It didn’t competely turn out the way it was hoped, but the Bashaw Stars bantam tournament went well in spite of the outcome.
The Stars finished up the event held Dec. 8 to 10 with the silver, falling by a count of 9-2 in the final to Simons Valley from Calgary.
Co-coach Roy Carlson explained the tournament was a success for the Stars overall.
“The team played well for three games and then in the final, we got scored on within the first few seconds and that seemed to take much of the wind out of our sails,” he said.
“Simons Valley came out strong and our kids just couldn’t seem to muster up much.”
Clifford Cardinal scored in the opening frame for the Stars to tie it, but Simons Valley would add two more in the first and pour in five in the second before Tristan Schoff would notch another for Bashaw.
Carlson admitted that having just two lines and playing that many games in a short time may have contributed to a less than stellar effort in the final against a team that could cycle three lines.
Bashaw defeated Blackfalds to open in the tournament Friday night by a score of 6-4. Avery Nelson and Ethan Taylor each had a pair of goals with singles from Ethan Bloomquist and Ryan Catterall. That was followed by blanking Grande Prairie 10-0 Saturday on hat tricks from Bloomquist and Cole Fankhanel, a pair of goals by Taylor and singles from Nelson and Catterall.
Those victories put them into Sunday’s semi-final, which ended up as an 8-3 win over Hardisty-Hughenden. This time Ryan Klevgaard had the hat trick with the rest of the scoring coming from Bloomquist, Fankhanel, Catterall, Taylor and Lukas Sandin.
Mid-pack
Meanwhile, the Tier 3 season for the club has been going well enough and has them sitting in fifth in the eight-team league standings with a 3-4 record.
Carlson stated the players are steadily improving and the coaching staff is happy with the progress being made.
“The focus at practice right now is getting better at the basic skills and fundamentals of the game,” he said.
“As that goes, the plan is to add in some work on systems and hopefully peak at the right time around playoffs at the end of February and into March.”
The team recently saw an addition to the roster, something Carlson felt will give them a boost. It also helps that Bashaw Minor Hockey was able to put together a bantam team this season after not having one for the last few years.
“Adding another player will give the rest a shot in the arm as will the time off over the Christmas break,” he stated.
“It’s also great to have the team in this division back again, especially since there are several kids that may not have played this year if not for having a local team.
Star-gazing — The bantam squad was in Ponoka Dec. 17 (result unavailable) and will close out 2017 in Calmar Dec. 22. Meanwhile, the peewee team finished up their schedule before the break with a pair of road games in Millet and Vegreville (results unavailable) with the atoms having one contest left in Vegreville Dec. 30 following two games this weekend.
