Bears upset Kings in HJHL first round

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

It’s about as tough of a loss that a hockey team can take.
Trailing 1-0 in the best-of-three Heritage Junior Hockey League South division quarterfinals, the Strathmore Wheatland Kings had their backs up against the wall, down 4-3 late in the third period at the Banff Recreation Centre.
That’s when the Kings leading scorer, Brooker Pretty Youngman, hopped over the boards as the extra attacker with the goalie pulled and parked himself in front of the net. Hayden Vanderploeg launched a shot from the point and the rebound sat nicely at Pretty Youngman’s feet. Whacking away, he tied the game with 47 seconds remaining, as the Kings bench erupted.
“We controlled the play for the third period and most of overtime. They just had a broken play, a two-on-two rush where they shot it, the rebound went through our defenseman’s legs right out to their guy,” described Kings assistant coach Braden Desmet.
That other guy was Banff Academy Bears leading scorer, Nathan Cohen-Wallis, who registered a pair of goals in the series opener.
“The room was obviously disappointed afterwards,” said Desmet. “This isn’t where we thought we were going to end up. We thought we had a pretty good chance against Banff. I’m proud of the way our guys came back and we were a couple coulda, shoulda, woulda’s away from evening the series back up.”
Indiana Kelly started between the pipes for the Kings after Brady Hoover was lifted in Game 1 after allowing three goals on eight shots. The rookie Kelly didn’t back down from the pressure cooker in the mountains, recording 38 stops in Game 2.
The vets stepped up when needed: Captain Keenan Ogle delivered the first two goals for the Kings, and Strathmore product Ryan Grasdahl brought his team within one at the 5:15 mark of the third period.
Matt Thomson returned to the lineup after serving his one-game suspension, but the Kings were still without George Montour and Nolan Lightning who were injured, and Brenden Moore was serving the third game of his three-game suspension.
It’s a Freaky Friday-type role reversal from the opening round of last year’s playoffs. The Kings were the lower seed that upset the Bears in two games.
The Kings were 3-1 against the Bears during the regular season.
For the Bears, they now advance to take on the division-leading Cochrane Generals in the Southern division best-of-seven semifinals.