View From The Ice
by Brett Holmes
January 7 1997
During the holiday season the Provost Pee Wees attended Lloydminster’s McDonald Minor Hockey tournament. We won three of the four games to advance to the finals against Lloydminster A&W. And this is how we got there.
Game No. 1
We started out the tournament on Sunday Dec.29 against Lashburn. Adams scored two minutes into the game, then less than four minutes later Klein and McMann scored. At the end of the first we were in the lead three to one. We applied quite a bit of pressure and they did not. So at the end of the second it was nine to one.
There was only one penalty in the third period and that was theirs, we did not manage to accomplish anything on the powerplay, but we did expand our lead in other parts of the third period. At the end of three, it was 13-2.
McMann had an awesome game scoring six and assisting on three, for nine points and the MVP of the game. Adams had five points.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period- Adams (McMann); Klein (McMann, Adams); McMann (Klein).
Second Period-
McMann (Watchal, Rehman); McMann (Ganser); Watchal (unassisted); Adams (unassisted); Watchal (McMann, Holmes); Adams (unassisted).
Third Period-
McMann (unassisted); McMann (unassisted); McMann (Adams); Landmark (Holmes).’
Provost MVP was Cam Stempfle. McMann had the game winning goal.
Game No. 2
This game was played at the Civic Center against Lloyd Griffin Legrand on Tuesday.
At the end of the first we thought it might be a tough game because it was still 0-0.
But we broke loose in the second, scoring five while they scored only one.
In the third we scored six while they scored only one again. The game ended up 11-2 in favor of the Provost Pee Wees.
McMann had another excellent game, but not as good as the other, scoring three and assisting on two for five points. Stempfle also had five points (three assists and two goals).Watchal collected four points and Klein had three. Both of Holmes’ goals didn’t even touch the back of the net.
So far this tournament we had scored 24 and had 4 scored against us.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period- No Scoring.
Second Period-
McMann (Stempfle, Watchal); Holmes (Stempfle); Ganser (McMann); McMann (Klein, Landmark);
McMann (Klein).
Third Period-
Watchal (Stempfle, Ringrose); Holmes (Ringrose); Stempfle (Watchal, Landmark); Klein (McMann, Martin); Stempfle (Watchal); Adams (Ganser).
Provost MVP was Kevin Ganser, and he also had the game winning goal.
Game No. 3
We played A&W for the third time this year and we had beat them both times by a fair margin. We thought that we could easily win, and we didn’t. But we probably could’ve if it weren’t for the very poor officiating.
For example: One of the Provost players gets a penalty for shooting the puck after the whistle. That’s okay until an A&W player does it and just gets a warning that he could get a penalty.
Another example: Provost player gets hit from behind and lies injured on the ice, no call from the refs. Provost player and A&W player both go riding into the boards together. Provost player gets up and continues to play. Some fans distinctly remember the A&W player getting up, looking to their bench, then going back down. That’s when the refs call a penalty on our player.
I just thought it was the worst officiating I’ve ever seen.
It wasn’t until the end of the game when the ref called something—a player from A&W cross-checked one of our players above the waist.
Anyway, we lost that game 5-4 when Lloyd scored with about three minutes left.
Ganser had tied it up at four a minute earlier after he got a nice pass from Klein and went in all alone and put it top corner with a wristshot on a breakaway.
The A&W team played dirty, well, maybe not dirty, but extra rough.
Watchal was suspended for the next game for checking from behind.
We lost the game so we had to play Marwayne in the semi-finals who is undefeated in the tournament.
The gamesheet was not available.
Game No. 4 Semi-Finals
Despite not having Watchal, we scored just over two minutes into the first period to take the early lead. We then scored again a few minutes later. And by the end of the period it was 4-0 for Provost.
By the time they scored it was 5-0 in the second period.
We then got that one back 30 seconds later.
After two periods of play it was 6-1.
In the second there was a great goal scored on passing. Marwayne tried to shoot the puck out of their zone but Holmes stopped it at the face off dot with his skates. He then passed it to Martin at the bottom of the other circle, he then passed it over to Stempfle waiting at the top of the crease, on the same side of Holmes, and he didn’t miss the wide open net.
In the third we scored three while they scored one with just over a minute left in the game.
Stempfle had five points. Ganser, McMann, Holmes each had four points.
Ryley Adams was the Provost MVP. Rehman had the game winning goal.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period- Klein (McMann, Ganser); Stempfle (Holmes); Rehman (Ganser, McMann); McMann (Ganser).
Second Period-Ganser (Stempfle); Stempfle (Martin, Holmes).
Third Period-
Adams (Stempfle); McMann (Holmes); Holmes (Stempfle).
The final score was 9-2 for the Provost Pee Wees.
Game No. 5 A Final
This was a rematch between Provost and A&W for the tournament.
I’d have to say that the officiating was much better than the other game against this team. But the reffing didn’t matter, because we came up short of the win.
Ganser tied the game up in the first on a two on one with McMann. Ganser put the puck right inside the post. The goalie didn’t know if he was going to pass or shoot.
A&W played more hockey than they did last time. We couldn’t get anything going until the third period.
We put on some major pressure and got a goal out of it from Landmark, a bullet shot from the blueline, to bring us within one, at 4-3.
A&W scored one more on the powerplay with five minutes remaining, then again a minute later.
A&W then got a penalty with just over two minutes left, but we couldn’t get anything going.
Player of the game for Provost was Drew Watchal.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period- Ganser (Watchal, Landmark).
Second Period- McMann (Klein).
Third Period-
Landmark (Stempfle, Klein).
We lost the game 6-3. But we still won 60% of our games in the Lloydminster Tournament.
We ended up scoring more than anybody in the entire tournament. Altogether we scored 40 goals in five games. Average eight goals per game. And the opposition scored 17. Approximately three goals per game.
New Tournament
We were invited to a one day tournament in Kerrobert, Sask. the following Friday. We advanced to the A finals again, and came up short, again.
Game No. 1
We only had two games the whole tournament, and the first one was no problem, beating Macklin 7-4 to make it to the A final game.
Macklin jumped out to a quick lead scoring just over two minutes into the game.
McMann gave Provost the lead less than five minutes later scoring a hat trick in a four minute span.
We allowed just two goals in the first period for a three to two lead over Macklin.
At the start of the second Holmes and Buck (player we picked up from the younger team) scored to make it 5-2. Macklin scored about a minute after Buck, but we got that one back halfway through the second period.
They scored quickly in the third to make it 6-4, but that was their last goal of the game.
Stempfle had the last goal for Provost with six minutes left in the game to make it 7-4 for Provost.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period-
McMann (Ganser); McMann (Watchal, Ganser); McMann (unassisted).
Second Period-
Holmes (Watchal); Buck (Holmes); Klein (Landmark).
Third Period-
Stempfle (Holmes).
Game #2 A Final
Our next game was another rematch of a game earlier this season. We had won the first game 9-8.
It looked liked they grabbed some players off of their midget team to play. Every one except about four were at least six feet tall on skates.
They came out flying from the first face off, scoring just 11 seconds into the game. Then again 30 seconds later. Then again less than three minutes later. Then four minutes after that to make it four to nothing halfway through the first period.
We held them to just one goal in the second and got two for ourselves. Ganser scored both goals, one was a tip in and the other was sort of a fluke because he was on a breakaway, shot it, it hit the goalie’s glove, off of the crossbar, then off the back of the goalie’s helmet and in the net. This goal was scored with just nine seconds left in the second period.
That was it for us, but they kept going, scoring three more in the third to win the A finals 8-2.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period, no scoring.
Second Period-
Ganser (Watchal); Ganser (McMann).
Third Period— no scoring.
Our next game on Saturday was obviously not part of the tournament but a league game against Hardisty/Hughenden team.
This Saturday was someone’s birthday on our team so we wanted to make his birthday better by winning this game. So we did. We won it 8-4.
Holmes started out by putting the puck in the bottom corner of the net a minute into the game with a nice feed from Stempfle in the corner.
Klein scored three minutes later, then Klein scored a late goal with six seconds left in the first period.
It wasn’t until the 14 minute mark of the second when they scored their first goal.
But by the end of the second it was Provost with a big lead over the Hardisty/Hughenden six to two.
In the beginning of the third they surprised us with a goal two and a half minutes in, then again six minutes later.
We evened up the third period scoring with two ourselves to end the game at 8-4 for the Provost Pee Wees.
I would tell you whose birthday it was but he might be embarrassed so I will give you a hint. He scored two goals in this game, and it wasn’t me.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period-
Holmes (Stempfle, McMann); Klein (unassisted); Klein (Ganser).
Second Period-
McMann (Klein, Watchal); Landmark (Watchal); Holmes (Stempfle, Ganser).
Third Period-
Stempfle (Martin); Stempfle (Watchal).
We had a game on Tuesday but it was not soon enough to be put into this week’s paper. The game is in Chauvin, against Chauvin.
Whew, that's a lot of hockey in just a few days.
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I want to see previous issues of View From the Ice.
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