The Midget AA Bow Valley Timberwolves booked themselves a spot in the South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL) finals after a successful opening playoff tournament in Olds from March 8 to 11.
All teams from each conference qualified for the playoff tournament. The top four teams with the best record after the tournament advanced to the sudden death semifinal game, and the winners of those contests would play in the North and South Finals respectively. The winners of the conference finals would then qualify for the league championship against the semi-final winner from the other conference in a best-of-three series.
The T-Wolves, who finished the season first in the North Conference with a 22-9-3 record, battled to a 5-1 record after the weekend, the only loss coming during round robin play at the hands of the Central Alberta Selects by a score of 1-0. It was all Bow Valley the rest of the tournament where they upended the Airdrie Lightning 4-0, the Red Deer CanPro 9-3 and the Red Deer Elks 3-2 to advance to the semifinal.
Facing Central Alberta for the right to go to the North Final in the first of two games on March 11, the Timberwolves found their redemption after a goal by Ty Parker at the 6:13 mark of double overtime broke the 0-0 deadlock to send Bow Valley to the conference finals later that afternoon against the Red Deer Elks.
The final game was a very close back-and-forth affair. Ben Davidson got the party started for the Timberwolves, scoring less than a minute into the first period to give Bow Valley a 1-0 lead after the first frame. Takuro Okada would then make it 2-0 T-Wolves after he beat the Elks’ goaltender early in the second, but Red Deer would follow up with a goal of their own just five minutes later. Ben Davidson would restore the two-goal lead one minute later on a power play marker to advance Bow Valley’s lead to 3-1. But once again, there was no quit from Red Deer as they scored late in the second and early in the third to knot the game at three.
The game would remain tied until the final two minutes of the game when defenceman Kyle Lappin fired a shot from in close that beat the Red Deer netminder to give Bow Valley an eventual 4-3 victory and a spot in the league championship.
Lappin, one of the Timberwolves assistant captains, is known more for his shut down role on defence in years past, but found some offensive touch during his final year with the Timberwolves. The soon-to-be graduating player played in 39 games this season, scoring seven goals and adding 21 assists for 28 points, good for seventh on the team in scoring.
Lappin said he was just trying to do his best to help the team win and advance to the league final.
“Honestly, it’s just about winning. I’m just happy we got the win to push us to the finals,” Lappin said.
“We battled hard all weekend to get to that spot and I couldn’t have done it without any of my teammates. I was just the guy who was lucky enough to find the back of the net.”
Lappin was also the beneficiary of the league Exemplary Award as one of the league’s top defencemen.
“It was a huge honour honestly. There are so many great players on our team, let alone the league ... it’s just a great honour to get recognized,” Lappin said.
“I really wish I had more words to describe the feeling, but it’s just awesome.”
“Kyle was great all weekend. He played so much on the final day … the semifinal game (against Central Alberta) went into double overtime so the whole team was pretty exhausted for the final game later in the day,” added Timberwolves head coach Tyson Soloski.
“Kyle just goes full speed all the time, I have no idea how he does it. It was special for him to score the game winner just because of how important he is to our team. It was an amazing effort from everyone to push themselves that hard in the finals and Kyle leads the way with his work ethic.”
Bow Valley will now take on the Lethbridge Hurricane Hounds, the South Final winners, in a best-of-three SCAHL final.
The two teams have only met once this season, back on Dec. 3 at Cochrane Arena in a game that finished tied at 3-3. Soloski expects a very close series that should go down to the wire.
“We expect them to come out hard, they have home ice advantage so we want to match the intensity in Game 1. They are a big and skilled so we expect a hard-fought series between two good teams … we are a bit of an underdog but that can be a good thing,” Soloski said.
“I think we just have to keep playing the way we have all year in order to be successful. We stress team defence and winning battles … just do the little things right and I like our chances.”
Lappin added that it will be a fun series to be part of as a player.
“Lethbridge is our greatest competition for sure. They have a real good team over there. I’m excited.”
Game 1 of the series will kick off in Lethbridge on March 15, with Game 2 coming back to Cochrane on March 17 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre. Puck drop for the game will go at 4:15 p.m.
