The Vermilion Tigers believe they’re right where they belong as participants in Hockey Alberta’s provincial junior B championship this week in Lloydminster.
Read more: Lloyd sweeps Vermilion as both teams prepare for provincials at the Hub
After losing four straight games to the Lloydminster Bandits in the Northeastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League final, the Tigers are poised to make another push for gold at the Hub.
“We like, I wouldn’t say the underdog role, but we like our chances,” Vermilion defenceman Gage Haygarth said before the Tigers’ opening game Wednesday against the Calgary Northstars Black.
“Those four games (against Lloyd), we basically lost by one goal every game. I know for me, when you look back at those types of games and series, you ask, ‘What could have I done differently?’
“But we’ve got a group here where we’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves, and we’re looking forward to having the opportunity to do that.”
The Tigers are essentially a second local club in the six-team tournament, also involving the La Crete Lumber Barons, Sherwood Park Knights and Medicine Hat Cubs.
Many of the Vermilion players are from Lloydminster and area. The Lloyd contingent with the Tigers includes Haygarth and his father Danny, the team’s head coach. Vermilion’s roster also has strong representation from Marwayne, including the entire captaincy group.
In a provincial schedule oddity, Vermilion and Lloydminster don’t play each other in the preliminary round.
So, if those clubs are to face each other one more time this season, it would be on Easter Sunday in the bronze-medal game at 10:30 a.m., or the gold-medal contest at 2 p.m.
“Hopefully, we’re playing for a gold medal, and hopefully it’s a good, packed crowd Sunday,” said the 20-year-old Haygarth, in his third year playing with the Tigers.
“Playing at the Civic Centre last year in Game 7 (of the league semifinal), it was basically a sold-out crowd, so I’m interested in seeing what happens in a Game 7 type of scenario, us against Lloyd, at the Hub.”
The Tigers meet Sherwood Park on Thursday and La Crete on Friday in a pair of 3:30 p.m. games, before finishing preliminary play at 6 p.m. Saturday against Medicine Hat.
On the final day of the tournament, Vermilion would like another shot at Lloydminster.
“Obviously, we’d like a little bit of redemption,” Gage Haygarth said. “They like to think they have our number, but we were right there every game (against them). If we go back to the regular season, we played ’em tough all year. We’re just looking forward to getting the chance to redeem ourselves from the league championship.
“It’s a good rivalry. You go out in the town, and you see (Bandits) at Factory (Sports) or you see them at a restaurant. There’s a little bit of bragging rights. If we beat them, we give it to them. If they beat us, they give it to us, so it’s a good rivalry.”
Haygarth is a Lakeland College student who plans to eventually attend the University of Saskatchewan to continue his education studies. As part of a sports-minded family of coaches, he’s going into his second summer as coach of Lloydminster’s 15U AA Pirates baseball team.
“I’ve got ball starting up, provincials (in hockey) and school,” he said of this week’s slate. “It’s been a little bit busy, but I’m doing OK to manage everything.”
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
The Tigers are managing just fine, too, with a junior B hockey roster that only got better with the addition of affiliates Rhett Romanchuk, Kael Scott and Tripp Fischer — all members of the U18 AAA Lloydminster Lancers this season.
“They’re big contributors,” Haygarth said about the young guns.
“Romanchuk, I can’t speak highly enough on that kid. He’s been with us three years now (as an affiliate). Just being able to watch him develop, he’s six-four and he skates really well. When he comes to our team, he’s not afraid. He plays heavy minutes. Sometimes he’s with me and sometimes with other (defence partners), but he’s really reliable defensively and offensively.
“The same thing with Tripp (Fischer) and Scott. As 15-year-olds, I didn’t think they’d come into the league and be as offensively gifted as they are, but they’re really great hockey players and they’re going to be great players for years to come.
“There’s been a few times where Scott has scored some goals for us and I’ve had to turn around to our trainer and say, ‘That kid is 15.’ It just blows my mind. He’s a great, 200-foot hockey player. Smart.”
Scott and Fischer have teamed up with scoring leader Cade Meiklejohn to form an offensive line for the Tigers, who lost forward Parker Vaughan to injury during the semifinal series against the Wainwright Bisons.
“You could tell we definitely missed Parker in our Lloyd series,” Haygarth said. “He’s a guy that had his ups and downs all year, but he kind of hit his high going into the playoffs, playing so well in that Wainwright series. It’s tough to lose a guy like that. But, replacing him with Scott and Fischer, will hopefully do the trick for us this weekend.”
Read more: Lloydminster makes mark on Edmonton mats
