It was a celebratory Sunday for the Vermilion Tigers as they pulled the bronze medals out of their Easter basket at the Hockey Alberta junior B provincial championship in Lloydminster.
Read more: Skating club dazzles crowd at year-end carnival in Lloydminster
After a 5-2 victory over the Sherwood Park Knights in the third-place game, Vermilion became the first local junior team to achieve such an accomplishment at the Cenovus Energy Hub.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Vermilion scoring whiz Cade Meiklejohn, whose Tigers came into the six-team provincial tournament after losing 4-0 to the Lloydminster Bandits two weeks ago in the best-of-seven Northeastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League championship series.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the Lloyd series that we wanted to win, so we came here to prove something, and I think we did that this weekend.”
While the host Bandits ran out of steam at provincials, losing all four of their games, the Tigers made a strong push in front of faithful fans who showed up on Easter Sunday morning for the bronze-medal game.
Vermilion prevailed against a Sherwood Park team that had defeated the Tigers 2-1 in overtime in their preliminary round game on the second day of the five-day tournament. The Tigers led that game 1-0 in the third period, but had to settle for one point, instead of the three awarded for regulation-time wins at provincials.
“Unfortunately, they won it in overtime, but it’s been tight the whole tournament, so we just knew in the room that we weren’t done yet,” Meiklejohn said. “We still had a chance, and we kept fighting. And sure enough, we snuck into the bronze-medal game and ended up winning it.”
The Tigers gathered on the Hub’s main ice surface for an extended post-game celebration with their fans and family members.
A former junior A forward with the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs and Fort McMurray Oil Barons and the SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings, Meiklejohn brought high-level experience to Vermilion when he joined the Tigers last season, after his Bonnyville stint.
The native of Leduc, Alta., has made his mark at the junior B level. In the regular season this year, he scored a league-high 40 goals and 66 points in 36 games, earning MVP honours in the Northeastern Alberta circuit.
Meiklejohn’s production continued in the provincial championship. His four-goal game Saturday evening helped the Tigers punch their ticket to the medal round, defeating the Medicine Hat Cubs 10-1.
While the Cubs were already bound for the final, which they would lose 7-2 to the La Crete Lumber Barons on Sunday, the closing game Saturday had extra significance for Vermilion as it overtook the Calgary Northstars Black to gain the final berth in the playoff picture.
“It was do or die and that was our mentality going into the game,” said Meiklejohn, who collected six points in that contest. “We knew we had to give everything, leave nothing out there, if we wanted to play today.”
As for his offensive splurge, “that doesn’t happen without the help of my teammates, and especially my linemates Rohan Quist and Dannon Pavka,” Meiklejohn said.
“The week they had was unbelievable, and those goals don’t happen without them.”
Quist and two other Marwayne products, defencemen Riley Applegate and Ean Cooke, have played their final games as Tigers, as they’ve reached the end of their junior B eligibility. Also graduating is Vermilion goaltender Ryan Stowe, a Calgarian.
Stowe stopped 21 shots in the Tigers’ bronze-medal victory. Caleb Muri made 30 saves for Sherwood Park.
Vermilion’s goals came from Pavka, Cale Johnston, Dalin Hannah, Cash Capjack and Rogan Macnab. Meiklejohn and Jaxson Toutant each contributed two assists.
Ryan Bablitz and Hadeon Boyechko scored for the Knights. Benjamin Simpson assisted on both goals.
Meiklejohn, who turned 21 in March, has one more year of junior B eligibility. As he begins a new job in Camrose, he’s undecided about his hockey plans for next year.
Either way, he has welcomed the chance to play with the Tigers, while residing with assistant coach Stetson MacDonald.
“I’ve been friends with these guys for a long time,” Meiklejohn said. “My dad grew up with their parents, so it worked out well.
“Stetson got a hold of me, and it was a great fit from Day One. I knew what I wanted to do with the next few steps in my life, and here was just the best fit for that.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group to come to last year, and it only went up this year. It was a great season. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the championship we wanted, but I think we still proved something this year.”
As is the case for most junior B players, Meiklejohn is focused on career plans.
“I was working here all year, and now I’m going to head back home and start the next chapter of my life,” he said. “I’ve got a position to become a trainer at Hockey Gym.”
As for playing next season, “I haven’t thought too much about that. It was all focused on this year. Now that we’ve got our goal for this year, I’m going to enjoy this for a bit and then I’ll start thinking about what my plan is for hockey next year.”
ALBERTA CUP INVITES
Meiklejohn’s brother Shep played U15 AAA this season with the Leduc Oil Kings, who won a triple-overtime game in Lloydminster en route to eliminating the Lancers in a series that went the three-game limit. He’s been selected to participate in the Alberta Cup showcase April 23-26 in Red Deer.
Four members of Lloyd’s U15 AAA team are among the 120 players who earned Alberta Cup invitations — Beckham Brown, Easton Holte, Maddox Turcotte and Nolan Wiebe.
Vermilion’s junior B playoff roster included three affiliates from this year’s U18 AAA Lancers in Rhett Romanchuk, Tripp Fischer and Kael Scott, who wasn’t available for the final three days of provincials because he was on a family vacation.
Read more: Meadow Lake goalie backstops gold-medallists
