The Bow Valley Timberwolves boys' hockey team was just an overtime goal away from winning the 2023 Alberta U15 AA provincial championship in Wainwright on March 26.
But as the Cochranites quickly learned, anything can happen in overtime, and their victory was snatched away after a goal by their opponents, the Calgary NWCAA Stamps, who scored during the extra stanza to win the game 6-5.
Bow Valley's head coach, Alec Miller, called the gold-medal loss a 'heart-breaker,' after the Timberwolves went into the provincial final as the favourites, having won all four of their previous games at the tournament.
“It definitely stung,” he admitted. “But I think the guys are really proud of everything we accomplished, regardless of the result on Sunday.”
The Timberwolves led 2-0 after the first period, but the Stamps improved their play after the restart and two teams were tied 4-4 after the second. Calgary took an early lead in the third, before Bow Valley tied it up 5-5 midway through the period to force overtime.
Overtime continued to be a tightly fought affair until Dane Hancock won it for the Stamps with his shot in the 16th minute of the additional stanza.
“It was a heart-breaker to say the least, especially because overtime can go either way,” Miller said. “I thought we dominated the first five or six minutes, and then the first chance they got, they squeaked it in the back of our net, so it was a tough one to swallow.”
The loss was even more upsetting as the Timberwolves had easily beaten the Stamps 7-2 earlier in the tournament, during the round robin.
The Cochrane squad's other outings in the round robin included a 5-2 win over the St. Albert Bears on March 23, a 7-2 win over the host Wainwright Polar Kings, and a 5-0 shutout over the Camrose Vikings. Overall, Bow Valley outscored their opponents 29-12 throughout their five games at provincials.
“The whole weekend we had really strong performances,” Miller said. “We went 4-0 in the round robin and in the last game, it was highly competitive. Overtime can go either way.”
Despite the disappointment of falling just short of their final goal, Miller said the Timberwolves players should hold their head high after what was overall a terrific 2022-23 campaign.
Bow Valley dominated the south division in the South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL) this season, logging a league-best 30-1-1 record. After similar dominance in the post-season, they then won the SCAHL banner on March 11 to qualify for provincials.
The Cochranites arrived in Wainwright last week after scoring a league-high 234 goals in their 39 games against SCAHL opposition (an average of six per outing) and conceding just 69, or less than two per fixture.
“To win our league is a huge accomplishment,” Miller said. “I find [the SCAHL] is way more of a grind than the provincial weekend is. It takes 39 games to [win] our league, and that’s a huge accomplishment.”
But even more important than the success they enjoyed on the ice this season, the head coach noted, is the development of Bow Valley's players individually. With most of his group moving up to either U16 or U17 next season, Miller said the Timberwolves coaching staff's goal for the off-season is to set their graduating players up for those progressions in the summer and the fall.
For the four or so Timberwolves who are eligible for another year of U15 hockey, Miller added the goal is for those players to crack a AAA roster in 2023-24, rather than stick around with the AA team for another season.
“The rest will be moving up to the U16 or U17 age bracket,” he said. “I don’t imagine any of our guys will make the [Airdrie Bisons U18 AAA team], as that’s quite the jump, but Airdrie-Cochrane Avalanche for sure, and then there's the Airdrie-Cochrane Havoc as well.”
Miller concluded the interview by praising this year's Timberwolves U15 AA team one last time, adding he's proud of their accomplishments as a team and their individual skill development.
“I know they are too,” he said. “It was a great year for the Timberwolves program at numerous levels, as well as Cochrane Minor Hockey. It’s great to see the development of the game in Cochrane taking that next step.”
