Exactly six full months from the end of their training camp, the Lloydminster Lancers were in the thick of things last Saturday before bowing out of the playoffs in the U18 AAA team’s breakthrough season.
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No one was leaving the Hub early as the Lancers pushed against the mighty St. Albert Raiders, who won 3-1 to sweep the best-of-three Alberta Elite Hockey League divisional quarter-final.
“Yeah, the growth from August is unbelievable,” said Chris King, the Lancers’ first-year coach and the former Lakeland College women’s basketball coach.
“I took this job because I wanted the hardest challenge possible, and it was that. Fantastic growth. We took a young group. We knew it was going to be a struggle early. Credit to these guys. (In the media), they’re quoting trusting the process and resiliency, so I think our message definitely got through to them.
“Today sucks — two bad mistakes ended up in our net. Other than that, it’s a 1-1 game. But that’s a very good (St. Albert) hockey club that we struggled with. We made mistakes and they didn’t really make too many mistakes.”
The North Division’s third-place Raiders won 5-0 at home in the series-opener Wednesday, Feb. 25. That was just three nights after the sixth-seeded Lancers punched their playoff ticket with a 4-1 victory over the fourth-place Sherwood Park Kings on the road on the final day of the regular season.
St. Albert won all four regular-season games against Lloydminster, though two of those contests were decided in overtime.
BRIGHT YOUNG PROSPECTS
For their Lloydminster visit last weekend, Raiders fans decorated the Hub glass and stands with posters and cutouts in support of their players. The Lancers’ loyal base of family and friends was on board as usual, but it was considered an all-too-small home crowd for high-level hockey involving some of Lloyd’s brightest young prospects.
Not to mention promising St. Albert talents like captain Nolan Bisson, a signed Spokane Chiefs’ WHL prospect who began this season with the junior A Lloydminster Bobcats but no longer is part of the AJHL franchise.
The Raiders didn’t show any road weariness in the first period, outshooting the Lancers 18-6 and going up 1-0 on a Lucah Lamb goal.Lloyd regrouped but gave up goals to Jadon Fischer and Bisson, just 1:10 apart, during the breakdown in the final five minutes of the second.
Seattle Thunderbirds’ prospect Tripp Fischer, with assists from Gavin Pratt and graduating captain Rhett Romanchuk, scored a power-play goal 1:38 into the final frame to give Lloydminster the organization’s first playoff tally in three years.
The Lancers had last appeared in the U18 AAA playoffs in 2023, when the Raiders also posted a first-round sweep. Jake Giacobbo, son of current St. Albert coach Geoff Giacobbo, played with the Raiders at that time.
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
Another one of Geoff’s three children, Julianna, is a senior member of the Lakeland Rustlers, now finalists in the ACAC women’s playoffs. Before her game Saturday at the adjoining Co-op Community Arena, she watched the final part of the Raiders-Lancers afternoon showdown at the Hub.
Afterward, she chatted with her dad, who saw Lakeland defeat the Medicine Hat Rattlers on Friday and Saturday nights to sweep that college semifinal and qualify for the conference final.
In their U18 AAA divisional semifinal, the Raiders are up against the North’s second-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers, while the pennant-winning Edmonton Junior Oilers Blue face Sherwood Park in the other North semi. The Kings swept Edmonton Junior Oilers Orange in that divisional quarter-final.
Before coach Giacobbo watched — on his phone — his son Jake in action with the Manitoba junior A league’s Swan Valley Stampeders, and his daughter skate live with the Rustlers, the St. Albert mentor witnessed a strong push from the Lancers.
“I don’t take anything away from Lloyd,” Giacobbo said. “They’re a good, young team that obviously did really well to get into the playoffs.
“There’s so much parity in our league, it’s ridiculous. Our team has been to overtime 20 times this year, twice with Lloyd, and that includes tournaments.
“I’m really happy with our team. We played really well over 200 feet. I don’t think we gave up a lot. But it was a good series. It was right down to the last minutes.”
In the dying minutes of Saturday’s game, the Lancers pulled goaltender Asher Ammann in favour of an extra skater with 2:20 remaining and called a timeout 10 seconds later. They proceeded to take three faceoffs in the St. Albert zone but couldn’t close the two-goal gap.
Ammann stopped 34 shots in his final game at the U18 AAA level.
St. Albert’s Kai Zurowski — also born in 2008 — made 29 saves as both teams went with different goalies from Game 1.
Hits-to-the-head penalties were called five times Saturday, and three of those went to Lloyd. But the relatively tight finish kept any other shenanigans at bay.
“I thought we were pretty undisciplined to start the year,” King said of his Lancers. “We took a lot of penalties (then). But if you look at November on, we were the least penalized team. We didn’t think that was going to happen.”
He said the series-opener wasn’t as one-sided as the 5-0 score might indicate, noting miscues cost Lloyd, especially at the end of periods.
“Once again, (the Raiders) have talented WHL, AJHL kids that have been playing a lot of games, and they buried those chances on us.”
Brandon Wheat Kings’ prospect Carson Ralph returned from the injury list and scored a goal and an assist in Game 1. Ethan Classen, with two, Kingsley MacLellan and Bisson, on the power play, netted the other St. Albert goals. Kyle Denis had a pair of assists. Seth Badry recorded a 41-save shutout and added an assist. Stran Edge made 31 saves in the Lancers’ net.
DOMSHY ON SIDELINES FOR PLAYOFF SERIES
Lloydminster was missing one of its top players in assistant captain Ty Domshy, a 17-year-old forward from St. Albert. He suffered another concussion in the final regular-season game at Sherwood Park and couldn’t dress for the first-round playoff series.
“A blindside hit … caught him,” King said Saturday. “It should have been a penalty, but (the officials) didn’t see it. It was his second concussion this year, so we had to be super careful. It was nice to see Ty around the boys today, but of course, playing against his former team, he would like to have been out there and would have battled.
“If you look at Domshy, kind of the heartbeat of our team, (had he been playing) these last couple of games, that’s a third-year guy that’s really gritty and can make some plays. But everyone gets injuries. That’s part of sport, and especially part of hockey.”
The Raiders also were dealing with injuries down the stretch that carried into the playoffs. Three forwards — Kai Richards, Asher Halliday and Jayden Pawluk — were sidelined for Saturday’s game. Young defenceman Owen Archer was earlier lost to season-ending labrum surgery.
From his perspective behind the St. Albert bench, Giacobbo sees much promise in the youthful Lloydminster lineup.
“I guess the challenge in this league is, if you do a really good job and you develop your young guys, then you lose them and you’ve got to find some more,” he said. “Lloyd has some excellent 2010s. They’ll be really fortunate to get all those guys back. If they do, they’re going to be a real good hockey team.”
Brody Sunderland, winning key faceoffs in the late going, was one of those Lancers’ rookies that impressed Giacobbo. Another was the high-scoring and solidly built Kael Scott.
“I’m a big fan of Brody Sunderland,” said the Raiders’ coach. “I coached him last year in St. Albert (with the U15 AAA team). He’s a real strong player. I think his game has steadily improved in the last two years.
“Obviously, Scott is a big, strong kid, and has a nose for the net. He’s a good player, too.
“I think Lloyd plays a good team game. Romanchuk, on the back end, he logs a lot of minutes. He’s an impact player.”
Romanchuk is part of an eight-man Lloydminster graduating class that includes fellow defencemen Ace Brewer and Denton Setzer, goaltender Ammann and forwards Domshy, Kelton Doolaege, Logan Flewell and
Carson Mazzei. Each played an integral role in the turnaround season.
Some of those graduates, along with eligible returning players, are continuing this season with call-ups to junior B and junior A teams in the area.
Read more: U18 AAA Lancers punch playoff ticket on final day of season
