Prairie Hockey Academy wins pair in Midget Varsity action Elite 15s lose pair of close games to open season

With the start of the Midget Varsity season in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League, the Midget Cougars travelled to Banff to kick off their inaugural CSSHL campaign and rolled to a 10-2 win on Sept. 22 before taking an 8-2 win over International Hockey Academy. The Prairie Hockey Academy Cougars elite 15s squad came out of the weekend still looking for their first win, although they were close in both of their losses, falling to Northern Alberta 4-1 and 6-5 in a pair of games in Caronport.

Things weren’t close in Prairie Hockey Academy’s first game of the season as they scored six third period goals and outshot Banff 50-27 to take the commanding win. Noah Schindel led the Cougars with three goals and four points, while Keegan Little and Colton Aikens each had a goal and three assists. Tanner Funk added a hat trick for the Cougars, Jaedon Little and Zach Ashworth single markers.

Riley Gross was the winning goaltender with 23 saves

Prairie Hockey Academy didn’t let up in their second game, outshooting IHA 65-31 with 25 shots in the third period alone.

Jaedon Little had a goal and four points to go along with two goals and an assist from Noah Wills and a goal and three points from Keegan Little. Funk and Ashworth had a goal and an assist each, Alec Neiman and Clay McKersie a single marker apiece. Josh Warkentin stopped 30 shots for the win.

Northern Alberta Extreme Elite built a 3-0 lead through the first two periods before Austin Reschny scored Prairie Hockey Academy’s first goal on the power play midway 9:28 into the third.

Chase Coward made 18 saves in taking the loss. The Extreme scored twice in the final 2:59, including the game winner with 14 seconds left to take the win in a back-and-forth battle.

Caelan Fitzpatrick, Kirkland Mullen and Liam McInnis had a goal and an assist each, Ethan Peters and Easton Ediger one marker apiece. Connor McGrath contributed three assists, Atley Calvert had a pair of helpers. Nathan Airey stopped 35 shots in the loss.