BARRHEAD – Another Barrhead team is packing its bags and getting ready for the Alberta Provincial Hockey Championships.
From March 24-27 in Provost, the U15 Pirates will be competing for the Tier 3 provincial championships after qualifying for one of two wildcard positions.
The season did not start as well as it ended though, said coach Steven Kaplan.
"We did not get off to the best start," he said, noting that during the month-long tiering process at the beginning of the season, the Pirates finished with a 2-4 record.
And while the coaching staff believed that they should be in Tier 3, because of their record, there was some discussion by NAI officials to bump them down to Tier 4.
However, Kaplan said they knew their early record was not indicative of their skill level, noting that three of four losses were to teams that ended up playing in the top two tiers.
After losing the first game of the regular season, the Pirates managed to put together an impressive five-game winning streak that included defeating a team that had beaten them 10-5 in the preseason.
"We then went on to finish the rest of the regular season with an eight-win and four-loss record to win our (North) division title," he said. "We had some really good, spirited competition. Mayerthorpe and Hinton (from the West Division) were our best rivals, trading wins."
During the NAI playoffs, the top 10 teams were divided into two pools to play a four-game mini-round robin tournament, with the top two teams advancing to the medal rounds.
The Pirates went undefeated, outscoring their opponents by 24 to 12.
In the first game of the two-game medal round, Barrhead faced Wetaskiwin, a team that led their division with a 15-1 record and placed second in the opposing playoff pool.
In a closely contested match-up, the Pirates won the game 4-3, in a game that featured a hat trick by Cash Gibert.
Unfortunately, the Pirates couldn't capitalize on their momentum and fell to Bashaw in the championship 8-2, to take the silver banner.
"Unfortunately, in the first game, we lost one of our better players, Tanner Harrison, to injury after taking a knee-on-knee hit. The loss was quite significant to us."
The good news is that Harrison will be back in the lineup in time for provincials.
Kaplan said this season also posed some unique challenges, most of them due to the pandemic.
Perhaps the most challenging to overcome was the prolonged break, with most players not having been on the ice for an entire season.
"For this age group, that is pretty significant because this is the age when they introduce body checking," he said.
Kaplan added that at the U13 level, the Barrhead Minor Hockey Association (BMHA) normally holds a checking clinic at the end of the year to help prepare players for the next season.
"With having no season last year, that meant we had to introduce two years of players to body contact," he said.
Kaplan added that was the reason why they did not want to see the team bumped down to Tier 4, saying it would have delayed players' development for another year as at the U13 level, only the top three tiers allow body checking.
"It takes a bit of time, and it is a progression until players learn how to body check and absorb physical contact," he said, adding many players also have to fight the tendency to want to paste people into the boards.
"By Christmas, most players have got it figured out, and know when the coach says body check, it does not mean knock someone over, but bump them, or get in their way."
The Pirates also sported the luxury of carrying a large roster with 19 players. It also meant when the team was hit with that inevitable illness or the need to self-isolate, they still had plenty of bodies to hit the ice.
Following a few days off after their playoff success, the Pirates were back on the ice.
"For the most part, it will be business as usual and try to learn from our last game on areas of our game that we need to work on and keep our fitness level up," he said. "We also want to work on our special teams and other unique game situations. For instance, in the championship game against Bashaw, they had an interesting set play off the faceoff, which they used very successfully scoring two or three goals against us."
Kaplan also wished to thank the community for their continued support.
"We are very fortunate how much Barrhead Minor Hockey and the community have supported us. Several businesses have offered to sponsor us. That is of great help as we plan for provincials," he said.
The Pirates will be leaving for provincials on March 24, with their first game being the next day at 8:30 a.m.
