It was a clean sweep for Edmonton on the Men's side of the this weekends Alberta Provincial Championships. Three teams out of Ball Hockey Edmonton claimed gold, while another from the Sportsdome Ball Hockey League grabbed the fourth.
In Tier 1, it came as little surprise when the EDM Savages were the last team standing. The Nighthawks, also out of Edmonton BHE, made it tough on them right to the end, before finally falling by a score of 3-2. With the win the EDM Savages have now won 4 Tier 1 provincial gold medals.
Tier 2 was the EDM Walruses (BHE) from start to finish. The Walruses never faltered, going a perfect 4-0 capped by a dominating 5-1 victory over the CGY Show Ponies.
The EDM Killer Bees (BHE), who finished the round-robin in third place overall, were forced to go on a 3-game tear on Sunday in order to claim gold. They did exactly that knocking off the CGY Vipers 3-1 at 8 am, turning away the CGY Rude Boys 5-1 at 1230, and completing the cowtown sweep with a 5 pm 6-2 victory over the CGY Blazers. Their gold medal was well earned, as they were the only team to play 6 games over the course of the weekend.
In Tier 4, it was the EDM Sportsdome's Knowlton Gnashers who went a perfect 5-0, including a frantic come-from-behind effort in the semi-finals, who captured gold. Their 3-2 win over EDM Team Ferda robbed BHE of a clean sweep of Men's gold medals.
Calgary had much better success on the woman's side. CGY United took home the gold medal in the woman's top division, with a crushing 5-0 defeat of the EDM Ducks. The game was the third matchup of the weekend between the two teams. After playing to a 2-2 draw in the tourney's opening game, United shut the Ducks out by a combined 9-0 on their way to a second A division gold medal.
Edmonton returned to the gold medal stage in the woman's B division, thanks the EDM Cherry Pickers 3-2 victory over the CGY Tune Squad. The Pickers had knocked off the Tune Squad by a 4-1 score earlier in the tourney...but would need to dig deep to earn the W the second time around.
And finally, the woman's C division gold medal was captured by the CGY Dumpling Chase on the strength of a 2-0 shutout versus the EDM Storm.
While winning the gold medal is the goal of every team entering the tournament...both teams that reached the finals now have an entry into next year's National Championships.
Congratulations to all the teams medaled this weekend, as well as to all the teams who entered entries into this years Provincial Championships! A big thanks to all the referees, timekeepers, statisticians, and anyone else who helped run this weekends top-notch tournament!
