Worth its Weight in Gold!
What a championship Sunday it proved to be! Four of the six finals were decided by one-goal. Three needed extra time. One even needed extra, extra time. We had a 5-time Gold Medal Champion crowned. A first gold-medal for Fort McMurray, and the first in nearly a decade for Medicine Hat.
WOMEN'S B FINALS
EDM ASYLUM WHITE 3 CGY TUNE SQUAD 2 (2OT)
After an extremely tight matchup, the Edmonton Asylum White came away with the Women's B Division Provincial Gold medal. With just 5 seconds left in double overtime, Jenn Srochenski-Kaut found the back of the net, putting an end to the marathon gold-medal game. Both teams struck twice on the powerplay during regulation time. Nicole Spinks of Asylum opened the scoring just past the halfway point of the opening frame. But the Tune Squad would respond with two quick goals (Jacklyn Miller, Rachelle Chabot) before time expired in the opening half. Jodie Chadbourn, of Asylum, would score the only goal of the second half, forcing the two squads to head to overtime tied 2-2. The Asylum club previously won Provincial Gold at the 'C' level in 2018.
Top Goalie - Christina McCrindle, CGY Tune Squad
Top Forward - Tasha Pascoa, CGY Tune Squad
Top Defense - Jordanna Hayne, EDM Asylum White
WOMEN'S C FINALS:
EDM STORM 4 CGY ELITE PUMAS 3 (OT)
It took a pair of comebacks, plus overtime for the Edmonton Storm to claim their first provincial gold medal! The first period saw the Calgary Elite Pumas jump out to a 2-0 lead, thanks to a pair of goals from Kaley Mueller. But goals by Nadia Rees and Kerri Whitlock drew the Storm even not even 5 minutes into the second half. The Pumas would once again grab the lead...this time with just 5:28 left in regulation. A clutch goal from Tanveer Virring, with only 91 seconds left, sent the game to overtime. It would be Kerri Whitlock, with her second of the game, that provided the Storm with the Golden Goal and the Woman's C Provincial Championship.
Top Goalie - Marcie Moline, EDM Storm
Top Forward - Katrina Robinson, EDM Storm
Top Defense - Ryann Altwasser, CGY Elite Pumas
MEN'S TIER 1 FINALS:
EDM SAVAGES 6 CGY PHANTOMS 0
Shaun Myskiw's goal just 4:40 into the opening half would be all the Savages needed to claim their 5th Provincial Gold medal, and second in a row. It was an incredibly dominant tournament from start to finish for the Savages as the racked up a 24-2 goals-for to goals-against differential over the weekend. With the shutout, goaltender Mike Bradley completed a perfect tournament...allowing zero goals in three games played. The Savages outshot the Phantoms 29-13, while scoring three goals in each half, during the gold-medal game. Jarred White, Phil Ferenac, Scott Holben, Dan Priestner and Kashton Murphy joined Myskiw as the goal-scorers.
Top Goalie - Mike Bradley, EDM Savages
Top Foward - Burke Gallimore, EDM Savages
Top Defenseman - Greg Moro, EDM Savages
MEN'S TIER 2 FINALS:
EDM KILLER BEES 5 EDM COBRAS 4 (OT)
In their tournament opener, the EDM Killer Bees carried a 2-1 lead into the second half. Their opponent, the EDM Cobras would rip off 4-straight second half goals to open up a 5-2 lead with just 3:29 left in regulation. But the Bees would make it interesting...closing the gap to 5-4 only a minute later. That's as close as they would get, as the Cobras sealed the deal into the empy net...and walked away with the 5-4 win.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. Gold Medal Final. The Killer Bees once again find themselves down by three to the Cobras thanks to Brent McGugan's second goal of the game with just 4:34 left in the opeinng half. But, less than 30 seconds later, Colbey Mackay gets the Bees to within two. 4-2 Cobras at half.
With an entire 20 minutes ahead of them the Bees know they have lots of time to get the game back to even. But with every minute that ticks off the clock, desperation starts to kick in. Finally, with just 4:04 remaining in regulation, Bjorn Robinson pulls the Killer Bees to within one. Once again, the Bees were forced to pull the goalie...but this time they got it done. Cole Wyatt buried the equalizer with just 10 seconds left on the clock to pull the Bees all the way back from three down...and force overtime. Drew Mrzjlak would complete the comeback less than 4 minutes into the extra frame giving the Killer Bees their first Tier 2 Provincial Gold medal, and their 2nd gold in as many tournaments (Tier 3, 2019).
Top Goalie - Travis George, EDM Cobras
Top Forward - Emery Neilson, EDM Killer Bees
Top Defenseman - Drew Mrzjlak, EDM Killer Bees
MEN'S TIER 3 FINALS:
MH REBELS 3 EDM EDGE 2
They made the longest trek of any team in this year's Provincial Championships, so the Medicine Hat Rebels made good and sure that it was going to be worth it. As the highest-scoring team (20 gf) during round-robin play, the Rebels would reach 8-goals in a game for the third time in a row when they disposed of the Sherwood Park Ball Hogz during semi-final action earlier in the day. But awaiting them in the gold-medal final would be the Tier's second stingiest team, the EDM Edge...who had allowed just 9 goals against through the three round-robin games, and continued that trend by giving up just 2 to the Beverly Bullies in the semi-final.
Former BHE Killer Bee, Tyler Stuber, opened the scoring for the Rebels less than 2 minutes in. Six minutes later, MacKenzie Fintzler would put Medicine Hat up by two. A goal by Andrew Gray, of the Edge, with 1:10 left...would cut the lead in half heading into the break.
It took just 27 seconds of the second half for Devon Schnider to restore the two-goal cushion for the Rebels. Karam Lall's powerplay marker would once again pull the Edge to within one. But from there, goaltender Theron Johnson and the rest of the Rebels would shut the door on the Edge, as Medicine Hat held on for the 3-2 victory and the first gold medal for their hometown since a pair of Tier 4 Championships in 2012 and 2013.
Top Goalie - Theron Johnson, MH Rebels
Top Forward - Ben Feere, MH Rebels
Top Defenseman - Azaad Bharmal, EDM Edge
MEN'S TIER 4 FINALS:
FM VULLETS 6 EDM DRUNKEN MONKEYS 2
Weekend tournaments can be funny things.
No doubt, the EDM Drunken Monkeys aren't laughing...but they were probably feeling pretty good when, after Sunday morning's semi-final action, they realized they would be meeting a familiar foe in the Tier 4 Finals. The Fort McMurray Vullets were the last team the Monkeys faced in the round robin. The Monkey's cruised to a 5-0 first half lead. Eventually increased it to 6-0 (one goal shy of a mercy), before surrendering two late "nothing" goals, in an eventual 6-2 victory.
But maybe those two goals were exactly what the Vullets needed to pump themselves up in the rematch-winner-take-all final...not even 24 hours later.
Things didn't start out great for the Vullets. James Osborne, of the Drunken Monkeys, struck first...barely 5 minutes into the contest. But the Vullets responded quickly, not even 90 seconds later, Johnathan Collins would even the score at 1.
It would take until just past the 16-minute mark of the opening half for the Vullets to finally get their first lead against the Monkeys. Benjamin Orde scored the go-ahead goal...and Cole Gable would follow up on the powerplay just two minutes later. 3-1 Vullets at the half.
Nick Runnals would increase the lead to 4-1 just 40 seconds into the second half. The Monkeys would respond on the powerplay, thanks to a goal from Ryley Stewart. But that's as close as the Drunken Monkeys would get. Goals by Dion Hicks and Greg Reid would round out the scoring...and the Vullets would walk away with a 6-2 victory and the Tier 4 Gold Medal. This is Fort McMurray's first gold medal since we've been keeping records (2007)
Top Goalie - Kyle McDonald, FM Vullets
Top Forward - Nick Runnals, FM Vullets
Top Defenseman - Mateo Valerio, EDM Drunken Monkeys
