A’s bounce Regals from title hunt

At 18:26 in the first period, Dean Watson of the Grande Prairie A’s elbowed Justin Paul as they crashed into the boards by the A’s bench. Paul went down and had to be helped to the bench, but he continued to play.

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

The High Prairie Regals are hanging up the blades after losing 7-3 in their final playoff game against the Grande Prairie A’s. The Regals hosted the A’s at home on Feb. 27, and they struggled from the beginning partly because Ty and Brad Macnab were not in the game. Davis Baroldi gave the Regals their first power play goal of the game at 4:10 in the first frame. He slipped the puck into the net with assistance from Tyler Shantz and Ryan Trimble. But the A’s fought back with their three goals of their own. Rod Bowers and Darryl Mahar scored even-strength goals, and John Dunphy acquired a power play goal. Those receiving assists were Kevin Poston, Kelly McLeod, Jordan Bombier, Kurt Woodward and Wade Campbell. Then the Regals exploited their second power play opportunity of the frame. Tyler Shantz flicked the puck into the net at 16:26, and Ryan Trimble and T.J. Cunningham assisted on the play. Two minutes later, Dean Watson elbowed Justin Paul as they crashed into the boards by the A’s bench. Paul went down on the ice and had to be helped to his bench, but he continued to play. Watson received a two-minute penalty for elbowing. Nonetheless, the A’s led 3-2 at the end of the first frame. The Regals were desperate to gain momentum in the second frame, but penalties and strong fore- checking by the A’s held them back. Two minutes in, Shane Mudryk put the puck in the attic with assistance from Brenan Jones and Rod Bowers. Nearly six minutes later, Fraser Berg repeated Mudryk’s feat with assistance from John Dunphy and Kurt Woodward. Then, at 14:20, Brenan Jones scored a power play goal when the puck went in off goaltender’s Cannon Cunningham’s skate. Mike Mohr and Rod Bowers assisted. Later, in one of the team’s few opportunities for a goal, Justin Paul took the puck down the ice on a breakaway. Paul fired a shot as he approached the net, but it went high and wide. The A’s were ahead 6-2 at the end of the second frame. The Regals had a spark of life early in the third frame, when T.J. Cunningham flicked the puck into the net. Tyler Shantz and Paul assisted on the play. But at 9:24, Darryl Mahar fired a shot high into the net. Mike Mohr and Jordan Bombier assisted on this power play goal. Late in the third frame, the Regals had a chance to narrow the A’s lead in 5-on-3 play, but this too failed to produce any results for them. One of the two penalties resulted because Dave Larson, the A’s goaltender, pushed the net during action close to him. The officials warned him about a similar incident in the first period. Despite this, the Grande Prairie A’s won the game 7-3. The three stars selected were Rod Bowers and Wade Campbell for the A’s, and Rollie Gladue for the Regals. Brian Martinson, the Regals coach, offered his thoughts following the game. Martinson laments that the Macnabs were not in the line-up for this crucial game. “Brad was one of our key centre icemen,” says Martinson. “He played the power plays, so that’s a big hole right there.” Martinson also says it was too bad the Regals ended up on the tougher side of the draw for the playoffs. “If we could have got somebody like Peace River or Fairview, I think we would’ve been better off. Grande Prairie ended up a point ahead of us, and we knew it was going to be a tough series, and we figured we could’ve beat them too.” However, he points out Rollie Gladue and the defencemen played well.

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