DIDSBURY -- Although they fell short of making the Heritage League finals, the Mountain View Colts put up a good fight against the league's top team in the semifinal.
The Colts fell 4-3 at home in front of a packed house on March 13 to fall 4-2 in the north division final against the powerful Airdrie Thunder.
Colts coach Rob Turville said the team played very welll against Airdrie.
"They got a couple of fortunate breaks on us and ended up taking the lead," said Turville. "We ended up pulling our goalie with about a minute and a half left. We ended up hitting the post with 30 seconds left to tie it up and send it into overtime but, unfortunately, hit the post and went out instead of into the net. That was the series."
Turville said the coaching staff was very proud of how hard the Colts played throughout the playoffs.
"Game 6 back home I thought our effort and commitment level were there," he said. "I thought the boys laid everything out on the line and gave everything they could. Sometimes there are outside influences that can dictate a game one way or another.
"We were on the wrong side of that. But I'm pretty proud of how the boys handled themselves."
Mountain View opened up the scoring in Game 6 with Josh Gette scoring on a two-on-one odd man rush. The Thunder came back with a goal from Brayden Dunn late in the first.
The Colts then opened up a two-goal lead with a pair of goals from Travis Gerrard.
A donnybrook midway through the second period saw several players getting 10-minute misconducts for the night although not many actual punches were thrown.
Momentum seemed to shift to the Thunder as they put plenty of pressure on Colts goaltender Ethan Woodward, who made some timely saves to keep the Colts on top.
Eventually the Thunder were able to tie the score midway through the third after a blocked shot led to a two-on-one for the visitors.
A few minutes later Tyler McCarry got the game-winner for Airdrie in a scramble in front of the Mountain View net.
The Colts pressed hard to tie with the goalie pulled in the last minute or so but were unable to even the score.
The night before the Colts fell 6-1 in Airdrie to the Thunder after giving up five straight goals. Kale Wright was the only Mountain View player to get the puck past Airdrie netminder Jackson Little, who stopped 31 of 32 Colt shots.
"That was a disappointing one for us," said Turville. "The series was tied at 2-2 at that point. We didn't have our best start once again, which has kind of been our Achilles heel in these playoffs. Against a good team like Airdrie you come out slow and dig yourself a hole, it makes it really tough to climb out."
Although the team is disappointed at being knocked out, Turville said the boys can hold their heads up high and be proud of the season they had.
"You look at the second round against Red Deer," he said. "Red Deer is back-to-back league champs and we win four straight against them with the last three going into overtime. That was something really special. Even against Airdrie they only lost three games all season.
"We went into a best-of-seven and took two games off them back to back and came really close to taking Game 7 to overtime."
Turville would also like to say a big thank you to all the fans for supporting the Colts throughout the season and during the playoff run.
"The support we had was absolutely incredible," he said. "You look at our home games against Red Deer and then Airdrie, it was amazing. I know the players really fed off that energy."
