They wore track suits to and from the rink during the junior B provincials in Lloydminster, but for all intents and purposes, the La Crete Lumber Barons played like they were dressed to the nines.
Read more: All-too-familiar finish for Bobcats in AJHL playoffs
It was all business for the Lumber Barons as they fashioned a perfect 5-0 record, including a 7-2 victory over the Medicine Hat Cubs in the Easter Sunday (April 5) final of the six-team Hockey Alberta championship.
As coach and general manager Dion Knelsen aptly said afterward, his Lumber Barons were methodical in their approach to the gold-medal game and the five-day tournament, the first junior-level championship decided in the season-old Cenovus Energy Hub.
“In the first game, we might have been a little bit nervous and didn’t play our best, against a tough Sherwood Park team, but thankfully got the win (in overtime),” Knelsen said as his players celebrated their golden weekend in the Border City.
“But after that, honestly, the boys looked clinical out there. It was really a treat for me, as a coach, to watch. They’ve worked really hard this season and the last four years to become a great hockey team. It’s so satisfying to see them rewarded for the work they’ve put in. Just a fantastic group of guys.”
By wide margins in both categories, La Crete was the most-offensive and least-penalized team in provincials, averaging seven-plus goals and less than five penalty minutes per game.
An hour after the Vermilion Tigers defeated the Sherwood Park Knights 5-2 in the bronze-medal game, the Lumber Barons went to work early and opened a 3-0 lead in the first period of a championship clash between northern and southern Alberta heavyweights. Medicine Hat answered with two goals before the first period ended, but La Crete stretched its lead to 5-2 in the first five minutes of the second and never looked back.
The Lumber Barons snuffed any hint of a Cubs’ comeback, most notably when goaltender Ethan Fechter of Meadow Lake made breakaway saves midway through both the second and third periods. In both cases, Fechter stopped Medicine Hat forward Mason Osinski.
“Yeah, those were some nice saves,” said Fechter, who made 30 stops in the final. “The boys gave me some (congratulatory) pats. I was a little mad, because I told them going into the third period, ‘Watch behind, they’re going to be desperate, they’re going to go for the breakaways.’ Sure enough, it happens. I make the save like I should, and help the boys win that.”
In a hushed hallway outside the Cubs’ dressing room, Osinski lamented those missed opportunities to try to change the trajectory of the game.
“Yeah, I had a couple of breakaways and tried to go to the same spot both times,” he said. “Their goalie played really well, and he got those. I tried to go above his glove. I just didn’t get it up enough and he just snagged it down.”
Medicine Hat had a 3-0 start in the tournament, and a banner season, but the pain of the gold-medal loss was most evident Sunday afternoon.
“Everyone is pretty sad, but I think everyone is also grateful to have a team like we had this year,” Osinski, 19, said about the Heritage Junior Hockey League champions. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime team. We didn’t win (provincials) in the end, but we got here. It was a great run.”
In the gold-medal game, the Cubs ran into a determined La Crete team, which won the provincial title in just the franchise’s fourth year of existence.
“They played good,” agreed Osinski, a Medicine Hat College student. “They outworked us and outskated us. They passed better. We had some chances, but it just didn’t go our way today.”
Beyond his goaltending heroics, the graduating Fechter credited the Lumber Barons’ detailed defence and overwhelming offence for bringing the Northwest Junior Hockey League champions their first Alberta crown.
“My D has been playing great this whole tournament,” said Fechter, almost six-foot-three and 185 pounds. “They bailed me out multiple times, even in the season. I love my defencemen.
“Our offence today was killer. The boys woke up and they were scoring everything that they could, just like they did all year.”
Fechter and the Fort St. John Huskies placed fourth in last year’s Alberta junior B provincials at Morinville. He joined La Crete partway through this season, as did fellow overagers Matthew Bergen and Kade Paul, both forwards who had previously played with the team.
At the 2024 provincial championship tournament in Peace River, the Lumber Barons lost in the final against the Okotoks Bisons.
“Two years ago, we were on the other side of this game, so the guys that are still here, we understand that this is what we play for all year,” said La Crete assistant captain Carter Fehr, the top scorer in this year’s provincials. “We wanted to come back here and get some revenge, and that’s exactly what we did.
“Probably eight of us are back from that team. This year was kind of our turn to take the reins and put the team together. Now, we’re champs.”
Fehr, who turns 21 this summer, scored seven goals and 11 points through five games in the tournament.
In the gold-medal game, Jonah Cardinal led La Crete with two goals and two assists. Drew Friesen — selected as top forward in provincials — tallied twice in Sunday’s victory. Nolan Cardinal added a goal and two assists.
Dwayne Wieler and Grayson Lapp also scored for the Lumber Barons. Paul assisted on two goals.
Kyle Woolridge, one of Medicine Hat’s four graduating players, netted the Cubs’ two tallies. Fellow overager Ethan Burgeson assisted on both.
Medicine Hat goaltender Marlo DeRosa gave up three goals on 10 shots before giving way to Kayne Wright, who allowed four goals on 30 shots.
Along with forwards Woolridge and Burgeson, the other Cubs no longer eligible for junior hockey are defencemen Keynan Cairns and Austin Derzaph.
One of the Cubs’ promising rookies, 18-year-old forward Cole Fisher, was sidelined for the final three games of the tournament, after suffering a shoulder injury.
Just three minor penalties were called in the championship game.
Read more: Tears show pain for junior A Bobcats after early playoff exit
