Westlock’s Atom Selects continued their winning ways last weekend, but came up a goal short in the finals of the provincial ‘B’ championships in Blackfalds.
The locals went undefeated in the round-robin portion of the tournament and won their March 25 semi-final game against Gibbons’ CNN Spurs by a whopping 16-3 margin. In a tense final played later that same afternoon, the club dropped a 7-6 heartbreaker to the Ponoka Stampeders.
The Selects opened the provincial final strong, taking a 2-1 lead into the first period intermission. In the second, Ponoka came out on fire scoring three unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
In the third the clubs traded goals, with forward Blair Boulerice netting a hat trick in the final 20 minutes. The Selects fought back from a 5-2 deficit early in the third to give the Stampeders a good run for their money, but ultimately were unable to tie things up again.
“Things looked grim, but the kids battled back,” said assistant coach Darcy Romanuik. “A lot of teams could just psychologically shut it down, but we came back and we pushed.”
Westlock had a good chance near the end of the third period to tie things up, but unfortunately were stopped at the blue line and couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity.
“That was our best chance to pull even, but it never happened,” he said.
The Selects began the tournament, which ran March 22-25, Thursday night with a convincing 7-1 victory over the Beaverlodge Blades.
They continued to dominate the ice Friday by shelling the Coaldale Cobras 12-3, and despite not being as decisive a victory, their 8-5 Saturday afternoon over the Blackfalds Bulldogs was enough to get them into the semi-finals undefeated.
Some players have certainly stuck out of the crowd during the tournament. In the first game, Jaden Senkoe scored five goals, while Boulerice hit that mark in the second. Senkoe scored four of the team’s goals in the third game. In fact, Senkoe finished the weekend at the tourney’s second-leading scorer, notching 21 goals and 9 assists.
In the semi-final match, Cache Schiller put four goals on the scoreboard and Senkoe notched a jaw-dropping eight goals.
This wraps up the season for the Selects, and Romanuik said he’s happy with the way they developed over the season — losing a gold-medal game by a single goal after a strong third period is nothing to be ashamed of.
“The kids came a long way, and as a coaching staff we’re very proud of their accomplishments,” he said. “When all is said and done, we were one shot short.”
While this marks the end of the Minor Hockey season for these young athletes, not all of them are ready to hang up their skates for the summer.
Romanuik said Senkoe will play with Team Brick Alberta in April for an annual high-level tournament at West Edmonton Mall that draws athletes from all over the continent, while Boulerice has got involved with another AAA team for the spring.
Several of the players from the Selects will also take part in a three-on-three competition at the River Cree Casino in Edmonton, with the first matches taking place early in April.
