Exciting hockey season winds up for another year

Page 6

When it comes to hockey, winning is never an easy feat. Just ask the 171 teams that converged on Edmonton's major sheets of ice for this year's Alberta Native Provincial Hockey Championships, April 4 to 7.

Atoms to Midgets turned up to show what a force they could be. They came out smoking, gunning for a win.

And win was precisely what the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement Midget A team did as they peppered the Saddle Lake Warriors 10 -zip in their opening game at the Callingwood Arena. Paddle Prairie was undefeated in the double knockout tourney, only to face the Warriors again in the final gold medal round at the Clareview Recreation Centre on Sunday night, April 7.

Paddle Prairie proved their might again as repeat winners, comfortably stick-handling their way to provincial supremacy in the premier division, Midget A, with a 5-1 victory.

The key, to any observer present, was the team's ability to read the ice, pass and control that black chunk of rubber and, yes, put it in the net. Paddle Prairie's team captain, Logan Goodswimmer, won the MVP award.

Sadly, in the dying minutes of the first period of that match-up, a teenage girl from St. Paul was struck on the forehead and likely had to take a few stitches. She was taken to hospital and Sweetgrass was unable to get an update on her condition at press time.

A few other unbalanced wins was the 10-0 humiliation by Kainai over Hobbema in Bantam B, the 9-2 defeat by Sunchild over the Edmonton Sled Dogs for Atom A gold, the 9-2 victory by Calling Lake over Siksika for Bantam B bronze, the 10-4 win by the Paul band over Alexis for bronze in PeeWee B, and the 6-0 drubbing by the East Prairie Metis in Midget B for gold over Kehewin.

At the other extreme was Horse Lake's thrilling 5-4 overtime win against Alexander for PeeWee bronze. Tied at four goals each, the teams went a round of overtime, then continued into second OT until they were down to one forward each. In a futile gamble, the Alexander team pulled their goalie and sent two forwards against Horse Lake's single forward and goalie. The two-on-one effort proved unwise as Horse Lake's captain and forward, Carl Horseman, stole the puck and, from his own blue line, fired it between his opponents to send the puck dead-centre into the empty net. Needless to say, his Horse Lake teammates went spilling over the boards and swarmed all over Horseman in an emotional over his excellent winning play.

Another cherished win was that of the Gift Lake team that took gold over Dene Tha in the Bantam B Bear division. The story here is the fact that the Gift Lakers were only a PeeWee team but, because there weren't enough teams to compete at that level, they had to move up a notch. Their goalie, Dallas Ungurian, went undefeated throughout the tournament.

Medal winners:

Atom A: Alexander, Bear Hills and Fort McMurray.

Atom B: Wolf Div. - Sunchild, Edmonton Sled Dogs, Little Red River; Bear Div. - Kainai, Gift Lake, North Peace; Buffalo Div. - Wabasca, Stoney, Tsuu T'ina.

PeeWee B: Bear Div. - Peavine Settlement, Stoney, Horse Lake; Wolf Div. - Saddle Lake, Enoch, Tsuu T'ina; Buffalo Div. - Siksika, Kikino, Paul band.

Bantam A: Saddle Lake, Treaty 7, Gift Lake.

Bantam B: Bear Div. - Gift Lake, Dene Tha, Stoney; Wolf Div. - Southwest Chiefs, Hobbema, Calling Lake; Buffalo Div. - Sturgeon Lake, Kehewin, Kainai.

Novice: Eagle Div. - Goodfish, Alexander, Peavine; Bear Div. - Little Red River, Peigan, Tsuu T'ina; Wolf Div. - Gift Lake, Hobbema, Saddle Lake.

Midget A: Paddle Prairie, Saddle Lake, Alexis.

Midget B: Bear Div. - East Prairie, Kehewin, Kikino; Wolf Div. - Kainai, Siksika.

Girls 13 and under: Alexis, Sturgeon, Stoney.

Girls 14 and over: Peavine, Tsuu T'ina, Stoney.