Even with a few bumps last weekend, the Lloydminster Xtreme’s road to the junior B lacrosse provincials remains as smooth as the fresh pavement on Highway 798 en route to Hillmond, the team’s home base.
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In front of an appreciative crowd Sunday at Hillmond Redden Arena, the Xtreme punched their Tier 2 provincial ticket as they defeated the Parkland Posse 10-5 to sweep the best-of-three North Division semifinal 2-0 in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
Befitting playoff action, the Spruce Grove-based Posse didn’t go down without a fight. They came as close as any team has this season to defeating Lloydminster, which rallied to win 7-6 in the series-opener Saturday.
The Xtreme, which had earned a first-round playoff bye, stretched its season-long winning streak to 18-0. That’s even longer than the corn stalks alongside Arena Road leading to the rink named after Hillmond hero Wade Redden, the former NHL defenceman.
Redden’s face is on the walls of the arena, serving as an inspiration for hockey and lacrosse players like Xtreme scoring star Jayden Plamondon, who plays junior B in both sports.
“Yeah, my dad used to play with him, too,” Plamondon said of Redden. “That’s very cool.
“I love this rink. I’m definitely going to miss playing here, for sure.”
The Xtreme are Calgary-bound this weekend (Aug. 1-4) for the Alberta junior B Tier 2 championship tournament, which brings together the top two teams from each of the RMLL’s North and South divisions.
Lloyd faces the Sylvan Lake Yetti on Friday night in their provincial opener, which doubles as the North final.
‘TIME TO FINISH THE DEAL’
The South Division provincial participants are the Southern Alberta Chaos of Taber, along with the host Calgary Wranglers.
“We’ve been there the past three years,” Xtreme captain Owen Hill said about provincials. “We’ve come up short every year, so it’s time to finish the deal.”
Hill believes it’s critical for Lloyd to manage what’s shaping up to be a busy August long weekend.
“We’ve just got to get good rest,” he said. “We play four games in a weekend, so we’ve got to get rested up and stay healthy. We should be good.
“We’re a lot healthier than we have been the last couple of years. We’re coming in strong.”
No team in the North was as strong as the unbeaten Xtreme in the regular season. Although its playoff pace remains on track, Lloyd faced a worthy challenge from a pesky Parkland side in the July 26-27 weekend series.
The Posse led the opening game 6-5 with less than six minutes left. Ben Stachniak evened the score with 5:19 remaining and Jace Gunderson netted the winning goal on a power play with 1:31 left.
“We had a couple of weekends off, so we came out a little flat-footed (Saturday),” Plamondon, an Xtreme assistant captain, said after Sunday’s series-clinching win.
“But, today, I thought we did a lot better job getting it on net and stopping them. Quick transition really helped us win this game today.”
The Xtreme weathered another Posse surge early in the second period Sunday as the visitors tallied three straight goals — two of them on power plays — to even the score 4-4.
“Yeah, we got into penalty trouble again,” Plamondon said. “We’ve just got to do our best to stay out of the box, when provincials come, because we know every team there is going to take advantage.”
The Xtreme settled down and scored four consecutive goals in the second period to open an 8-4 lead and maintain control the rest of the way.
TO PROVINCIALS IN STYLE
Plamondon, an 85-point man in the regular season, has continued his offensive leadership in the playoffs, with 12 points after two games. He scored three goals and seven points in Game 2, along with two goals and five points in the series-opener.
It’s been that kind of a summer for Plamondon, who’s going into his overage year with the Lloydminster Bandits junior B hockey team.
“It helps when we have a really good offence,” he said of his Xtreme production. “We’ve got a lot of guys that help me get open. I can get my looks, and then obviously I can get it over to them, and then they put the ball in the net.
“It was a really good year,” Plamondon said. “I had a lot of really good years with a lot of good players. It’s just a good year to end it on.”
One of those productive players is fellow assistant captain Gunderson, who exhibited skill and toughness in helping the Xtreme advance.
Gunderson got into a third-period fight Sunday, after contributing three goals and four points in that victory, along with two goals and two assists in Game 1.
Gunderson — also a member of the hockey Bandits — showed spunk in the spirited scrap with a bigger opponent, Tristan Savill, boosting the Lloyd bench in the process.
“That’s always good to see,” Hill, the Xtreme captain, said with a smile. “It shows the boys are tough and we can throw if we want to.”
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
Hill, in his fourth year with the Xtreme, is a teammate of his brother Alex, a second-year player also known as Cheese.
“It’s always pretty sweet, playing with your brother,” said the elder Hill. “It’s pretty cool. We’ve also played hockey together.”
The Xtreme’s other brother combination is Brady and Ryker Gamble. Brady, an Xtreme assistant captain, is property of hockey’s junior A Lloydminster Bobcats. Ryker is the lacrosse league’s top goaltender.
Lacrosse is certainly a family affair for Plamondon, whose mother Tanya and sister Jenna — both with health-care backgrounds — are Xtreme trainers. His brother Ryder plays with the U17 Lloydminster Border Brutes, and their father Jeremy is one of the Brutes’ coaches.
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Along with junior B hockey this coming winter, Jayden Plamondon is going into his fourth and final year of his electrician studies at Lakeland College’s Vermilion campus. He also plans to obtain his instrumentation ticket.
For this long weekend, he and the Xtreme are gunning for gold in Calgary.
“I would say turnovers are the biggest thing for our team,” Plamondon said of focus areas for provincials. “We need to be hard on the ball and we’ve got to hit the net, because if you’re not hitting the net, other teams can do a quick transition and then get it in on us.”
Xtreme force was evident Sunday as the hosts outshot the Posse 66-31. In defeat, Jackson Bennett recorded 50-plus stops.
Lloyd’s other scorers Sunday were Rogan Macnab, with a three-point game, Eric Wallis, Dalyn Hepburn and Dagan Thiessen.
Along with his solid goaltending, the Xtreme’s Ryker Gamble collected two assists Sunday and one Saturday.
Brayden Hackett (2-1-3) and Ryley Lewis (1-2-3) each contributed three points for Parkland in Game 2. The Posse’s first goal Sunday came from Josh Hogman, who played U18 AAA hockey with the Lloydminster Bobcats three seasons ago.
In the Game 1 victory, the Xtreme’s other goals came from Nate Fischer and Blake Sheppard. Fernando Runco and Kael Owen each tallied twice for Parkland.
In the other North Division semifinal, Sylvan Lake swept the Lakeland Heat 2-0 with 16-9 and 16-8 victories last weekend.
With a 13-3 record in the regular season, the Yetti finished second only to Lloydminster.
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