It was turning into a great Friday night.
The Agrena score clock read 4-1 to the Steelers at the end of the second period, and it seemed the Bujolds could do no wrong. Brett had already scored a hat-trick, while Brad had also found the target.
Then something began to go wrong. Complacency? Possibly. Loss of discipline? Apparently. Too defensive? Certainly.
The third period belonged to Edson, who laid siege to the Steelers’ goalmouth, playing with admirable self-belief.
Inevitably, the pressure told. The Steelers’ defence began to buckle and 4-1 ended 4-4.
The result was hard for head coach Jason Murrell to swallow.
For two periods he had seen his charges play scintillating hockey against quality opponents who had pounded them 5-0 in Edson on Oct. 13. Then he watched them throw their good work away.
“We fell into a defensive shell a little bit and tried to protect our lead,” he said. “We took a few bad penalties and let them back into the game, and never could recover from it.
“We tried telling them ‘keep playing the way you have been in the first two periods, keep playing,’ but it’s almost second nature when you are ahead to protect your lead. It usually doesn’t work and tonight it didn’t work either.”
Murrell said the Steelers were guilty of too many undisciplined penalties.
“Edson also took a lot of penalties, but they capitalized on them and got goals on their power plays and we didn’t do so,” he said.
Murrell said his message to his players was to stay out of the penalty box and focus on the basics of hockey.
“We want them to play more as a team than as individuals,” he said.
“We also want them to keep their foot on the gas pedal throughout a game and just keep going.”
Murrell said there were positives from the game.
“In our first game against them we didn’t play well at all.
“Tonight we played a lot better, but we shouldn’t have let them back in.
“Still it is early in the year and hopefully they will learn from this. The mood in the dressing room now is a bit disappointed, and rightfully so. If they were happy then I would be disappointed.”
The Steelers are playing this season in Midget Tier 1 in the North Central Alberta Hockey League because there were not enough teams to compete against in 1660.
As well as Edson and Whitecourt, their tier includes Innisfail Kinsmen Flyers, Maskwacis Midget A Chiefs, Ponoka Midget Wolves, Red Deer Kings, Stettler Legion and Rocky Royals.
It means the Steelers will be travelling a lot more this year as they test their skills against tough opposition.
“There is a lot higher quality of hockey, I guess,” said Murrell. “We learn from that. You don’t learn from beating teams by 8 goals. You learn from games like the one we played tonight.”
It had all looked so promising when Brett Bujold scored at 19:36 of the first period. At 18:23 it was Brad’s turn to find the net, this time with the help of Aaron Wharton and Declan Kummer.
In the second period, Brett doubled his account with goal at 9:28. After Matthew Como had scored for Edson, Brett completed his hat-trick at 1:11.
The Steelers were in cruise control … and that may have been the problem. They couldn’t find a higher gear when Edson hit back.
On Saturday, the Steelers roared back into winning form, downing Whitecourt 5-2 on the road. Brad Bujold netted twice, while Nick Perdaems, Jordan Smith and Koby Adams also scored.
A week earlier the Steelers had beaten Whitecourt 7-2 at the Agrena.
After four games the Steelers have a record of two victories, one tie and one loss.
Next up for the Steelers is an away game against Ponoka Wolves on Nov. 2.
