The Athabasca Hawks Midget ‘A’ Team dominated the visiting Junior Barons from Fort McMurray on Nov. 13 with a score of 10-4.
It took the Hawks a while to get on their feet, said head coach Jody Tangedal, but once they were up they did not hold back.
“We started a little slow, but I thought McMurray also came out with lots of jump and so I was a bit worried,” he said. “I didn’t think we were as committed to the forecheck and stuff as we could have been but, as the game went on, we started to take over and started to make a few passes.”
The score was 1-0 by the end of the first period. The Hawks came back with a vengeance in the second period, scoring six goals, including two by Tyson Tymo.
It was by no means an easy game. The Junior Barons put up a tough fight, and hammered out almost as many shots on net as the Hawks. They even scored shorthanded on the Hawks, bringing the score to 4-2.
However, this was the second of two back-to-back games for the Barons, and by the third period, it showed.
“The second period it was a bit scrambly, but by the third I thought we were back to playing the way we should be,” Tangedal said. “They’ve got a few guys injured right now, so they’re a bit of a depleted line up. I think by the third they were getting tired.”
In the final period, the Hawks capped off the game with three more points, with the final two scored by Brooke Tipton.
“She had a really good game today,” Tangedal said, adding that it was one of his highlights of the game. “Also on D – our D played really well.”
Such was not the case for the Barons, whose coaches agreed they wanted to work on their defence before the Hawks travel to Fort McMurray this weekend for two back-to-back rematch games.
“We could have had a little bit better defence,” said Barons coach Keith Simpson. “I know these guys are coming up to see us next weekend for two games, so we’re hoping the outcome will be a little bit different and take away from this game a few things that we learned and apply it to the next game. The guys competed really hard and they played well. Unfortunately, the score clock didn’t show that, but hopefully next weekend we can turn that around a little bit.”
Barons’ coach Jarvis Peake added that, despite the devastation of the Fort McMurray wildfires in the summer, all his players and their families had managed to stay in town.
“There’s a few families on our team that have been affected,” Peake said. “It didn’t affect our roster for this. Most of these kids have been in Fort McMurray for a long time, so they’re going to stick and stay now.”
Tangedal said he was ready for the rematch.
“For us, we’re trying to work on the power play,” Tangedal said. “I had mentioned it last week, that we were a little disappointed with the power play. Today, we got some power play goals and I thought we looked a lot more organized. Going into next weekend we play the same guys again back-to-back in McMurray, and we’re hoping that we’ll use that to our advantage and be ready for us.”
