CARSTAIRS - Minor hockey wrapped up in town on the weekend with all three Carstairs Atom teams winning their respective CAHL (Central Alberta Hockey League) championship finals.
The Carstairs Atom C Bruins were crowned CAHL (Tier 7) league champions on Sunday after beating visiting Cardston 1-0 in double overtime. The win gave the Bruins the 2-0 series win in the best-of-three series after winning 5-1 on the road in Cardston on Saturday.
The Atom B Bruins team won their playoff series on March 19 with a 4-2 win at Innisfail to take the (Tier 5) CAHL banner. The day before, the Bruins played off at home and lost 4-3 to Innisfail after beating them on March 17 by a 5-1 score on the road.
The Atom A team won their CAHL league championship (Tier 2) on March 10 at home with a 7-5 win over Rocky Mountain House to sweep the best-of-three final series. Game 1 was in Carstairs and saw the home team beat Rocky Mountain House 5-3.
Bill Sandilands, head coach of the Atom A team, said the team played very well. He said the team improved throughout the year after a relatively rocky start.
"It was a good year for the atom program in Carstairs," said Sandilands.
The Atom A team finished third in their league out of six teams. They managed to beat Stettler in their opening round playoff series best-of-three coming back to win 6-3 and 9-3 after losing their first game 9-7 in Stettler.
"We had a slow start," he said. "I think we had two or three wins at Christmas. We kind of got on a roll in the new year and kept going and finished third."
After beating Stettler, the Bruins faced Rocky Mountain House, who had beaten number 1 Kneehill in the other semifinal, in the final and beat them two straight.
"We played fantastic," said Sandilands. "The first half we started slow; we weren't playing as a team. When the second half came around, the kids really stepped it up. That Stettler team was really tough to play against. We really came together."
Sandilands said the team only had 10 skaters along with two goalies, which made all the players have to really step up.
"I think in the long run having the smaller team helped the kids become really engaged in each game," he said. "If you came off the ice, you're not going to rest long before going right back out."
Sandilands said the players played very well and all stepped up.
"We just came together as a team," he said. "It didn't matter who we put out there. They all played well together. Every shift was good. We only had two lines so we could mix them as we wanted. Our kids fought hard. It was exciting for the kids. I was very happy for them. I told them to just play for yourselves, play as a team and they did."
Cole Dingman, president of Carstairs Minor Hockey, said the season went well with numbers up slightly from last year. The association had eight teams (three atom, three novice and two tyke) with almost 100 players signed up.
Dingman said this is the first year that all three atom teams have won their league titles.
"That was excellent," he said. "This was the first time we've ever had that happen. It was pretty impressive to have a team at every atom level winning their championship."
Dingman said it was great to see all the teams gel together.
"All the teams really came together and played really well and got better as the year went on," he said.
Of the three novice teams, two of them made the playoffs with the A team losing to Olds and the C team falling to Strathmore, both in the first round. The novice B team didn't qualify for playoffs.
The two tyke teams don't have playoffs and recently wrapped up with a fun, no-score tournament.
Rocky Mountain Athletic Association (RMAA) teams also did well this season. The RMAA features players from Didsbury, Carstairs and Crossfield.
The RMAA Pee Wee A won their CAHL title with a sweep of Lethbridge, winning 4-0 in Lethbridge on March 4 and 7-4 at the Didsbury Memorial Complex on March 11.
Meanwhile, RMAA Pee Wee B fell in two games to Sylvan Lake: On March 10, RMAA fell 8-5 in Sylvan Lake, and on March 11 5-4 at Crossfield Arena.
RMAA Midget A lost in two games against Olds in their league playoff. On March 11 in Crossfield, Olds beat RMAA 6-2, while on March 9 Olds won 3-2 at home.
The Midget B team from RMAA lost in two straight to Beiseker: On March 6 in Crossfield 4-0 and March 9 in Beiseker 5-3.
