With Hockey Alberta’s planned changes to the residency structure for the AA program slated to occur in the fall, the loss Saturday night will certainly be the last for the North Central Midget AA Bulls program.
Like every team in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League, the Bulls made the playoffs and took on Wetaskiwin in the best of three divisional quarterfinal series on the weekend. The club gave it a valiant effort Friday on the road, falling 6-5, but weren’t able to duplicate the effort on home ice at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex on Saturday and saw their season conclude losing 9-1.
In Game one, the Bulls kept pace with Wetaskiwin goal for goal over most of the first two periods with markers from Zach Bendall in the first followed by Treyton Tangedal and Tyson Tymo in the middle frame.
The contest remained 3-3 until Bendall notched his second goal of the game with a little more than eight minutes to go in third. The Bulls doubled their lead two minutes later on a goal by Josh Payuk, a call-up from one of Athabasca’s bantam teams.
Unfortunately, the Bulls couldn’t hold on and allowed three goals in a span of two minutes and 47 seconds in the final six minutes and weren’t able to find the equalizer.
“We really played hard Friday, but for that three minute stretch where we seemed to get put back on our heels, we would have pushed them to a third game,” said Bulls head coach Jody Tangedal.
In Saturday’s game, the Bulls got off to a terrible start and were down 4-0 halfway through the first period. Iver Steffes got the club’s only goal with 22 second remaining that same frame on a powerplay.
“Falling that far behind that early made coming back very daunting,” he said.
“All season we had small stretches where we would give up two or three and that would be the difference.
“Looking back over the year, the effort was there and that, as a coach, is all you can ask. I’m proud of how the boy’s stuck together through some challenging times. It was a true measure of their character.”
And it’s extremely disappointing for Tangedal and many of the players that they won’t be able to play together next season, as it could have been a wonderful season with all of the players eligible to come back.
However, Hockey Alberta will soon be settling on new boundaries for the AA programs around the province, meaning nearly half the team would have to play elsewhere next year and the Athabasca contingent would have to travel to Slave Lake to tryout and play, a distance some have stated they can’t do.
