BARRHEAD - The Barrhead Steelers are advancing to the third round of the Northern Alberta Interlock (NAI) U18 Tier playoffs after a pair of victories against their division rivals, the Mayerthorpe Mustangs.
Barrhead earned the right to play Mayerthorpe by defeating Hinton in the first round. Going into the series, the Steelers held the edge in the regular season with a two-win, one-loss and one-tie record.
In the first game of the total-point series on March 3 in Mayerthorpe, the Steelers won convincingly 8-2 before playing to a 4-4 tie the next night in front of a sizeable crowd at the Barrhead Agrena.
Head coach Stephen Kaplan said the Steelers deserved full credit for their victory in the first game.
"They just played outstanding," he said, noting it was the best game they played of the playoffs so far. "The shots were something like 56-24, and we played well at all at both ends of the ice. It was just a complete game."
He noted if it had not been for the strong play of the Mayerthope goaltender Matt Moon, the Steelers might have gone into the second game with even a larger cushion.
The top point-getter in Game 1 for the Steelers was Tyler Rentz with five points, scoring three goals and assisting on two others, followed by linemate Carter Greilach with two goals. Jett Parks, Tyler Erickson, Kyle Devries and Tayson Hallock added to Barrhead's offensive totals, with the first three scoring goals, while Hallock assisted on Park's goal in the second period.
William Bain got the start in net for Barrhead, stopping 22 out of 24 shots for the win.
Going into the second game, Kaplan said the coaching staff emphasized the importance of not letting up on the gas.
He noted there is always a danger in a two-game, total point series when one team gets a large lead in the first game and fails to focus on the task at hand in the second.
"We did not want that to happen and emphasized that this was a new game and we were starting from scratch," Kaplan said, adding he liked how the Steelers came out in the first period.
Although Mayerthorpe held Barrhead off the score sheet in the opening frame, the Steelers had the territorial advantage spending a large percentage of the period in the offensive zone and a 16-8 shot advantage.
Kaplan said he felt the Steelers came out flat in the second period, but it was still Barrhead that would hit the scoreboard first about seven minutes into the period when Carsen Anderson hit the twine with assists going to Carter Greilach and Magnus Anderson.
The Mustangs responded just over a minute later with their own goal, tieing the game at 1-1, and then would take the lead another two minutes later when Barrhead coughed up the puck in their zone, which the Mustangs would intercept.
Less than two minutes later, Barrhead would end up in penalty trouble after Barrhead player received a double major penalty for head contact and an attempt to injure (he also received two game misconducts) when he retaliated for a hard hit by a Mayerthorpe player in the right corner in the Barrhead zone. As a result of the hit, both players fell to the ice face down, but as Barrhead player got up, he gave a forearm to the back of the Mustang player's head, and as he was skating away, he made a kicking motion towards the Mayerthorpe player who was still facedown on the ice.
Barrhead settled down and, for the first half of the double major penalties, did a good job keeping Mayerthorpe to the outside, blocking the majority if not all, of the Mustangs' shot attempts.
However, in the closing stages of the penalties, Mayerthorpe managed to get some shots on the net and finally capitalize on the two-skater advantage.
Barrhead would close the gap about three minutes later. Kayden Rentz did some good forechecking, winning a battle for the puck behind the net and scoring on a wrap-around. Greilach and Trent Gravel received assists on the play.
Unfortunately for Barrhead, Mayerthorpe responded shortly afterwards in the last minute of the period.
In the third period, the Steelers won the offensive battle scoring the only two goals, the first by Greilach, assisted by Kyle DeVries and Rentz at the four-minute mark. The second was an unassisted marker by Rentz with 3:30 to go in the game.
Kaplan noted he was pleased that his team was able to refocus after the double major in the second period and win the battle in the final period to tie the game.
"Overall, we played a good game. Once again, the offence was there. We had over 50 (53 compared to Mayerthrope's 20) shots for the second night, but we had some moments when we played a little lacklustre that we want to clean up."
In the next round, Barrhead will face Drayton Valley. The Steelers will play in Drayton Valley on Friday and at the Barrhead Agrena on Saturday starting at 5:30 p.m.
