SUNDRE – They don’t get much closer than that.
The Sundre U15 Huskies were so narrowly defeated in the Central Alberta Hockey League’s consolation round for third place against Lacombe this weekend that both games in the best-of-three series came down to the razor’s edge.
“It could have went either way – it was one goal here, one goal there,” said head coach Dallas Rosevear.
Leading up to the playoffs, the squad finished the regular Central Alberta Hockey League season in third place with a record of 9-6-1, the coach said Monday morning.
First facing off against Innisfail in the opening rounds of playoffs late last month, the Huskies were defeated in two games and ended up playing this past Friday night against Lacombe.
The first game was intense and evenly-matched with Lacombe emerging victorious 6-5 in the first overtime round, said Rosevear.
“They were strong; we’re so even with them,” he said about the competition. “They had really good goaltending, which really helped them out. The boys did everything they could.”
Playing on the road the following day, the Huskies were hungry for a comeback and their appetite was on full display with the team forcing the game through three overtime rounds and into a shootout to determine the winner.
“We ended up running right through triple overtime into the shootout,” the coach said.
And although his team ended up barely being defeated 4-3 during the shootout, Roseaver said the players had every reason to hold their chins up high.
“They left everything on the ice,” he said. “They did really well.”
Summarizing the past season, the coach said the U15s had “a vast difference of skills and age” with a couple of players who were brought up from the U13s, and added they all “did amazing. They really gelled and bought into our systems, and it showed.”