The U17 AAA Lloydminster Lancers are one series win away from advancing to the Hockey Alberta provincials.
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Continuing a productive second half of the season, the Lancers swept the Sherwood Park Squires last week in their best-of-three North Division quarter-final in the Alberta Elite Hockey League (AEHL).
At home Saturday night at the Servus Sports Centre, the Lancers posted a 5-1 victory to eliminate Sherwood Park and advance to face the Southside Athletic Club Bulldogs in a North semifinal that doubles as a provincial qualifier.
The North and South semifinal winners join the host Parkland Athletic Club Saints of Spruce Grove in the five-team provincial championship tournament April 2-5.
Lloydminster opened the playoffs on the road last Wednesday with a 6-2 win at Sherwood Park.
This Wednesday, the Lancers were back in Edmonton as they visited Southside at Meadows East rink for Game 1 of their division semifinal.
Those teams face off in Lloyd at 7 p.m. Saturday at Holmes Arena in Servus, which is the Lancers’ regular practice facility.
If a third game is necessary, it would be played at 6 p.m. Sunday at Booster Juice Recreation Centre in Edmonton.
Seven points separated the North’s second-place Southside (20-9-5) and fifth-seeded Lloydminster (16-12-6) during the regular season. The clubs were 1-1 against each other.
It’s been a tale of two halves for the Lancers.
“We’ve had a great second half,” said Jason Ross, who coaches Lloydminster along with Chase McAllister and Scott Pratt. “We started the year 2-9-2. Most of the league had us written off. We were sitting 11th in the North.
“Then, we went on (an early December) road trip to Grande Prairie, won back-to-back up there, and had seven wins in a row (through Jan. 10) to get back to .500. Yeah, we’ve continued to climb the standings after that.”
MORE HOCKEY, MORE SCOUTS
It’s an opportune time for the Lancers and their U17 AAA contemporaries still in the playoff picture. The longer they play, they gain more exposure and possible opportunities at higher levels next season.
“Oh, for sure,” said Ross, who coached the junior B Lloydminster Bandits for five seasons.
“It’s a showcase for the players, going forward. So, the longer you’re on the ice and the longer you last in the playoffs, the more scouts that show up in the buildings, and they get more looks from scouting staffs to advance their career. The 18s’ coaches will be out watching, to build their team for next year, and junior teams (will be represented) in the rinks, too.
“It opens up all sorts of possibilities, especially if we make it to provincials.”
It was a positive scouting report on the Lancers from last weekend’s series-clinching victory. They got the job done firmly on home ice and negated any need of a Sherwood Park trip for a third and deciding game Sunday afternoon.
Lloydminster goaltender Brayden Gramlich came within 35 seconds of shutting out the Squires. Keithen Murphy tallied a power-play goal for Sherwood Park just 39 seconds after Taythan Willis potted a short-handed, empty-net tally to give the Lancers a 5-0 lead.
“Yeah, I’ll even take the blame for that one,” Ross said about the lone Squires’ goal. “I called a kid off the ice on a line change, after he had gone by the bench, so we were playing 5-on-3 there for a bit and it cost us.”
Shutout or not, it was a solid 36-save performance for Gramlich, who returned to the lineup in a big way.
“Our goalie played well, for sure,” Ross said. “He had been sick all week, hadn’t been on the ice until Friday, so he missed Game 1 of the series.
“(Evan) Fedor played Game 1. He stood on his head and stopped 35 of 37 shots. He had a great game, after having a couple of tough ones. It was nice to see him get back in the groove, and Gramlich came in and stopped them for the second game.”
Willis and defenceman Grier Pahtayken each scored a goal and an assist for Lloydminster in Game 2. Jaxon Skarsen, Easton Carfantan and Shaun Going had the other Lloyd goals.
The Lancers fired 33 shots at Squires goaltender Austin Kamp.
In the series-opener, Lancers captain Jack Teasdale and Hunter Prybysh each collected a goal and two assists, while Going had one of each. Kaleb Hozack and Dextyn Vasseur, with an empty-netter, also scored for Lloyd.
Robert Black and Nick Kaminsky replied for Sherwood Park. The Squires’ Adrian Ferro and the Lancers’ Fedor each faced 37 shots.
Lloydminster has benefited from balanced scoring during its playoff push.
“In the Sherwood Park series, honestly, everybody was clicking,” Ross reported. “We pretty much rolled four lines, except when we got in a little bit of penalty trouble in the second game.”
In the opening contest, he said, the statistics showed that the ice time for each of the Lancers’ lines was within three minutes of each other.
“I think that’s where our strong suit is. We’ve got a lot of team depth, with a lot of spread-out scoring. Shaun Going was our leading goal-scorer by far this year, but in the same token, we had other guys down the lineup putting pucks in on a regular basis. So, that definitely helps, when you can score lines 1 through 4.
“Actually, the line that’s designated as the fourth line has been contributing the most down the stretch.”
Hozack, Jordan Beattie and Gage McKnight comprise that so-called fourth line, “but they’re our energy line and they put the puck in the net,” Ross said. “McKnight is a little smaller, slight of frame, but he’s a skilled forward, and Beattie and Hozack are workhorses, so they’re a great combination.”
The Lancers gained more depth with the addition of the top two scorers from the U18 AA Lakeland Panthers — Skarsen and Vasseur — after that team’s season finished.
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