Many valley minor hockey clubs are still finishing up their post-season play.
“The boys have done well in their play-offs, this is their first loss,” said manager Tony Lacher, adding the Raptors swept both Rocky Mountain House and Lethbridge.
“Whoever comes out on Monday night is where the banner will go,” Lacher said of the final game of the Chestermere series. The exact time and date has yet to be decided, he said.
The Bertram Drilling Raptors have been hungry, despite having a short bench of only 11 players.
“We’ve kind of survived the year that way. (Tuesday) night was the first time we took affiliates, and it gave us a little bit more depth.”
Lacher said the coaching staff is trying to keep the team’s confidence up heading into this final.
“Just to stay out of the box, they know they’re contenders. We have some solid goaltending and guys who can put the puck in the net. It’s about getting lots of shots, because some of them are going to go in.
The Raptors were 1-1 going into the second, but fell to a 3-point deficit before they clawed back to make it 4-3 at the end.
The Boston Pizza bantam Raptors are finished after losing to Cochrane, 8-1 in Cochrane and 5-1 in Drumheller two weekends ago.
“It was a really good season, we started out with our first seven games with three losses and three ties. We finished up our season with a lot more wins and made it into the play-offs. Cochrane had a really good team,” said coach Bob Thomson.
“We weren’t evenly matched, they were a really strong team.”
Thomson said it felt as if they were playing with a short bench all year, with players out with sickness and injury for much of the regular season.
He says only three kids are moving up to midget next year, giving hope for a strong season next year.
“We’re going to have a good nucleus going forward, and there will be some good players coming up from peewee. We should be good across the board next year.”
The Raptors will be competing in the Value Drug Mart tournament on March 31 to April 3 in Calgary.
The Encana atom Raptors finished their season, 4-3 and 7-6 against Strathmore.
“They were really close games, the kids did really well. For the youngest team in the league to finish first in the regular season, and lose in finals – they gained a lot of experience this year,” said coach Paul Richard. “Can’t complain, it’s all good and the kids are looking forward to the Tournament of Champions in Lacombe.”
Drumheller will have a really strong team next year, with nine players returning to atom, Richard says.
The Lacombe tournament takes place the weekend of March 26.
The CNRL bantams lost their banner game on March 21, 5-3 against Cochrane after pushing into game three. The Raptors beat them 6-4 in game two, and game one saw Cochrane beat them 4-3 in double overtime.
“It was a good season, definitely making provincials and making first place by the end of the season is what the kids looked forward to. It was really close,” says head coach Dan Belliveau.
“The games were very back and forth.”
The CNRL bantams finished first in their round robin pool at tournament last weekend, but lost in the semi-final game, 8-4 against Vermillion.
“All of our games that we won, we won by one or two goals. The players are a little down on themselves after finishing with a tough loss last night, but they’re happy with the season,” Belliveau said.