The Stettler Lightning’s season came to an end over the long weekend in Didsbury after dropping the final two games of the series to the Mountainview Colts.
The Bolts won the first game in Didsbury on Valentine’s Day, but could not pick up wins at home on Saturday, or back in Didsbury on Sunday.
When asked about the series, Head Coach Rory Rost says, “It stings, it’s disappointing to end the season this way. The whole series came down to whoever scored the last goal.”
“It’s always disappointing to lose, but I told the boys there’s a lot more teams that lose their last game of the year, than win their last game of the year. If you win your last game, it means you’ve either won the league, or won provincials. Everyone else has lost their last game of the year.”
“On the flip-side, we would have been up against Red Deer in a best of five, and we haven’t beat them all year. It would have been really, really tough to beat them in a five game series.”
Meantime, Mountainview moves on to the best of five North Division Semi Final against the Red Deer Vipers. Game One will be on Saturday, February 24th in Red Deer.
The Lightning will also be saying farewell to three of their players after this season. Goaltender Jordan McCallum, defenseman Bryce Cornellsson and forward Dylan Houston will all be moving on from their junior careers.
North Division Quarterfinal
Game One - Wednesday, February 14th: 5-4 Stettler Lightning over the Mountainview Colts
The scoring opened quickly in this playoff contest thanks to a goal 2:30 into the first for the Colt’s Alan Klinck. Bryce Cornelissen responded on the powerplay for the Bolts at 9:52 to make it a 1-1 game after 20 minutes.
Only two goals in the second period, as Mountainview took the lead with a powerplay goal at 8:37, before Stettler’s Dylan Houston tied it up at 13:05.
The Lightning took their first lead of the game 14 seconds into the third thanks to a goal from Quade Cassidy. The Colt’s Josh Gette tied it up halfway through the period, before Mountainview’s Colton Anderson scored shorthanded to make it a 4-3 game.
Tye Mulgrove scored at 18:44 to tie it up at four, before Brendan Bardwell scored shorthanded with six seconds left to pick up the 5-4 victory.
Coach Rost on the Valentine’s Day match-up, “We ended up back and forth, back and forth. We gave up a goal with about two and a half minutes left, so they had a lead. Then we got a penalty, so it was four-on-four. With about a minute left we scored to tie it up, and they went on the powerplay, and with six seconds left, we ended up scoring to win the game 5-4.”
Shots were 46-43 for the Lightning, as the Bolt’s Jordan McCallum made 39 saves on 43 shots for the win.
Game Two - Saturday, February 17th: 6-5 Mountainview Colts over the Stettler Lightning
Mountainview came out flying in this one scoring the first two goals at 17:32 and 18:36 of the first. Stettler would get one onto the board before the end of the period thanks to a goal from Erik Rost at 18:55.
The Colts went up 3-1 a few minutes into the second after a goal from Matthew Myatt. Brenden Bardwell and Carter Cooke then scored for the Lightning at 7:03 and 8:28 to tie it up at three. Quintin Thorburn would put the Colts ahead again with a tally at 9:46, before Dylan Houston tied it at four with a goal at 15:23. Mark Bengert scored at 16:32 to take the Lightning’s first lead, but Mountainview would score again at 18:03 to tie the game at five.
It was a close contest in the third at the S-R-C, as only one goal was scored shorthanded. Matthew Myatt scored his second of the night at 4:59 to give the Colts a 6-5 win in Game Two.
Coach Rost felt that the second game of the series had a similar feel to the first one, “Back home on Saturday, again the game went back and forth, back and forth. It was tied going into the third, and I think they scored with three or four minutes left to beat us by a goal, 6-5.”
Shots in this one were 37-32 for the Colts, as Mountainview’s Ethan Woodward made 26 saves on 31 shots.
Game Three - Sunday, February 18th: 6-4 Mountainview Colts over the Stettler Lightning
Mountainview would also score the first two goals of Game Three at 5:48 and 14:51 of the first.
The Bolts responded in-kind in the second, scoring powerplay goals from Quade Cassidy and Ethan Rost at 1:07 and 7:00 to tie it up at two. Mark Bengert also scored on the powerplay at 10:29 to give the Lightning their first lead of the game. Mountainview would respond before the period was through, thanks to a powerplay goal from Colton Anderson at 17:38 to tie the game at three.
The third period opened with another goal from the Colts at 2:00, this time from Reed Engman to take a 4-3 lead. Ethan Rost then scored his second of the night for Stettler at 6:28, before Mountainview scored the game winner at 10:01 from Josh Gette. The Colt’s would close out the game with an empty net goal from Colton Anderson with ten seconds remaining to win the North Division Quarterfinal by a score of 6-4.
The third game of the series was also close according to Coach Rost, “Going back to Didsbury on Sunday afternoon it was the same story, back and forth. We were down 2-0 and they came back with three powerplay goals to take the lead. We had another one, but they disallowed it, and then they scored to tie it going into the third. Then they ended up scoring, and we pulled our goalie, and they scored an empty-netter, so technically it was a one goal game again.”
Shots totals were 39-31 for Mountainview, while the Colt’s Ethan Woodward made 27 save on 31 shots.
Looking ahead, Coach Rost says there are three or four vets coming back next year, along with a handful of players born in 1998 who are expected to join the roster. “We’re looking forward to a pretty strong squad next year, we’re missing a few pieces but if we can fill those we should be pretty competitive again.”
Dates for try-outs and training camp have not yet been set, but will likely happen sometime during the first week of September.
landin.chambers@stettlerindependent.com
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