Athletics sweep Regals

Grande Prairie’s Kelly McLeod scores the sixth goal of the game in his team’s 6-4 win over the High Prairie Regals in the second game of their series Feb. 19. Goaltender Cannon Cunningham narrowly missed saving the puck as his skate just missed deflecting the puck out of harm’s way. Defending is defenceman Ryan Trimble.

Chris Clegg
South Peace News

The Grande Prairie Athletics have ousted the High Prairie Regals from the North Peace Hockey League playoffs for the second straight year and third time in history. The A’s defeated the Regals 6-1 at the Coca-Cola Centre Feb. 21 to sweep the best—of-five NPHL Quarter-Final series 3-0. The A’s won the first game in Grande Prairie 8-6 Feb. 17 and the second game in High Prairie 6-4 Feb. 19. Overall, the A’s outscored the Regals 20-13 in the series. One had to look no further than special teams to see why the series went three straight. The Regals’ last-ranked playoff power play sputtered scoring only three goals – all by Lance Gauchier - in 19 chances for a 10.71 per cent clip. To boot, they surrendered a short-handed goal in the first game. Meanwhile, the A’s clicked on seven of 17 chances, including Kelly McLeod’s two power play markers which broke a 4-4 tie in the second game and propelled the A’s to victory. The at times inept power play also showed on the scoresheet in regard to shots on goal. The Regals had only 88 shots in the three games compared to the A’s 109. In particular, in the second game the Regals had 10 power play chances but only mustered 22 shots on goal the entire game. It clearly showed the Regals didn’t test A’s goaltender David Larson on many occasions. In other playoff action, the Fort St. John Flyers swept the Lakeland Eagles with a 21-7 drubbing Feb. 21. The Spirit River Rangers also eliminated the Hythe Mustangs with a 3-1 win Feb. 21 thus sweeping their series in three games. Falher defeated Peace River 6-4 to take a 2-1 series lead in the other quarter-final. Following are short summaries of the three games in the Regals’ series. Regals 6 at A’s 8 Tue., Feb. 17 The A’s took a 2-1 first period lead on goals from Rod Bowers and D.J. McDonald with Chris Noskey replying for High Prairie. Jordan Bombier gave the A’s a 3-1 lead in the second period but Rollie Gladue, Bruce Cunningham and Davis Baroldi gave the Regals a 4-3 lead with 3:21 left. However, the Regals held the lead only 3:07 as Brenan Jones tied the game 4-4 with 24 seconds left in the period. It was the only time in three games the Regals held the lead in the series. Jason Jubb gave the A’s a 5-4 lead early in the third before Lance Gauchier tied the score. But afterwards it was all A’s. Shane Mudryk gave them the lead they would never reqlinquish; Jones scored his second of the night and Kevin Poston made it 8-6 by scoring into an empty net with 1:14 left. Bruce Cunningham scored his second of the night with 24 seconds left to complete the scoring. The Regals were a miserable zero for nine on the power play and gave up a short-handed goal while the A’s clicked three times on six changes. Shots on goal favoured the A’s 41-31. As was the case in each game, David Larson recorded the win while Cannon Cunningham suffered the loss. A’s 6 at Regals 4 Thur., Feb. 19 The A’s dominated the first period by scoring three goals to take a 3-1 lead. They controlled the play for most of the period outshooting the Regals 13-5. Mike Mohr and Jordon Bombier gave the A’s a 2-0 lead before Craig Van de Ligt closed the gap to 2-1. However, James Seney ripped a high wrist shot over Cannon Cunningham and it was 3-1 A’s. The Regals had a far better second period as they skated much better and forced the play. It resulted in a steady parade of A’s to the sin bin for various infractions. Lance Gauchier’s power play goal made it 3-2 and T.J. Cunningham’s goal just after another penalty expired tied the game. But it wasn’t meant to be. Light-scoring Dean Watson capitalized on a big rebound and the A’s lead 4-3 after two periods. In the third, Lance Gauchier tied the game 4-4 with his second power play goal of the night and third in the series. The A’s had an answer, however. They went on consecutive power plays and scored both times with Kelly McLeod scoring both goals. Two fights in the last minutes ended the game. Dean Watson and Lawrence Anderson battled in the first tilt while Kirk Kimble and Terrence Willier battled in the second. The A’s outshot the Regals 30-22 and scored on three of four power plays while the Regals scored twice on 10 chances. Regals at at A’s 6 Sat., Feb. 21 Scott Taje gave the A’s the lead at the 7:36 mark before Lance Gauchier scored his fourth goal of the series. Little did the Regals know it would be their last “official” goal of the night. Other goals scored were disallowed for various reasons as the Regals couldn’t buy a break. Kirk Kimble and Jason Jubb scored second period goals to give the A’s the lead. Any hopes of a comeback ended early in the third when Kelly McLeod and Brenan Jones scored goals in the first 43 seconds to make it 5-1. D.J. McDonald added a goal with 1:37 left. The A’s outshot the Regals 38-35 and scored on one of seven power plays while the Regals were one for nine.

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