UNITY-- In one of the more exciting matchups to date in provincial competition, the U18 Lazers and the Wilkie/Biggar National Outlaws met in the northern semifinal. The series could not have been any closer with the National Outlaws winning the first game 2-1.
Game two was in Unity March 1 and saw the Wilkie/Biggar team take an early lead, with Nicholas Buckham-Nelson, assisted by Emerson Cey and Tyce Shields, scoring in the first minutes of play. Cruz Sittler made it 2-0 before the end of the first; assists going to Reid Bleier and Vlad McTavish.
Unity tied it up 2-2 in the second, with goals by Kellen Headrick and Joshua Delhommeau. Kai Riou and Dominic Sieben assisted on Headrick’s goal, while Rylan Fauth and Dawson Grant helped out Delhommeau.
While shots on goal were relatively even through most of the first two periods, Unity came on hard in the third, trying to get that winning goal to force the series into a third game. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to get the puck past netminder Nelson Heuchert.
The National Outlaws will advance to the northern U18B provincial final where they will take on the winner of a Porcupine Plan/Melfort series.
Both the U18 Kerrobert Rage and Macklin Mohawks advanced to the U18D northern provincial final over the weekend. Whichever one wins this next series will be in the provincial final so it is sure to be some tough competition by two neighbouring teams.
The Rage beat the Paradise Hill Hawks 9-0 in the second game, in Kerrobert, March 1. The first game, in Paradise Hill Feb. 28 had ended in a 4-4 tie.
The Mohawks, meanwhile, won both their games against the Eston Ramblers, 9-4 in Macklin and 7-3 in Eston.
The U13C Lazers continued their provincial winning streak with victories over the Maidstone Jets, 8-0 Feb. 16 at home and 7-1 March 2 in Maidstone. They have thus qualified for the northern final where they will play the Outlook Ice Hawks, March 8 in Outlook, and game two in Unity March 15 at 7 p.m.
The U13B Wilkie/Biggar National Outlaws came back from their first game 6-3 loss to Meadow Lake in a high scoring game played in Biggar, winning it 12-10. With the series tied at one win each, a third mini-game was then played immediately. It was close but ultimately Meadow Lake prevailed, winning 2-1 and eliminating the U13 National Outlaws from provincial competition.
The Hague Royals eliminated the Unity Lazers in U15B competition, winning both games in the series, 81-2 and 16-3.
