Braves defeated in Semis; Chiefs struggled

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Braves had a solid showing at provincials in Olds from March 19-22.
The local double-A peewee team went 2-2-1 in the tournament and fell to a much bigger and better Wainwright Polar Kings squad in the semi-final, losing 6-3.
“They’re a big and strong team that were fast. They played to their skill and shot and passed the puck well, not much wrong with that team,” said Braves head coach Keith Klemmensen. “I thought we hung in there, it was 2-1 for us after two periods, guys were back checking hard and working hard.
“Jackson Berry was in goal and was outstanding, but realistically in third period they got a goal early and another one shortly thereafter. (We) tried to call a time out to stop the leak, but it wasn’t going to happen against a good team.
“We did have some push back getting a goal to make it 5-3, but it wasn’t going to happen against the best peewee team I’ve seen all year.”
In the round robin he felt that at times there were glimpses of promise.
“In our 2-1 loss to Grande Prairie in the round robin, got outworked and that was enough,” said Klemmensen. “We outplayed them the rest of the game, but we just allowed them a couple of goals in the first period that we shouldn’t have. We also tied Okotoks 2-2 in the round robin.”
Their only victories came against Springbank (5-2 win) and Beaumont (9-0 win).
He was proud of how his team did, considering almost half of his players were in their first year.
“You have to remember that there is seven first-year guys on this team and I’ll bet you that nobody else up there had (that many) first-year guys on their team,” said Klemmensen. “These guys did the best they could and there is going to be some guys that are returning next year that are going to be that much better,”
Meanwhile, the Wheatland Chiefs had a very rough go of it at provincials on the same weekend in Red Deer.
The boys ended up finishing eighth out of 10 teams with a record of 1-2-1.
Head coach Devin Olson thought they were out of sync all weekend and just did not get results.
“We didn’t play good and had a hard time with schedule – like we were the only team to play four games in two days and we were in a pretty tough,” said Olson.
The local double-A midget team was down a defensemen due to suspension, which made it tougher on the team.
“We were tired and Grady Strath, one of our d-men, got suspended in a game and we were down to four defensemen the last game,” said Olson.
The Chiefs will forget about dreadful provincials as they still have a chance at a league title.
Play resumes this weekend back in Red Deer with Games 3 and 4 slated for March 27 and 28 at 7:45 p.m., with the series tied at one.