Finding the right mix on a hockey team can be a challenge at the best of times.
For North Central AA Bulls head coach Jody Tangedal, that task has been made even harder with a few players still on Midget AAA tryouts and some local players wishing to pursue other interests.
However, Tangedal is playing with the cards he’s been dealt and, overall, he has been somewhat taken aback by what the team has shown.
“I was pleasantly surprised with our team depth and talent level,” Tangedal said following this past weekend’s tryout tournament held at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
“Some recent additions have really strengthened our defence and our forwards will be able to compete with most teams.”
As for the tournament, the results were not as Tangedal would have hoped for.
However, they certainly weren’t as bad as they could have been.
The Bulls opened things up on Saturday morning against the Slave Lake Thunder, falling by a score of 7-5.
Three goals in a two-minute span early in the first period from Treyton Tangedal, Alvin Halter and Tyson Tymo got the Bulls rolling. However, the Thunder got some life scoring two goals in the final three minutes of the frame.
The Thunder would tie it early in the second before Chase Caldwell put the Bulls up 4-3 with five minutes gone in the middle frame. Slave Lake scored twice more by the halfway mark of the contest, only to have the Bulls’ Lance Kotovich tie it less than two minutes later on a great effort to fight off a defender and backhand a shot upstairs to finish their scoring.
That night, a tired-looking Bulls club took one on the chin from the Northeast Panthers, losing 12-3. Brett Flynn, Tymo and Shaun Funk scored for the Bulls.
The Bulls lost 7-6 Sunday morning to Fort McMurray, battling back from a 4-1 first period deficit to tie the game 5-5 with just over two minutes to go in the middle stanza.
Funk got the Bulls’ lone first period tally, while Kotovich, Caldwell, Tymo and Flynn scored in the second that included three goals in a span of two and half minutes late in the period.
Fort McMurray took the lead early in the third, but Flynn replied with his second of the game just 32 seconds later to tie it at 6-6.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, Fort McMurray would score with just over three minutes left to earn the victory and a berth in the final.
That pitted the Bulls against Slave Lake in the third place game later Sunday and, as it turned out, the Bulls found another gear to pull out a 7-6 victory.
Caldwell, Josh Payuk and Sean Greene put the puck in the net for the Bulls, sandwiched between a pair of Slave Lake markers in the first to take the lead.
The teams traded goal for goal in the second with the Bulls heading to the third up 6-5, courtesy of goals by Ryan Durell, Ross McGilvray and Funk.
Things got dicey four minutes into the third when Slave Lake tied the game.
The Bulls had a glorious opportunity later in the frame, when Tymo was awarded a penalty shot, but couldn’t convert.
However, with seven minutes remaining Halter got the game-winner via a shot from about 40 feet out which found its way through a crowd of players and into the back of the net.
Charge it
The Bulls begin their Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League (NAMHL) regular season with a pair of games on the road – starting Saturday against the Parkland Saints in Spruce Grove, followed by a trip to Wetaskiwin on Oct. 4.
The club will hold their home opener on Oct. 5 at the Bold Centre in Lac La Biche versus Fort Saskatchewan. Game time is set for 2 p.m.
