The dream season is over.
The Barrhead Midget ‘AA’ Steelers are not league champions after they dropped game four of their Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League championship series 8-3 to the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers on the road on April 1.
The loss meant the Steelers lost the best-of-five series three games to one, with two of the losses coming on home ice on March 22 and 27.
“It wasn’t the finish we wanted,” said coach Greg Schmidt. “But I’m still really proud of what we accomplished this year as a team.”
What a year it was. The Steelers began the year with the goal being to win everything they entered, and they nearly pulled it off.
“They had pretty high expectations of themselves, so they’re definitely disappointed over this,” Schmidt said.
Taking on the league’s third-ranked team in the Rangers, the Steelers threw everything they could at their opponents, but ultimately could not get the bounces they needed to come away with the win. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“I thought it was one of the tightest series we played in the playoffs,” Schmidt said. “I thought we were the better team in a lot of those games.”
When talking about at what point it became apparent the Steelers might not win the series, Schmidt said it was the March 27 game, a 4-3 home-ice loss in overtime. It was a game the Steelers led 3-0 before the game was 10 minutes old.
“It’s a tough one to bounce back from,” he said. “It takes the wind out of your sails for sure.”
It also meant the Steelers were trailing 2-1 in the series, when if they had held on for the win they would have taken a 2-1 lead into Sunday’s game four. It definitely changed the complexion of the series from their point of view, Schmidt said.
“You’re on the ropes,” he said. “One loss and you’re out.”
The loss was a disappointing end to what had been a very strong season for the Steelers. They finished the regular season with a 23-7-2 record to claim the regular season title by one point over the Northeast Panthers. The year included a season-opening 7-0-1 run that put them in first place in their division, a spot they would never relinquish.
They also had a strong performance at the Midget ‘AA’ Minor provincial tournament in Slave Lake March 16-18, coming home as silver medallists after dropping the final 4-1 to Okotoks.
Yet despite being unable to seal the deal at the end, Schmidt refused to categorize the season as anything less than a success.
“You want to win your last game, for sure, but sometimes it just doesn’t work,” he said.
Sure, the end wasn’t what they hoped for, or expected, but Schmidt said considering that the Steelers were playing teams from much larger urban centres, there was no reason to be ashamed of their final result.
“You still have to look back and say it was a heck of a good year,” he said.
The future
Next season is going to be a different kettle of fish for the Steelers, Schmidt said. With only six or seven of the 18 boys on the roster returning, it’s going to be a rebuilding year in 2012-2013.
The core of eight or nine graduating players has had tremendous success together in their years playing minor hockey, he said, and it’s going to be tough to lose them.
“They’re an exceptional group of athletes, that core group of eight or nine, that unfortunately played their last game of Midget Sunday night,” Schmidt said.
