Turning a huge negative into a positive was key to the local Midget AA hockey club finally being able to make a good looking mark in the standings.
The North Central AA Bulls were trounced 13-3 at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex on Saturday night by Wetaskiwin, but followed that Sunday afternoon in Slave Lake by coming back from an early 3-0 first period deficit to earn their first point of the season with a 6-6 tie.
“It was nice. We really needed that point,” said Bulls head coach Jody Tangedal.
A slow start by the team — likely due to some nerves due to missing three key players, according the Tangedal — led to the Bulls getting down three goals, include one on the powerplay, in only the first four minutes.
However, the Bulls put their heads down and charged forward, getting some big goals and some even bigger saves from goaltender Scott Danyluk to go up 4-3 later in the frame.
Shaun Funk got things going eight and a half minutes into the first with only his second of the season, followed 41 seconds later by Shane Witney potting his seventh of the year into the net.
Slave Lake continued to get bull-rushed as Derek Greene got his third of the season to tie it up with five and a half minutes remaining in the first on the powerplay.
That was followed by a spectacular goal by Sean Greene to give the Bulls the lead with just under three minutes left in the opening frame.
“Our defence settled in and Sean Greene had the bench all jacked up with a double dangle at full speed before he went top shelf,” Tangedal said.
The hometown Thunder would calm things down a bit, tying it up 4-4 on the powerplay with only 18 seconds left on the clock to close out a high scoring 20 minutes.
All of that offence seemed to wear both teams out, as there were no more goals until Sean Greene with his second of game and third on the year gave the Bulls the lead a little more than six minutes into the third.
Jackson Roth put the Bulls up by a pair with just over seven minutes left, but they were unable to hang on as Slave Lake would get a shorthanded goal two minutes later and then complete the comeback by notching one with less than two minutes remaining.
Tangedal said while the win would have been great, the team showed the league and themselves that they are able to compete at this level.
However, it also made the team realize that they need to continue to work hard in practice and bring what they learn to the games.
“They need to continue to work on what the coaches are teaching and implement that into their games, especially on defence since Rylan Durrell is our only one true defenceman,” explained Tangedal, who added the rest have all been converted from forward and are still learning the position.
Which made things a bit dicey Sunday, as Durrell was knocked out off Saturday game at home and forwards Zach Bendal and Brett Flynn missed both contests nursing injuries.
“Saturday, we got off to a slow start and it really put us on our heels. Although the shots were even, we played terrible positional hockey,” he said.
“They never quit, but it was a lesson to play smarter, not harder.”
The Bulls in Morinville Saturday to face the Sturgeon Mustangs (2 p.m.) before hosting Whitecourt in at the Bold Centre in Lac La Biche Sunday at 2 p.m.
