Stars battle back to tie Buffs
Bly hat trick powers comeback from Battlefords
The Calgary Buffaloes had a wildcard playoff berth at the Mac’s AAA Midget Hockey Tournament within their sights.
But the Battlefords Stars had other ideas.
In their final game of the round robin, the Buffaloes built up a 5-0 lead over the Stars through two periods on Monday at the Max Bell Centre.
Led by a hat-trick performance by captain Josh Bly, the Stars erupted for five straight goals in the third period for a hard-fought draw against the Buffaloes.
“There’s no point quitting,” said Bly, whose squad finished the preliminary round with a 2-1-1 record, while the Buffaloes ended up at 1-1-2. “We were going to come out and we were going to fight all the way to the end. We got one there and we just kept going right to the end, chipping away at that lead and we tied it up.”
Not only did the Buffs need to beat the Stars to earn a wild-card spot, they needed to improve upon their goal differential after losing 7-1 to Finland’s under-17 team on Sunday.
“Obviously, we did the math,” said Calgary coach Adam Redmond, whose squad was well on the way to accomplishing that goal until Bly scored his first of three goals at 8:32 of the third.
“When they scored that goal, the wheels came off. We knew it was pretty much over. The way we handled it was kind of disappointing. It shows a little bit of our character and obviously something that we have to fix.”
Matthew Phillips had a goal and two assists to help the Buffaloes jump out to their five-goal lead.
“We were flying,” said Phillips in regards to the fast start. “We were all ready to go. Between the second and the third, we just got too light in the dressing room. We took a period off and we got a little too individual.”
Scott Suchan, Mark Drohan and Adam Berg also scored for Calgary, while Carsen Twarynski had three assists.
“It didn’t turn out how we wanted it to, but there were some positives we can take from this tournament into the second half of our season hoping to make it through playoffs,” Twarynski said.
Although the Buffs lost by six goals to the powerful Finns, Redmond commended his players for putting up a good fight against the international squad, which finished atop Pool 5 with a 4-0 record.
“I thought we played Finland really tough,” Redmond said. “If we play like that, most nights we’ll be successful.”
Fit to be tied
The Notre Dame Argos and Okanagan Rockets also battled to a 5-5 tie at Father David Bauer Arena on Monday.
Keegan Milligan scored twice for the Argos, who finish atop the Pool 4 standings with a 3-0-1 record. Kaden Elder had a goal and two assists for Notre Dame, while Jack Flaman and Taylor Ross also scored.
Tanner Campbell recorded a hat trick for the Rockets, who finished 2-0-2 to earn one of the wild-card berths into Tuesday’s playoff round. Tyson Jost and Kristian Blumenschein chipped in with a goal and an assist each.
Kings crowned as Pool 2 champs
Skyler McKenzie scored the lone goal of the third period as the Sherwood Park Kings edged the CAC Gregg Distributors 3-2 on Monday at the Flames Community Arenas.
Colby McCauley scored twice for the Kings, who were crowned as champs of Pool 2 with a 3-0-1 record.
Dexter McLeod and Tyler Benko had a goal and an assist each for the Distributors, who led 2-1 after the opening period of play.