SUBMITTED PHOTO Members of the Jasper Homes Hounds midget AA team in their last season or minor hockey pose Saturday with their coaches. Pictured are: Top row (from left) - Tyler Hodges (coach), Randy Wong (coach), Caleb Irvine, Kyden Moore, Cam Hall, Ty Olinski, Kevin Riehl (coach); Bottom row - Nate Hoffman, Kobyn Fritz, Connor Miller, Brady Dovichak.
The Jasper Homes Hounds celebrated their graduating players and then celebrated a couple wins at the Kinplex this past weekend.
With final-year stars Caleb Irvine, Kyden Moore, Cam Hall, Ty Olinski, Nate Hoffman, Kobyn Fritz, Connor Miller and Brady Dovichak honoured prior to the team’s final home game of the regular season Saturday, the fitting thing to do was to send them out in style.
Hoffman did his part in a 3-0 win over the Foothills Bisons, stopping all 29 shots that came his way.
Moore and Fritz had goals, Cayden Dumanowski had the other and the Medicine Hat midget AA hockey team outshot the Bisons 49-29.
The win followed a narrow 4-3 decision over the Taber Golden Suns Friday night. In that much rougher affair, Moore’s goal midway through the second period made it 4-1 but the Golden Suns didn’t quit, making for a close finish.
Dumanowski, Miller and Irvine had the other goals for the Hounds, who will host their South Conference playoffs the first weekend in March. At 23-5-4 they’ve clinched top spot with two games on the road to close the campaign.
Midget 15’s
A pair of losses mean the South East Tigers’ midget 15-year-old club wasn’t able to climb in the standings, but the good news is they’ve got one more chance.
The Tigers fell 7-5 to the Calgary Canucks Saturday and 5-3 at home to the Calgary Stampeders Sunday. They remain a point back of the seventh-place Rangers with one game left in the regular season, Saturday, 2:15 p.m. at Hockey Hounds against the Bruins.
On Saturday the Tigers led 5-2 with eight minutes to go before the Canucks began their comeback with a shorthanded marker, got the winner with 2:34 left and added an empty-netter.
Josh Drefs had two goals, Kyle Woolridge had a goal and two assists and both Daniel Ganert and Ty Flaig had a goal and a helper in the loss. Landon Porteous made 23 saves.
Sunday was a similar story, this time a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes evaporating in a span of 5:20 during which the Stampeders scored two power play goals and a third to make it 4-2. Aiden Ma got the home team to within a goal with 5:37 left but an empty-netter sealed the Tigers’ fate. Ganert and Taiga Hernandez also scored while Kaiden Morin made 32 saves.
Midget girls
The Southern Express midget girls team beat Red Deer 5-0 Saturday and 6-1 Sunday, securing home ice advantage in the first round of their playoffs in March.
Medicine Hat’s Hayley Whelen made 27 for the shutout Sunday, following Irvine’s Devyn Amundson’s 17-save performance Saturday.
Two Hat players found the score sheet, including Maddy King Saturday and Kennedy King with two Sunday.
Bantam AAA
Playoffs start tonight for the bantam AAA Tigers.
The South East Athletic Club team heads to Airdrie to play the Xtreme in the opener of a best-of-three series.
Game 2 is Thursday, 7:15 p.m. at Hockey Hounds. If needed, Game 3 is slated for Friday in Airdrie.
SEAC prepped for the playoffs with one final regular season game Sunday in Okotoks, beating the Oilers 6-4.
Dawson Seitz capped the win with a hat trick goal in the final minutes. Caleb Garrecht, Sammy Hynes and Deegan Kinniburgh also scored for the Tigers while Silas Currie made 31 saves.
Head-to-head against Airdrie, each team registered a home ice win and the other two regular season games ended in ties. The Xtreme got home ice advantage for the series by virtue of a couple more ties, their 11-17-5 record just two points ahead of SEAC’s 11-17-3.
Jayden Gallant led Airdrie with 28 points in 33 games. All-star defenceman Josh Van Mulligen had 27 points in 31 games for South East.
The other first-round series in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League’s Ram South Division will play its games on the same three dates, with top seed Red Deer hosting Lethbridge.
Bantam AA
The Medicine Hat Hounds bantam AA team are also in playoffs this weekend, headed to Lethbridge for their South Central Alberta Hockey League South finals.
The Hounds were shut out twice to close the regular season, 6-0 Saturday by West Central and 3-0 Sunday versus Airdrie at Hockey Hounds Recreation Centre.
They’ll face Lethbridge Thursday to begin playoffs, then have games Friday against Taber and Wheatland. The fourth seed in the conference, Medicine Hat finished 9-19-6 in the regular season.
Peewee AA
In peewee AA, Medicine Hat Black tied Wheatland 3-3 Sunday in Bassano. Ryan Miller’s second of the day secured the draw, while Ty Wasyluk also scored and Kolter Gans made 28 saves.
Orange earned a 5-2 home win over Chestermere Friday, getting goals from Cash Olson, Grady Ford, Josiah Jackson, Brayden Weiss and Joey Clarke. Adam Ranger made 28 saves.
Black is third in their conference at 17-8-4, while Orange is two points back with a 17-10-2 record. Both have a weekend left before playoffs in March.
