Counting three more points last weekend, the U18 AAA Lloydminster Lancers are making a legitimate push for a playoff berth in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.
Read more: U18 AAA Lancers win, lose on the road
On home ice at the Hub, the Lancers gained a 7-1 victory Sunday and a 2-2 tie Saturday against the Grande Peace Storm, the team below them in the North Division.
Lloyd (10-15-5) now is tied with the Edmonton Junior Oilers Orange (11-14-3) in the race for the sixth and final playoff position in the North. With eight games remaining in their regular-season schedule, the Lancers are also just one point behind the fifth-place Leduc Oil Kings (10-14-6).
“Yeah, we’re definitely needing all the points we can get right now,” said Lloydminster forward Gavin Pratt, who scored two goals and set up another in Sunday’s rout. “It was good to get the three out of four this weekend and keep pushing for a spot in the playoffs.”
The Lancers stuck with the program early Sunday, even after a somewhat frustrating Saturday stalemate, in which they fired 58 shots but scored just two goals and gave up the Storm’s tying tally on a Grande Peace power play with five minutes left in regulation time.
“I think we responded a lot better today,” said Lancers forward Kelton Doolaege, who opened and closed the scoring as part of his three-point Sunday. “Obviously, yesterday was kind of a tough time. Yeah, we definitely outplayed them (but settled for a tie). But it was good to see the boys battle back today for the win.”
The North’s last-place Storm (7-16-5) were playing their third game in as many days Sunday and put up a fight in the scoreless first period. But the Lancers then went to work in a big way, scoring three goals in the first five minutes of the middle period. The second of Pratt’s back-to-back goals made it 3-0, prompting the Storm to replace starting goaltender Pacey Thomas with Bracken Larocque, at least temporarily.
“We always get more comfortable later in the game, I think,” Pratt said about his Lancers. “The first is always, sometimes, a little rough compared to the second and third periods.”
Doolaege, a 17-goal scorer from Castor, said the Lancers didn’t panic in the early going Sunday and stayed composed after the first period.
“When we came into the (dressing) room in the intermission, we knew we had to get our energy up to get ’er done.”
Capping his three-point afternoon, Pratt made a money pass to Connor Nickle, whose goal put the Lancers up 6-0. It was that kind of a playmaking afternoon, as captain Rhett Romanchuk showed in setting up Doolaege with precision. It’s as though the veteran Romanchuk, a high-scoring defenceman, is a linemate.
“Yeah, we’ve got a pretty good connection,” Doolaege said with a smile. “We were talking about it in the room afterward. We’ve scored quite a few goals together. It’s pretty surprising, for him being a defenceman. Good chemistry.”
Joining the Lancers’ chemistry club Sunday were Ty Domshy and Kael Scott, each with a goal and an assist. Romanchuk, Josh Frazer and Aiden Harman each collected two assists.
Asher Ammann, with 30 saves, posted his third straight victory and came within a whisker of netting his first U18 AAA shutout. Grayson Conrad scored the lone Grande Peace goal with just 48 seconds remaining.
In Saturday’s game, Nickle and Brody Sunderland scored for Lloydminster. Chase Wiens and Kade Hughes, with the game-tying power-play goal, tallied for Grande Peace.
The Storm’s Larocque made a whopping 56 saves, while the Lancers’ Stran Edge blocked 34 shots.
Grande Peace weathered an up-and-down weekend that saw the Storm fall 10-1 to the North’s first-place Edmonton Junior Oilers Blue (22-5-3) on Friday night, before making the trip to Lloydminster.
“Yesterday, we had a decent game, definitely,” Wiens, the Storm captain, said about their tie with the Lancers. “We went back to how we usually play.
“Now, we just have to reset after (Sunday’s setback). We’re trying to keep in the mix and see what happens.”
Long bus trips are the norm for the Grande Prairie-based Storm, who left Lloydminster on Sunday afternoon for the nine-hour trek back home.
“Yeah, a lot of travelling,” said Wiens, a 17-year-old forward from Fort St. John, B.C., home of the late Brian (Spinner) Spencer of NHL history.
“We left on Friday morning — 11 o’clock, I would say — to come down to Edmonton for a game at 7:30 that night. And then, we continued here (to Lloyd).”
The Lancers point to their December trip to Grande Prairie as a turning point in their season.
“Yeah, when we went and got three points up there, I think that was kind of the turning point,” Lloydminster coach Chris King said after Sunday’s game. “Long bus trips like that gel teams, and we had a real good trip culture-wise. So, the boys have really bought into that, and now — no matter the game — you can see that they’re sticking with it, sticking with it.
“Even yesterday, we had 52 shots, and we only scored twice, so it would be easy to come out with your heads down today, and I thought the boys did a great job of bouncing back.
“With eight games left, anything can happen. We’ve just got to keep getting points and putting ourselves in a good position to make playoffs. If we get in, we’ll be scary for whoever we play in the first round.”
The Lancers, 4-1-1 in their past six games, have made their playoff push while dealing with sickness and multiple injuries.
Veteran forward Logan Flewell, battling the flu, sat out Saturday’s game and the final two periods Sunday.
“He gave us a period today, but couldn’t keep going,” coach King said.
First-year forward Tripp Fischer took a hit in Saturday’s contest and was sidelined Sunday with an AC shoulder sprain. That’s the same injury that has dogged defenceman Cobin Garnett since he joined the U18 AAA Lancers at mid-season from the U17 AAA team.
“There’s a protocol coming back from that AC sprain, and we’ve had a few guys on it, so Tripp has to make sure he goes through a non-contact practice, and then contact, so there’s steps he’s got to go through,” said King, who wasn’t immediately sure how long Fischer might be out of the lineup.
“He and Cobin are going to go through those steps. It might be just today. It might be a week. Regardless, our depth (showed). I thought we played really well again today, being down a couple of guys again.
“As we talked about earlier, the resiliency since December has been huge with these guys.”
Ace Brewer, a 17-year-old defenceman, has been out of action for two weeks with a broken finger.
“We’re hoping he’ll be back in a week or two,” said King, whose Lancers host the Sherwood Park Kings (17-13-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday and visit the St. Albert Raiders (17-8-7) at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
“I’m hoping we’ll be back to at least five of our D-men, maybe six. And, hopefully, Flewell will be back up front.
“Playing down four players, like we did this weekend, it’s tough. We had 10 forwards today, and our guys played hard, but doing that on back-to-back nights is near impossible in this league.”
In both weekend games, Lloydminster dressed defence call-up Logan Cooper from the U17 AAA Lancers. Cooper now has eight games under his belt at the U18 AAA level.
Two of his fellow U17 AAA defencemen, Grier Pahtayken and Peter Osman, were called up to the U18 AAA team on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
U17 AAA LANCERS
Immediately after the U18 game Sunday, the U17 Lancers were victorious on the same Hub ice surface. Cooper scored the winning goal, with an assist from Osman, in a 5-2 victory over Leduc.
Shaun Going, a frequent call-up to the U18s, scored a goal and an assist in the U17 victory. Those Lancers also got goals from Easton Carfantan, Dextyn Vasseur and Kaleb Hozack, and a 30-save performance from Evan Fedor.
Including a 3-3 tie at home Saturday against Grande Peace, Lloyd has an 11-9-4 record in the AEHL’s U17 AAA division.
The Lancers have posted nine wins, two losses and a tie in their past 12 games. That stretch included a seven-game winning streak.
U18 AAA STEELERS
In support of U18 AAA girls’ Lloydminster Steelers forward Peyton Walker in her cancer fight, the U18 AAA boys’ Lancers hung her No. 13 jersey behind their bench during Saturday’s game in Lloyd.
Before heading to British Columbia for tournament action this weekend, the Steelers played a couple of Alberta Female Hockey League games last weekend.
On the road Sunday, Lloyd lost 3-1 to St. Albert. Peyton Oborowsky scored for the Steelers, and Kenzie Zidar recorded 31 saves.
At home Saturday, Lloyd dropped a 3-1 decision to Sherwood Park.
The Steelers’ Hayden Feland, with the opening goal, netted her fourth of the season. Zidar stopped 35 shots.
Lloydminster (5-13-2) is in sixth place in the AFHL.
Read more: U18 AAA Lancers at home this weekend
