There was just as much jubilation as feelings of relief flowing from the Olds midget A Grizzlys on March 29 when they clutched the Central Alberta Hockey League championship from the hands of the Vulcan Hawks with a score of 4-3.
The Hawks never gave the Grizzlys a moment to rest in the best-of-three series that wrapped up in Olds.
After the Grizzlys took Game 1 with a score of 6-2 on March 18, Vulcan stormed back on March 27 to punish Olds with a 6-1 final score.
And the Hawks kept the deciding game tense and close to the very end.
The Grizzlys faced a number of disadvantages in the first period— namely an early four-minute major penalty for Ryan Klinck for hitting the head and a large and boisterous Vulcan crowd in the stands.
But at 14:36, thanks to a crosschecking power play against Vulcan's Ryan Palanuik, Karsten Dagg was able to draw first blood for Olds by firing a bullet from left field that whizzed by Hawks' netminder Jacob Gunn.
Vulcan thought they had tied the game at 4:58 when Austin Howe tipped a rebound towards the Olds net.
At first the officials declared the shot a goal, but later called the goal off and indicated the shot had hit the left post, much to the frustration of the Vulcan fans.
Two minutes later, Kolten Nelson tied the game for real when he wheeled around the Grizzlys' net to find a rebound that Olds goaltender Kyle Kardos couldn't swat away.
The first minute of the second frame was explosive, with Vulcan scoring at 19:21 and Olds responding seven seconds later.
Olds regained the lead at 15:37 when Tyson Schmidt was able to sidestep a scramble in front of the Vulcan net and slide the puck past Gunn.
They would maintain that thin lead until Klinck gave Olds a go-ahead goal with two minutes left in the third period.
Vulcan gave the Grizzlys a scare when Luc Brusset scored to make the score 4-3 with 9.6 seconds left in the game, but Olds was able to hold the Hawks off, even with a man advantage, until the buzzer sounded.
Joel Hunter, the Grizzlys' head coach, said this was the team's first year in the league and to win the championship so soon is an amazing feat.
“We'll be flying off this all summer,” he said. “We're very proud of the guys. They earned it today.”
Hunter credited Vulcan for being relentless throughout the series but after the loss on March 27, he told his team to shrug the defeat off and advised them to “keep it simple” during Game 3.
Kardos, who is looking at playing for a junior B team next year or pursuing university studies, described his last year with the Grizzlys as a “perfect season,” especially since the team also won the midget A provincial championships a week earlier.
Although he made dozens of tough saves in Game 3, he credits the team's top line for nailing down the victory.
“They really stood out for us again as they have been all year.”
Pedersen, who nabbed an assist on Klinck's game-winning goal, said he had an easy time finding the back of the Vulcan net when he scored the Grizzlys' second goal of the night.
“The goalie gave me all top shelf.”
But he added that it was Schmidt's goal that had a “monstrous” effect on the squad's psyche by putting Olds out in front again.
As the team prepared to celebrate their victory into the night, Pedersen, who hopes to join the junior A Grizzlys next season, said it would be easy to share such a huge accomplishment with his teammates.
“There's a huge family that's here.”
