It was another golden night at Jubilee Arena March 21 as the Pee Wee Ice scored a 6-4 win over the Vegreville Wranglers to win the 1660 Tier 5 League championship.
“It feels good,” said coach Don Medcke. “The boys worked hard and they got exactly what they deserved.”
The Ice came into the game, the second of a two-game total-goals series, with a one-goal lead after winning Game 1 by a 5-4 score on March 19 in Mundare. At the end, the team took the series by a total of 11-8.
Game 2 started well for the Ice when Zachary Lafontaine scored 4:33 into the first period with assists from Isiah Blanchette and Robert Bokenfohr. The Ice would increase that lead at 13:44 when Nick Schwarz scored, with Ryan Hoogewoonink and Lafontaine drawing the assists. Those two goals gave the Ice a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
The second period proved to be a tougher challenge for the Ice, as the Wranglers got on the board 2:33 in to trim the lead to 2-1. Cole Medcke would get that one back at 4:58 to restore the two-goal lead on assists from Schwarz and Dylan Wolfe. However, that would be it for the Ice in the period, as the Wranglers scored twice more to knot the game 3-3 after two periods.
Cole Medcke got the Ice off and running in the third, making it 4-3 by potting his second of the game 1:06 into the period, assisted by Schwarz. From there, Schwarz continued his dominance of the game, scoring his second goal unassisted at 5:10 and completing the hat trick at 7:22, with Alex DeKock and Cole Medcke earning assists.
For the game, Schwarz was the offensive catalyst with five points (3G, 2A), followed by Cole Medcke’s three points (2G, 1A) and Lafontaine’s two points (1G, 1A).
“It was really close and very tough,” said Don Medcke. “Vegreville’s a really good team and they made it hard for us. It wasn’t easy by any stretch because they never quit.”
He added the fact the Ice won both games made the win feel that much better.
Captain Nick Schwarz said the win felt good because the Wranglers had beaten the Ice during the regular season.
Assistance captain Ryan Hoogewoonink said the win meant a lot to him, but more for other members of the team.
“It was good to win for the guys on the team who have never won anything before,” he said.
Medcke said he hopes the boys remember this feeling as they move through the rest of their minor hockey lives.
“I wasn’t sure the boys would understand what it was like until they did it,” he said. “Now they have.”
He said he’s proud of the work the kids and coaches did to get to this point. “It was a total group effort,” he said.
