For multiple reasons, the Vermilion Tigers gained a measure of satisfaction from their third-place showing at the Alberta junior B hockey championship in Lloydminster.
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Not only did the Tigers push their way onto the medal podium on Easter Sunday, but they were also the only local team to do so, after the host Lloydminster Bandits went winless and finished last in the six-team tournament at the Hub.
“It feels great,” said sophomore forward Jaxson Toutant, one of multiple Lloydminster natives playing with Vermilion.
“I left Lloyd (two years ago) to go play with new people and a new organization. I met these guys with the Tigers, and it’s been awesome.
“It just feels good to win, get third, beat Lloyd out at least, and just do what we did today.”
In the bronze-medal game, oddly a 10:30 a.m. start, Vermilion showed up on time and defeated the Sherwood Park Knights 5-2. The Tigers scored the opening two goals and led 2-1 and 5-1 after the first and second periods.
Toutant, who posted a combined 95 regular-season points during the past two years with Vermilion, previously played minor hockey at home in Lloydminster through his U18 AAA run with the Lancers/Bobcats organization.
The past week at junior B provincials was reminiscent of home-cooking hockey for Toutant and many of the other Tigers from Lloyd, Vermilion and neighbouring communities.
“It felt like we were at home,” said Toutant, who had five points in as many games during provincials.
“We have super-good fans, and they came and supported us through everything. They drove hours for us. It was perfect.”
The Tigers performed well for most of the provincial championship, compiling a respectable record of three wins, an overtime loss and a regulation defeat through five straight days of action.
Vermilion’s 2-1-1 slate in preliminary play, however, wasn’t enough to unseat the La Crete Lumber Barons or Medicine Hat Cubs for a berth in the gold-medal game. With those finalists already confirmed, the Tigers clubbed the Cubs 10-1 in the last round-robin game Saturday night.
Vermilion also defeated the Calgary Northstars Black 5-4 in overtime on opening day, April 1. The Tigers’ 2-1 OT loss the next day was against Sherwood Park, the same team Vermilion defeated in the third-place game.
The Tigers’ only one-sided loss was a 6-0 decision on Day 3 against the eventual gold-medallists from La Crete, the class of the tournament.
Securing a bronze-medal finish, Vermilion regrouped two weeks after Lloyd swept the Tigers in the Northeastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League final, with both teams already guaranteed provincial berths.
“We kind of put our foot down in the final against Lloyd, and we just put it past us when we came here,” said Toutant, who turned 20 in February. “We did what we could and ended up getting third.
“It’s been pretty good (keeping pace at provincials). Kids are in and out of the lineup, trying to make it work. The kids that are playing all the time, you’ve got to just keep stretching and be ready. It’s a lot of hockey in five days.”
Now that the hockey season has finished, the five-foot-11, 165-pound Toutant is considering a return to lacrosse with the junior B Lloydminster Xtreme, whose lineup includes hockey players from the Tigers, Bandits and Wainwright Bisons. Not to mention Lloydminster Bobcats’ junior A defenceman Brady Gamble.
“I might get back into lacrosse, playing here in Lloyd,” Toutant said. “After my midget years, I just went straight to hockey, started working and stuff, so I never had time. But, this year, I think that I’ll be able to make it work.”
Outside of sports, Toutant plans to obtain his Class 1 truck-driving licence.
In the meantime, he’s been working at his girlfriend’s family farm in Provost.
EX-WHLer BATTLES INJURY
Earlier this winter, Toutant tried to help his close friend and former minor hockey teammate, Kale Tipler of Edgerton, make a comeback with Vermilion. Tipler, a 2006-born defenceman, would have brought two years of major junior experience from his Western Hockey League stint with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Tipler tested his ailing shoulder during a Tigers’ practice before Christmas, but the pain was still too pronounced and prevented him from returning to action this season.
“I really wish Kale was able to join us,” Toutant said. “I was trying to get him to come, but his shoulder just wouldn’t let him. Maybe next year, depending on his health. He would do so much for us.”
Toutant and Tipler had even co-ordinated a travel schedule to reduce their costs for regular trips to Vermilion for practices.
“My girlfriend is from Provost, and I go down there and help on the farm quite a bit, so I’m usually there during the week sometimes,” Toutant said. “So, it would just work perfectly. I could have ripped past Edgerton, grabbed him and we could have gone to Vermilion. I was trying to make it work for the best for him, but his shoulder just wouldn’t let him.
“He was doing good for his first time skating in (a couple of months). He got home and said he wanted to come back, and then he woke up (the next day) and his shoulder just couldn’t do it. I would rather he get better than to cause any more damage to his shoulder.”
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