OLDS — The Olds Grizzlys’ 2024-25 season came to a brutal close this past weekend, as they lost their last two games by a combined score of 17-6.
The Grizzlys ended their season with a 15-38-1-0 record for 31 points, last place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (AJHL) six-team south division.
But they aren’t last in the league.
That dubious honour fell to the expansion Devon Xtreme, who finished the season with an 11-39-2-2 record for 26 points, last in the AJHL north division.
The Grizzlys nearly won their last home game of the season Friday, March 14, before falling allowing two goals in the third period to fall 5-4 to the Canmore Eagles.
However, Saturday’s game was their second straight blowout versus the Calgary Canucks, a 12-2 decision in Calgary. The Canucks were declared the regular season champions on Sunday.
On March 9, they hammered the Grizzlys 11-1. Kayden Hayes got the lone goal for the Grizzlys in that game, assisted by Johnny Maruna and Aiden Knutson.
Friday’s game started out promising, as the Grizzlys scored the first goal. Brenden Thomas got his second goal of the season at 9:39 of the first period, assisted by Phoenix Flett.
The Grizzlys delivered some tough hits on Eagles players, but some of those hits and other stick work didn’t exactly go their way, as the Eagles scored two powerplay goals, at 10:46 and 13:44 to head to the second period with a 2-1 lead.
They went up 3-1 at 5:39 of the second period before the Grizzlys came storming back with two powerplay goals of their own.
Nolan Viesner fired home the first powerplay goal, his second goal of the season, at 8:57 of the second period, assisted by Keeghan Dunn and Lucas Schaefer.
Hunter Motley scored a man advantage marker at 14:48 of that second frame, assisted by Knutson and Keil Schmalz.
Brayden Schwartz gave the Grizzlys a one-goal lead at 4:08 of the third period, assisted by Jonathan Doucette and Schaefer.
However, the Eagles scored two more goals to tie and then win the game at 17:36 and 18:49 of the third period.
Connor Johnson was between the pipes for the Grizzlys. He stopped 48 of 53 shots he faced. The Grizzlys fired 39 shots at Eagles goalie Alexander Scheiwiller.
The Grizzlys were 2/4 on the power play. But their PK was awesome, as the Eagles went 2/11 with the man advantage.
There was no scoring in the first period of Sunday’s game.
Once again, Thomas opened the scoring; this time just 33 seconds into the second period with his third goal of the season, assisted by Schmalz.
However, the Canucks scored four goals – three on the power play -- to take a 4-1 lead.
Maruna narrowed the gap to 4-2 with his sixth goal of the season at 17:06 of the second frame, assisted by Motley and Knutson.
The wheels really fell off for the Grizzlys in the third period when the Canucks scored eight unanswered goals -- three of which were power play markers -- to end the game and the season for the Grizzlys.
Johnson started the game in net and stopped 24 of 26 shots he received before giving way to Kason Kobelka, who stopped 20 of 30 shots he faced. In total, the Grizzlys were outshot 56/24.
The Grizzlys were 0/5 with the man advantage, the Canucks were 6/10.
"In our first home game in a month I thought we played pretty well against Canmore," Grizzlys head coach Brad Tobin wrote in a text. "We were engaged and wanted to show it for our fans. Tough to see it slip late in the game.
"Saturday, Calgary was really motivated to win a league championship and show their firepower."
