A short playoff run and an extended post-game commiseration brought tears to the eyes of an emotional group of Lloydminster Bobcats, especially for graduating players like starting goaltender Ty Matonovich.
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“Yeah, it’s a little emotional,” said Matonovich, whose recurring knee injury forced him to sit out the Bobcats’ season-ending 5-3 loss to the Grande Prairie Storm, which swept Lloyd in the AJHL’s North Division semifinals for a second straight year.
“We all fought together so hard this season. All of us 20s, we’re all grateful for the opportunity to be a Bobcat … as tough as it is losing in four. It’s hard, but there’s no group I’d rather finish it out with than these guys. I’m glad I finished with these guys, at least.”
A March 25 finish wasn’t expected for a Bobcats team that loaded up at the January trade deadline and was seemingly built to go deep in the playoffs, or at least in the first round. But player departures and injuries eventually caught up with a depleted Lloyd lineup. Not to mention a Grande Prairie juggernaut that has won 24 times in its past 27 games.
‘NEVER GAVE UP’
“We had all the pieces to do it all, but we just came up short against a great Grande Prairie team,” said Matonovich, a Calgarian who joined the Bobcats in November from the SJHL. “Yeah, it sucks, but we never gave up in that room. Even being down two, three games even, we never gave up. It just speaks to what kind of people we’ve got in that room. Just great people in general.”
After dropping two hard-fought overtime games in Grande Prairie the previous weekend, Lloydminster lost on back-to-back nights at home in the first sampling of AJHL playoffs at the Hub. In the critical Game 3, the Bobcats fell 6-3 on a snowy night in Lloyd. A day later and after one more loss, the Bobcats’ playoff path turned out to be as short as the partially cleared walkway outside the Hub.
Matonovich and company tried to push through the Storm — and the pain — for as long as they could. Still dealing with a knee injury from late in the regular season, the Bobcats’ goaltender re-aggravated his strained MCL “pretty badly” early in Game 2, but he finished that contest and played the entire next game as well.
“I’d have to get stretchered off (the ice) not to play in that game,” he said about Game 2. “But the boys rallied, even though we came up short.”
‘THE TOUGH CALL’
Matonovich realized after Game 3 that he could no longer perform effectively, because of his lingering ailment. He gave way to fellow 20-year-old Trent Peterson for the fourth game, and affiliated goaltender Carsten Leyerzapf dressed as the backup.
“It was too much at the end of the day,” Matonovich said. “I think I would have been hurting myself and the team (to have played). Just had to make the tough call.”
The Bobcats outshot the Storm 37-16 as Grande Prairie’s standout goaltender, Leland Gill, posted his fourth victory in as many playoff games.
Game 4 marked the first AJHL playoff action for Peterson, who joined Lloyd in February from the North American Hockey League and didn’t lose in regulation as he went 5-0-2 in regular-season play after Matonovich got hurt.
BY THE NUMBERS
In the Round 1 finale, back-to-back goals from captain Colin Doherty put the Storm up 4-1 for the second consecutive night. The Bobcats pushed back with third-period goals from Jadon Iyogun and Alex Levasseur, whose second point of the game narrowed the gap to 4-3 with five minutes left.
Grande Prairie defenceman Matthew Gillard potted an empty-net goal with one second remaining.
Lloydminster forward Landen Ward opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 2:20 into the game. Will Harris evened the score six minutes later and Braeden Veldhuizen, on the power play, put the Storm up 2-1 — and ahead to stay — before the first period ended.
Four GP players — Doherty, Veldhuizen, Rylan Bissett and Treysen Miller — contributed two points each in the series-clinching victory.
Overall in the series, Bissett collected four assists in as many games against the Bobcats, who traded his AJHL playing rights to the Storm last October, while the 18-year-old forward was playing in the BCHL.
TURNING THE PAGE
While Grande Prairie now faces the pennant-winning Whitecourt Wolverines in the North Division final, this is the end of the line for Lloyd, and the closing chapter in the junior hockey lives of six Bobcats — Iyogun, Matonovich, Peterson, Gus El-Tahhan, Kade Fendelet and Oakley McIlwain.
COLLEGE CHAPTER
Iyogun, the team’s top scorer in the regular season, committed early on to playing NCAA Division 1 hockey at Tennessee State University.
On March 30, the Bobcats announced that McIlwain, a towering hometown defenceman, plans to play with the Red Deer Kings of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).
As he contemplates his next move, Matonovich is first focusing on his health.
“I’m not ready to commit yet,” he said, standing a few feet away from one of the university coaches who scouted Game 4.
“I just want to take my time with (a decision). I’ve got to make sure my body is healthy, too. The hockey is one thing, but I’m 20 years old, and if my knee is not doing well and I need surgery, health comes first. I’ve got to figure all that stuff out, and then hockey comes second after that.”
As he trains in Calgary this summer, Matonovich hopes he runs into fellow Bobcats, including young goalie Leyerzapf, the affiliate from Calgary’s Edge U18 prep team.
Leyerzapf, who just turned 17 in January, was a winner in his AJHL debut, as he helped Lloyd defeat the Fort McMurray Oil Barons 2-1 in a shootout March 14, the final day of the regular season.
Soon after that performance, Leyerzapf was called up to the major junior Wenatchee Wild and made 54 saves on March 20 in his team’s 5-1 victory over the Everett Silvertips, the WHL’s regular-season champions. He stopped another 54 shots the next night as Wenatchee lost 6-5 to Everett.
‘A BRIGHT FUTURE’
“I’ll be seeing him around, for sure,” Matonovich said of Leyerzapf. “The hockey world is so small, you kind of see everyone (at one point or another). I’ll definitely see him in the summer, and hope nothing but the best for him going forward.
“He’s a great guy. He played a game with us, made an impact, and won the game. Then, I was happy when I heard he was going up to the WHL and got a couple of starts. He made the most of it, so super proud of him. He’s got a bright future ahead of him next year and the following year. I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on him.”
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