The Barrhead Steelers are one step closer to their eventual goal of becoming the Provincial Midget A champions.
On Monday, Feb. 9, the Steelers defeated the Edson Sabres, 4 to 3, at the Agrena to move on to the third round of the provincial playoffs.
To qualify for the Midget A Provincial Championship, the Steelers must win three qualifying rounds.
Each qualifying round is a two game home and home total point series. In a home and home series, each team gets to play one game in their home rink where wins as well as goals count towards advancement. Like any type of playoff series wins are the first criteria, but if the teams both have one win, then the total number of goals a team scored is used as a tiebreaker.
On Feb. 3, the Steelers series won the first game of the series, 4 to 1 in Edson, thus taking what effectively was a three goal lead into Monday’s game.
It was clear right from the puck drop the Steelers were not going to need that advantage.
Although Edson held a shot advantage in every period, the Steelers never trailed at any point in the game.
In an evenly played period, the Steelers took the first lead of the game during a power play on a goal by Tanner Whiting close to the midway mark of the first period.
Whiting increased the Steelers lead to 2 to 0 by scoring on a breakaway on a partial deke, beating Edson goaltender Jesse Thompson top glove side at about the eight minute mark of the second period.
Edson narrowed Barrhead’s lead to one when Chad McCartney scored less than two minutes later.
Barrhead restored their two goal lead scoring on the power play with five minutes remaining in the period with a goal by Brad Bujold.
At the end of the second period the Steelers led the game 3 to 1.
In the third period, Edson turned up the heat in an effort to get back into the game, especially early in the period, edging the Steelers in territorial play and in shots on goal.
At about the four minute mark, Edson narrowed down Barrhead’s lead to two with a goal by Aaron Stang. Lucas Weeks restored the Steeler’s two-goal lead about five minutes later. Edson narrowed Barrhead’s lead scoring their last goal of the game with nine minutes left to play.
Jason Murrell, Steelers head coach, said the game was never in doubt.
“We really played a strong team game,” he said. “Edson has a really strong skating team with a couple of very talented players that we were able to shut down.”
Murrell said the coaching staff was pleased with how well the team played on special teams.
“We have been working hard on our special teams. Especially on our power play at practice and tonight it paid off,” he said. “I think we were two for four on the power play and once again we were perfect on our penalty kill.”
In the next round of the provincial playoffs, the Steelers will face a team from Whitecourt.
Murrell said he likes the teams chances going into the series against Whitecourt, adding that the team is playing a strong team game and are healthy, despite a few close calls near the end of the game against Edson.
In the third period, Murrell said the Edson team started to take a few liberties with the Steelers players, when it was clear they were not going to advance to the next round of the provincial playoffs.
An especially scary point was when Declan Kummer slid head first into the boards after being hit from behind by an Edson player.
“He is OK, and besides the usual bumps and bruises you would expect at this time of year from players playing at this level, we are totally healthy.”
Although Whitecourt has a Junior A team with three midget feeder teams, Murrell said the team is very similar to the one they just faced.
“We have more than a decent chance against Whitecourt,” Murrell said. “I totally expect to win the series.”
In the first round of the provincial tournament qualifiers the Steelers defeated St. Albert in two straight games by a score of 3 to 2 and 6 to 1 respectively.
