SUNDRE — Luck had very little to do with the Sundre U13 Huskies' recent championship banner victory on home ice.
Head coach Aaron Johnson said the team performed at the top of their game during their tier’s Central Alberta Hockey League (CAHL) division championship.
“They were all just hard-work wins. That’s all there is to it,” said Johnson, citing solid teamwork, dedication and talent as the source of the squad’s success.
“There was no real luck involved in these ones,” he said.
Sundre defeated Strathmore in the best-of-three tier 4 green championship quarter-final in two games straight, placing them up against Lacombe in the semifinals, which the Huskies also went onto win in two games.
That brought them into the championship banner final against Indus, a Calgary-area team that proved a greater — albeit not unsurmountable — challenge.
“They’re a pretty skilled team,” Johnson said about the competition. “We had to use one of our players to shadow their best player, which I think was the deciding factor in the final game.”
Being able to shut down Indus’ top player helped pave the path to victory for the Huskies, he said.
The first game in the finals was on Monday, March 7, when Indus narrowly edged ahead to win 5 to 4 after Sundre closed the gap from a rough start to the third period.
“We were down 5 - 1 going into the third period and the boys came back but just kind of ran out of time,” said Johnson.
However, the Huskies hung in there and on Thursday, March 10 defeated Indus 4 to 3 in triple overtime, pushing the best-of-three series into the third and final game that was played on home ice on Friday, March 11 in another tight match that was decided by one goal.
“We ended up beating them 3 to 2,” he said. “They were all very close games.”
Calling Indus an “unbelievable team,” Johnson said they had great coaches and were very respectful.
“It could have gone either way, in my eyes,” he said. “We struggled with them all season and really didn’t want to meet up with them in the playoffs.”
With 18 games played during regular league play, the Huskies finished the season going into the championship finals with a record of 13 wins, two losses and three ties. And they racked up the most points in the league with 37, a substantial lead over the competition with Cochrane placing second with 33.5 points and Indus with 32.5.
Leading up to provincials -- which the Huskies will be hosting starting at the end of the month -- they first had to finish playdowns that determine who among the CAHL's top five teams — Magrath, Innisfail, Fort Macleod, Beiseker and Sundre — will be going onto compete in provincials against teams from Calgary and Edmonton as well as a couple squads from leagues in the north.
Since the host team automatically qualifies to play in provincials, the second place team will proceed to provincials if the Huskies win playdowns.
