By Ryan Laverty /
Calgary Royals
After three years of missing the playoffs, the Calgary Royals took a giant step back towards respectability in 2009/10.
Sure, they still entered the post-season as the South Division’s seventh and final seed, but the Royals did more than enough once they got there to warrant big hopes for the future.
While head coach – and newly crowned general manager – Jeff Peters will lose a handful of important veterans after this season, guys such as Brandon Nowakowski and Cam Lamoureux, the Royals’ youth movement earned more than a taste of what it takes to be successful in the AJHL. Rookies Jeff Lidgett and Zach Beisel both sparkled in the Royals’ five-game series against the Camrose Kodiaks.
The Kodiaks ultimately rallied in the fifth and final game to take the series, but there will no doubt be a new level of confidence at Father David Bauer next September.
Calgary Canucks
As it was all year, goaltending was a problem for the Calgary Canucks this post-season.
And while it’s hard to blame the Canucks’ first-round exit completely on rookies Chase Martin and Dusty Nickel, it’s hard to say they don’t wear a fair bit of it.
Bluntly, the duo cratered when it mattered against the Brooks Bandits. The Canucks’ offence certainly didn’t help in their 3-0 loss in Game One, it was netminding that dropped the ball in Game 2. Nickel was chased after allowing a pair of goals 35 seconds apart in the second period of an 8-5 loss. Martin was no better, allowing two more immediately upon his insertion into the game for a grand total of four goals in 1:38.
Simply put, the Canucks never fully recovered from that spurt. They took Game 3 to maintain respectability, but the Bandits quickly extinguished any hope of a comeback with a Game 4 victory.
Camrose Kodiaks
Not that there was ever a question about his talent, but Camrose Kodiak Erik Slemp is making a statement about his resolve this playoff season.
After needing a full five games to dispatch the seventh-place Royals in the opening round of the playoffs, Slemp ensured he left nothing to chance in the Kodiaks’ divisional semifinal series with the Brooks Bandits.
In a series that featured three overtimes in five games and all but Game One was decided by a single goal, Slemp, simply put, was the difference.
The first-year Kodiak and third-year Junior potted a pair of overtime winners against the Bandits, including the decisive marker in Game 5, to push his team through. That marked the third overtime winner and fourth game-winning goal of this young playoff season. And while not every goal was a game-winner against the Bandits, all eight could be termed clutch, especially his Game 1 hat trick.
Something says Slemp is not done, but the Kodiaks’ third round opponent could be quickly if they don’t figure out a way to contain him.
The Kodiaks will take on the Spruce Grove Saints in the AJHL semifinal.
Canmore Eagles
As it always does in the midst of a good time, midnight came a bit earlier than the Canmore Eagles had hoped.
After rolling the Olds Grizzlys from the first round of the playoffs, the Eagles’ party seemed like it might never end against the division-winning Okotoks Oilers.
As he was all season long, rookie netminder Sam Brittain was sensational throughout the playoffs, keeping his team in most games against the Oilers. Brittain faced at least 35 shots a night in the six-game divisional semifinal and more than 40 shots, twice.
Still, after trading punches through the first four games, the Eagles lacked the knockout blow that would see them take down the South’s heavyweight.
The series loss to the Oilers, while no doubt disheartening, completed a dramatic rebuilding process for head coach and general manager Andrew Milne who took over the roles three years ago. Milne has shown that his foresight is unrivalled. Shortly after taking over his post from Bob Miller, Milne dealt away several top veteran players in favour of offering his younger players more responsibility. The bulk of those guys will return as 19- and 20-year-olds next season and should make a push to the top of the standings.
Drumheller Dragons
The Dragons finished 10 points up on the Drayton Valley Thunder to steer clear last overall. Still, both teams missed the playoffs as the last-place teams in their respective divisions, so it’s not like head coach Dan Price could have spent the first two weeks of March very content.
That said, the tried and tested cliché of ‘there’s always next year’ is applicable for one of the youngest teams in the AJHL’s South Division. With more 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds than 20-year-olds, the Dragons could have passed for a Midget team this year, so one would think it can only get better from here.
Brooks Bandits
As much as they willed it, 2009/10 didn’t provide the fairytale ending the Brooks Bandits had hoped for.
Termed ‘The Decade of Dedication,’ the Bandits’ 10th anniversary season started off rocky and never quite hit the form most had hoped or expected. The firing of head coach Brian Curran was an emotional shocker to many around the locker room. Interim bench boss Ryan Papaioannou put in a yeoman’s effort to keep the fabric of the team together and to help the Bandits finish in the middle of the South Division’s pack.
Led by veteran goaltender Rob Gunderson and a pair of rookies in RJ Reed and Riley Simpson, the Bandits rolled over the Canucks in four games to take their opening round series, but couldn’t find an answer for Erik Slemp and the Camrose Kodiaks.
Still, while the first decade ended with whimper, the Bandits will be blessed with an exorbitant number of veterans returning in 2010/11 and should start the next decade with a bang.
Okotoks Oilers
The best way to solve a hot goalie? Pepper.
At least that’s what it took for the South-winning Oilers to get past Canmore Eagles netminder Sam Brittain. Lots of it.
The Oilers rifled nearly 40 shots a game at the Eagles’ star ‘tender to earn a series win in six games. Heading into the AJHL semifinals against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, that sort of feat will need to be replicated. The MOB have been backstopped by another sensational rookie in Jesse Kallechy, which means the Oilers will need big guns John McInnis, Chris Duszynski and Brandon Hoogenboom to pick up their scoring punch going forward.
The trio led the Oilers in the regular season with a combined 98 goals, but only managed four between them in six games against the Eagles.
Olds Grizzlys
They may have expected goals would be hard to come by without a plan, but that didn’t mean the Olds Grizzlys found one that would solve Eagles’ goalie Sam Brittain in the opening round of the AJHL playoffs.
Brittain, after all, is the Calgary kid who helped the AAA Buffaloes to a Mac’s Midget Tournament and a silver medal at the Telus Cup national Midget championship a year ago. As good as he proved to be during his rookie season for the Canmore Eagles, the Griz had to expect him to get better. And he did.
The 17-year-old posted a .953 save percentage in the three-game series to oust the Grizzlys from the playoffs.
Olds’ netminder was no slouch either, but the 57 shots he faced in his team’s Game 1 overtime loss didn’t help with fatigue by the third and ultimately final game of the series.
After 10 years with the club, head coach and director of hockey operations Kevin Hasselberg resigned both posts following the Grizzlys’ first-round exit. |
