supposed to be played at the Family Center March 22. However, the game was played March 23 in Red Deer.
“They were in the wrong and they’re trying to make it even for both teams, is what it came down to,” said Olson. “We had to go up there, either that, or they would have put in a protest [to Hockey Alberta] and they probably would have won the protest.”
Olson said it was tough to go and play a fourth game in Red Deer and that it was also pushed back a day to give the players an extra day to cool down and re-focus.
Olson said the kids came out and started hard, until a Chief player hit an Elk player from behind in the first period.
The player had to be taken out on a stretcher for precautionary reasons, but was okay.
“There was a big delay in the game and we ending up getting a five-minute penalty on it,” said Olson. “They ended up scoring a few goals on that power play, which kind of took the flow away from our guys.”
By the end of the first period, the Chiefs were down 5-0, but Olson said they battled back by outplaying and out shooting the Elks in the second and third period.
“We had the momentum, we just couldn’t score,” said Olson.
The Chiefs lost the game 6-3, which they played without three key players said Olson, one with a broken thumb, one out with a suspension and the one out for the hit from behind.
Besides the final game, Olson said it was a successful season with the team only losing four games all regular season, a 20-game unbeaten streak, finishing first in the division in goals for, second in goals against and winning the north division in the regular season.
“We had a good group of kids too this year. They’re all pretty good friends,” said Olson. “They are a pretty close group too, which always helps.”
The team will lose more than half of their players next season because they have reached 17 years of age, which means they are now eligible for juniors.
The rest of the team may not all come back either, said Olson, with some possibly making the jump to AAA or going to juniors.
However, he said it should be a pretty good group next year, because of the players coming up in the league.