Skip to content

Stettler repeats as Alberta champion

For the second straight season, the Stettler Storm have won the provincial bantam A hockey championship.
34865stettlerHockeyC031914
NO. 1 IN ALBERTA — The Stettler Storm defeated the Red Deer Chiefs 4-2 on Sunday in the gold-medal game at the provincial bantam A hockey championship in Grande Prairie. In the back row (from left) are manager Greg Switenky

For the second straight season, the Stettler Storm have won the provincial bantam A hockey championship.

While the Storm won last year’s title on home ice, this season’s Stettler representatives grabbed gold more than six hours from home.

The latest edition of the Storm rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the Red Deer Chiefs 4-2 in the gold-medal game Sunday at Grande Prairie.

The come-from-behind effort typified the Storm season, said Ryan Robbins, the team’s first-year head coach.

“Kind of like all year, we were resilient to never give up, and kept plugging away,” he said.

“Through the final game, we were always playing well. It was just a matter of getting a couple of breaks. We started to put a couple of pucks in the net in the second and third (periods).”

Euan Hanton, Ryan Mielke and Rylee Jacobson scored second-period goals for Stettler, and Jackson Zimmermann added an insurance marker in the third.

Jacobson’s two-point game included the winning goal with less than five minutes left in the second period.

Davin Nattestad blocked 26 shots in the Stettler net.

The Storm fired 48 shots at Chiefs goalie Eric Johnson.

Kobe Williams netted both Red Deer goals in the first period.

While the Storm faced a familiar opponent in Red Deer, they anticipated that another North Central team — the Edson Warriors — would have reached the final.

Edson was the lone team to beat Stettler (4-2 on Saturday) in round-robin play at the provincials.

“We were kind of banking on Edson being (in the final), but Red Deer beat them quite handily (7-3) in the semifinals, so it was one of those things where you had to get ready for anybody,” Robbins said.

“Edson had beat us in the round-robin and we had trouble with them this year, so it was kind of a break that way.”

Stettler, which edged the St. Albert Wolfpack 3-2 in the other semifinal, had a 5-1 record overall.

The Storm left nothing to chance in the playoff games, outshooting Red Deer and St. Albert 48-28 and 36-16, respectively.

“Everybody was pulling their weight and nobody was holding us down, that’s for sure,” Robbins said. “It was really good.

“It’s pretty tough to win championships when you’ve only got a few guys going — and we had everybody going. It was pretty easy for us to coach when they were all going like that.”

The Storm played without injured forward James Switenky, who supported the team from the sidelines all weekend and dressed for the final game. They lost another forward, Daniel Schwarzenberger, late in the second period of the gold-medal game when he was ejected for boarding.

Stettler was the toast of the 10-team tournament. The Storm lineup included 11 players from two of Stettler’s three provincial championship teams from last season — the bantam A and peewee A clubs. That winning pedigree was a factor on the weekend, Robbins said.

“Oh, I think it helped quite a bit. That’s all they remembered — was winning last year — and they wanted to repeat. It’s pretty tough to go two years in a row and to repeat at provincials. It was quite a feat for the boys.

“(Last year) was pretty fresh in their memory, and they were pretty excited to do it back-to-back. It was really good.”

Storm captain Brett Coleman and assistant captains Paul du Toit, Euan Hanton and Tye Mulgrove were members of both bantam A championship teams, as were Zimmermann and Cole Pedersen.

“The assistant captains and the captain helped everyone along, had lots to say in the dressing room to prep everybody up for the games, and also led on the ice,” Robbins said.

“They led the way for us and everybody else jumped on board and followed.”

First-year bantams Nattestad, Switenky, Dawson Beck, Talon Conner and Brenden Tucker also mined provincial gold last season with the Stettler peewee A team.

This year’s bantam A team bounced back in Grande Prairie after losing to Maskwacis 2-1 in their North Central Minor Hockey Association best-of-three semifinal just a few days earlier.

In the other Stettler bantam A games at the provincials, it was:

Stettler 3 St. Albert 2

In Stettler’s semifinal victory, Zimmermann scored two third-period goals, including the winner with 2:11 left.

Tucker had the other Stettler goal and Coleman contributed two assists.

Nattestad tended goal, as he did for all of Stettler’s games.

Stettler 8 Calgary (NW) 2

Mulgrove and Conner each collected two goals and an assist, while Brayden MacDonell tallied twice and Mielke had a goal and two assists, and Zimmermann added one of each.

Edson 4 Stettler 2

The Storm got goals from Mulgrove and Hanton, who made it a 2-2 game early in the third period. Edson’s Kale Holmes responded twice in the final 10 minutes to complete his hat trick.

Stettler 8 La Crete 1

Mielke fired three goals for Stettler, while singles went to Hanton, Tucker, Mulgrove, Coleman and Beck.

Stettler 6 Okotoks 2

Mulgrove and Conner each netted two goals in the Storm’s opening win Friday. Jacobson and Tucker also scored.

See more photos in this week's paper.

 

Provincial Roundup

Along with the Alberta bantam A champion Storm, two other Stettler Minor Hockey Association teams participated in their respective provincials last weekend.

The bantam B Storm were winless in three games at Westlock, while the atom A Storm posted a 1-2 record at Devon.

BANTAM B

At Westlock

Hinton 6; Stettler 2 — Garrett Hogg, Tristen Bryce.

Maskwacis 14; Stettler 4 — Brayden Smith, Erik Rost, Chase Dolliver, Kameron Bainbridge.

Okotoks 5; Stettler 2 — Brayden Smith 2.

Gold-medal game

Vegreville 4 Olds 2

———————

ATOM A

At Devon

Bonnyville 9; Stettler 6 — Marcus Laisnez 4, Shay Anderson, Brier Devnich.

Kneehill 6; Stettler 5 — Shay Anderson 3, Reece Kranzler, Chance Morbeck.

Stettler 7 — Shay Anderson 2, Marcus Laisnez 2, Brier Devnich, Reece Kranzler, Jacob Cottam;

Rimbey 5

Gold-medal game

Bonnyville 9 Foothills 0