Richard Froese
South Peace News
The High Prairie Wheat Kings finished second in the Alberta U-13 Tier 3 hockey championships March 23-26 in Lac La Biche.
The Wheat Kings lost 7-6 in the final in a heart-breaker to the Irvine Bulldogs.
Matthias Willier led High Prairie with three goals. Markus Willier, Jayden Paul and Bentley Willier also scored.
“It was a hard and fast game with multiple momentum shifts,” co-head coaches Riley Prevost and Sheldon Bossert say.
Owen Pasiciel led the Bulldogs with a hat trick. Leif Davidson added a pair while Hollis Hutchinson and Grady Perrault added the others.
The Wheat Kings were outshot 29-22.
Coaches were impressed with the effort of the team in the tournament.
“We were extremely pleased with the final result,” Prevost and Bossert say.
“Of course, it is upsetting to lose a provincial title game by such a close margin, but we are proud of the players and how they represented themselves on the big stage of a provincial championship.”
Coaches say the tournament was a great experience for the team.
“This group of athletes has learned a tremendous amount about dedication to the craft, fine-tuning small skills and learning the importance of conditioning to be able to play at the high level at provincials.”
“We are all super-excited to finish the job next season.”
High Prairie advanced to the final after beating the Athabasca Hawks 6-5 in overtime in the semifinals.
Matthias Willier – Mr. Clutch – scored the game-winner unassisted at 10:40 into the extra frame.
High Prairie trailed 2-1 after the first period and 5-2 after the second.
However, the Wheat Kings didn’t lose faith and stormed out the gate in the third period with three unanswered goals in the third period to tie the game 5-5 with just under 12 minutes left in regulation time. All three goals were scored by Willier, who tallied four in the game.
Other goals were scored by Zennyn Auger and Markus Willier.
Drake Bickerstaff scored twice for Athabasca while Jace Pombert, Hudson Isaac and Jasper Hynes added the other goals.
High Prairie lost 8-5 to Irvine in the opening game.
“Things did not start well for the Wheat Kings as they fell behind 2-0 in the first 32 seconds,” Prevost and Bossert say.
However, High Prairie battled back as Matthias Willier scored three goals to tie the game 3-3 halfway through the second period.
Willier finished with four in the game while CJ Anderson scored the other goal.
Davidson scored twice for the Bulldogs. Single goals were scored by Koen Millington, Perrault, Pasiciel and Sophia Drescher.
Irvine outshot High Prairie 33-32.
Up next, High Prairie defeated the Glenlake Hawks 8-6.
The Wheat Kings were down 5-3 after the second period.
But leading scorer Matthias Willier came up with a Hurculean effort in the third period to lead the team to victory, the coaches described.
Willier scored seven of the High Prairie goals in the game while Paul added the other.
Wheat King goaltender Kaileb Willier slammed the door in the third period and stopped 32 of 36 shots in the game.
Carson Wickenheiser scored twice for the Hawks while Michael Sweeney and William Stoodley added the others.
High Prairie defeated the Marwayne Dewberry Renegades 9-4 in their final game before the playoff round.
Matthias Willier led the way with five goals. Markus Willier netted three goals while Tazannah Belcourt also scored.
Wheat King goaltender Kaileb Willier was solid in the net as he made 40 saves in the game.
Bauer Becker netted a hat trick in the loss with Cade Elliott scoring the other goal.