It was an interesting battle last night in the South Sask Bantam Hockey League as the Notre Dame AAA Hounds took on the Balgonie AA Prairie Storm in Balgonie last night. Coming in to last evenings action the Prairie Storm were rolling to a 7-0-1 start, and quite easily have been the class of the AA teams in the league. However, they were facing a AAA select team from Notre Dame who made the finals of the Medicine Hat tournament and have been putting up some very lopsided results in these exhibition games thus far. Well tonight proved a bit of a stiffer test as the Prairie Storm rolled out to a 3-1 first period lead and held the game tied at 3-3 until the last seconds of the second period when high touted Blake Penner scored his 2nd of 4 goals on the night. In fact, Penner was able to score a goal each all three periods in the final minute. In the end, Notre Dame did skate away with a 7-3 win, but I think this shows that Balgonie will continue to be a force in terms of possibly representing Saskatchewan in the westerns at the end of the year.
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As we have discussed a few times already, the Prince Albert AA Bantam Tournament will take place 10 days from now. Action will take place at 4 different rinks throughout Prince Albert and feature 24 teams placed in to 8 different groups. Each group will have a team from each of the 3 major bantam leagues in Saskatchewan, with the exception of group A which has the host Prince Albert team along with the Winnipeg Sharks. Should be a very competitive group.
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And another major bantam AA tournament, this one will take place in Saskatoon beginning on New Years Eve. This tournament will feature 16 teams, including the Russell Rams from Manitoba. Russell features a couple highly talented players in Jayce Hawryluk and Ryley Zimmer. However, it should be noted that Russell is a bit short-handed with players away for various reason and another couple players hurt. The Rams are looking to bring in a pair of highly touted twins from Elkhorn, Travis and Taylor Sanheim. They are awaiting word from Hockey Manitoba on its ruling. It will be interesting to see how they can compete with some of the AA Saskatchewan teams, if in fact they are given clearance to attend. Of note, many of the top provincial teams won't be taking part in this tournament such as Balgonie, Prince Albert and Humboldt.
10 comments:
Why would you say Balonie is a top team, when they did poorly in the Regina tournament .If you look closely the Saskatoon teams were a force there.
read the regina tourney and talked to one parent. They outshot the Saskatoon Generals by 35 shots? They also played the Maniacs and PA which were all close.
Have the game sheet in my hand. Shots Generals 33 PS 29. Prairie Storm a good team but missing a few key elements crucial to becoming a provincial representative. Goaltending and D lacking in depth. Not sure why Ruopp all star as 3rd line kids from Melville PA and Generals were beating him 1v1 to get quality scoring chances.
Prairie Storm is one of the better teams from the South and I think this was the point. PA destroyed most of the teams in Regina, the Generals was the largest defeat at 10-1, but Prairie Storm kept it to a 5-3 final. Your scoresheet must have been missing a period because everyone at the rink in Regina said the shots were 3-1, which was verified by the scoreboard which said the shots were 59-20. Give the goaltending credit when the team infront is not very strong! By the way how many Saskatoon teams made it to the A-side let alone the semis?
You say Prairie Storm is a provincial contender, then you say the team in front of G is not very strong.....? 2 Saskatoon teams were in the A-side Bandits and Stallions. In the tournament PS played 2 Saskatoon teams and lost both times,when they played PA it was the 2nd game of the day and I know PA was resting some of it's players fro playoff game next day. PS only win was against Melville where Dakota Odgers saw limited action. Saskatoon teams won B and C-side Finals. Give me a break!
Congratulations to all the kids who have been able to make their respective Bantam AA teams in Saskatchewan. Lets take a moment and look at the Regina tournament. It is set up to have the strongest teams playing on the A-side. The final four teams were 2 from the South and 2 from Centre Four. The B-side is a kiss your sister final, the C-side is a kiss your mom final and the D-side is a kiss your Grandma final. The GSHL has the most parity of all the leagues, that is not because they have the strongest teams but 4-5 of the top players in the province. Lets wait and see how things go in PA in a couple of weeks at their tournament to determine who is going to challenge PA at the end of the year. There are still no guarantees as everyone will lose at some point so it is possible that PA may lose as well, just hard to believe as their depth and top end talent is unmatched in Saskatchewan. Nobody is saying that Prairie Storm will win, just that they are a team in contention from the South. Good luck for the rest of the season to all the teams from Sask, their is a long ways to go before the end comes. Remember that the hockey world in Sask does not revolve around Saskatoon and that there are a number of very good teams and players throughout the province.
P.A will win the prov. no one can match their depth. Saskatoons depth is not there 97s are undersized. 5 teams would make them competitive. Belgoni or swift in south Ibelieve unity beat swift on the weekend. 1million people in sask should have 4 aaa teams and ND. The present system of sending a AA team is rediculous.
Did you have anyone watching the Swift Current Kabos Bantam AA tourn. last weekend? We've been watching for a report...
Like someone said before PA was strong the past two years and they came up empty!!! IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN IN FEBUARY.
PA won the province with this groupe as second year peewees they have since added melfort and tisdales best players. If you know the 96 groupe at all the hockey gods will really have to hate PA for them not to win. Iam not from PA but I know the age groupe very well.
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