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The Cranbrook Ice took an entertaining, albeit stressful route, to the Tier II midget provincials semi-finals last night.
They needed a win over the Vanderhoof Bears to secure second spot in the A Division. Despite a harried last couple of minutes, the Ice did prevail 6-5.
They finished the round robin with a 1-1-1 record, having tied Quesnel 3-3 on Sunday, and lost 4-2 to Westside on Monday morning.
“We struggled our first game, and I thought we had a really good second game, and that was a team win (last night). All the kids worked hard,” said Ice head coach Derrick Anderson.
One of the hardest workers was goaltender Fraser Abdallah, who faced more than 50 shots for Cranbrook.
“Our tender kept us in there when we needed him to keep us in there. He did really well,” said Anderson.
Dane Carlson scored three minutes into the game to give Cranbrook a lead they’d grow accustomed to.
Curtis Martin made it 2-0 before David Makin replied for Vanderhoof at 10:35.
Connor McLuckie restored the two-goal cushion early in the second, but another goal from Makin was followed a minute later by a marker from Justin Alessandrini and the game was tied.
The Ice struck back by period’s end with Martin and Frank Abbott doing the damage.
The score remained 5-3 for most of the final frame, until Matthew Naka punched in a goalmouth scramble at 17:07 to draw the Bears back within one.
Cranbrook stormed back, with Martin taking the puck into the Bears’ zone, pulling up on the wing and passing to Austin Richter, who had snuck behind a Vanderhoof defender. Richter converted on the play at 18:35.
Vanderhoof pulled their goalie after the next faceoff, and Cranbrook missed a couple of chances to score on the open cage.
Makin scored his hat trick goal on another mad scramble with 11 seconds remaining, but the Bears could manage no more.
“They beat Quesnel, the team that tied us and gave us everything they could muster,” said Anderson. “We wanted to put as much traffic in front of their net and limit the shots, which didn’t seem to work since Fraser (had to play) unbelievable for us.”
The Ice are back in action this afternoon, playing B division-topping Mission at the Memorial Arena. The puck drops at 4:15.
“They’re a big, aggressive team. Our team can play aggressive too. We’re a little short-manned right now with a couple of key injuries, but our kids are pretty gutsy. We’ll be okay,” said Anderson.
Josh McSkimming was out with a neck strain; Connor Kutzner hasn’t been available after breaking his arm in league playoff play last week.
The Ice lost Game 3 of their South Central Alberta league best-of-three series against Brooks by a score of 3-2 on Saturday, with the winner coming late in the game.
Anderson said the provincials have given the boys a chance to end the season on a better note.
“At the end of the year, you’re always sorry to leave the team behind and go your separate ways, but this is a good chance for us to play these last few games. We’ve got a couple of older kids that are done their midget careers.”
There is no shortage of scouts in attendance, and Anderson said his players are showing they have what it takes to play at a different level.
“When you’ve got a short-staffed crew like we do right now, scouts tend to see the kids that are standing up and wanting to be on the ice all the time, that’s what they’re looking for,” he said. “You can say they’re looking at the skilled kids, but if the kids haven’t got heart, then they’re probably no good to anybody. We’ve got a bunch of kids with a lot of heart.”
