Midget Hurricanes win AMHL title in deciding game
For the first time provincial champions, it was a thrill.
For the repeat winners, it never gets old.
The Lethbridge midget AAA Hurricanes captured this year’s Alberta Midget Hockey League title thanks to a 6-1 win over the Edmonton Knights of Columbus Pats in the fifth-and-final game of the series Sunday afternoon at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
Post-game, that meant celebrations for the new champs and repeat winners alike as the Hurricanes now set their sights on a Telus Cup berth in Sudbury, Ont. April 23-29.
“Obviously I’m very happy for the players,” said Hurricanes head coach Mike Dyck, whose team rallied from a 2-1 series deficit and forced Game 5 with a 5-2 win over the Pats Thursday night in Edmonton. “There are some guys, this is their fifth provincial title in eight years and that’s quite an accomplishment. But I guess I’m particularily happy for the guys who have won it for the first time. Guys like Keegan McDowell, Macrae Setoguchi and Chandler and Fletcher Aleman, our 17year-old guys. This was their only opportunity and for them to get a league championship and a provincial title, we’re really happy for them.”
For Setoguchi, that provincial gold medal around his neck was his first one.
“It’s just really exciting, I’ve never won anything like this in hockey before,” said Setoguchi. “It’s just a great experience and a great group of guys to win it with, for sure.”
Meanwhile, Hurricanes forward Zack Stringer contributed with two goals in Sunday’s win for a provincial title that’s just as sweet as the other ones.
“It’s a great feeling every time,” he said.
However, Sunday’s celebrations will be abbreviated as the Hurricanes get set to jet to the west coast to face the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds this weekend in the Pacific Region playdowns. The winner of that series is off to Sudbury.
“We’re very excited, but we don’t have a whole lot of time to celebrate this,” said Dyck. “We have to go to Abbotsford on the weekend and challenge for a Regional Cup and obviously the opportunity to go to the Telus Cup.”
On Sunday, Michael Horon gave Lethbridge a 1-0 lead after one period before Stringer added two in the second.
Brett Rylance scored on the power play late in the second for the Pats to briefly make it 2-1 before Stringer scored his second of the game with 36 seconds left in the middle period.
Ridly Greig added a pair in the third period and defenceman Tayler Miller rounded out the scoring.
Carl Tetachuk made 32 saves in the win.
“Mike gave us the best game plan we could have had and the boys were all pumped up, Game 5 of the series,” said Setoguchi.
“We executed everything to a tee, we outworked and out-competed them. They’re a great team, no doubt about it. But I think we wanted it more.”
After a 4-2 loss in Game 3 in Edmonton on Wednesday, the Hurricanes were down to their last playoff life heading into Game 4 Thursday.
Thanks to that 5-2 win, they were able to bring the deciding game back home.
“We battled through adversity and being down, we didn’t really think about that, we just wanted to come out and play like we know how to play,” said Stringer.
“When we were down in Edmonton and had to win that game, nothing but confidence in this group,” added Dyck. “They knew what it took to get back here for Game 5.” Like the rest of the series, Sunday’s tilt was a grinding affair on both sides. “This was a great series,” said Dyck. “It was a really physical series and I think it paid off for us. We wanted to continue to get pucks in behind them and put some pressure on their defence and try to wear them down. And like in any playoff series, goaltending and special teams come up huge and our penalty killing was outstanding this series and our goaltending was very good.”
Now, there’s more hockey to be played, hopefully late into the month.
“We’ll take a day off (today) and get refocused Tuesday and Wednesday and I’m sure we’ll be on a plane Thursday and get ready for Fraser Valley on Friday,” said Dyck. “In the interim, we have to
start getting prepared again. Obviously, we wanted to win this championship. But our eyes and our goal is the Telus Cup. We’ve take one step and now we have to take another one.”
“We’re all super-excited,” added Setoguchi. “As soon as all this is done we’ll get focused and get ready for the big games coming up. But right now, we’re going to
enjoy it. Everybody is pretty happy we’ve won.”
McDowell had three assists in Sunday’s win, while Nicholas Draffin added two helpers.
Greig and Stringer each added an assist for a three-point afternoon and Miller had one assist for two points.
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