Team Alberta

Team Alberta 1993 Recap

Team Alberta 1993 came out strong and surprised many spectators with their shut down style of play. While many American teams sought to shoot out the lights and win high scoring affairs, Team Alberta stuck to it’s game plan, with all 12 players dedicated to it’s goal of shutting down the opposition. With a great team effort the group was able to post the lowest goals against through the seeding round, earning them first in the AAA division thanks to goals against being the key tie breaker. Although goals against were the key factor, the team still had to put the puck in the net. While offense was spread around the team, Captain Tanner Dunkle quickly became the teams key trigger man, and was able to convert many of the great feeds from team mates into goals on the board for Alberta, as well as breaking out some individual efforts to help lift the team.

While the team was able to seed first, it wasn’t an easy ride, with Alberta winning a nail biter 1-0 against eventual gold medal game opponents North Carolina, who also favored a defense first approach and was dead even with Team Alberta for goals against going into their seeding round game. While most American fans had never witnessed a 1-0 inline game, many remarked that it was one of the most exciting games they’d seen so far in the tournament. Following the game Head Coach Jason Stephens remarked "I’m probably one of the only inline coaches here comfortable with a 1-0 lead" knowing the discipline and effort the team would bring to each game.

While the goals against were a team effort, the group certainly got lots of help from great goaltending in Emma Cooley and Terry Martin, who both held solidly whenever the opposition thought they might have a chance to break the game open. Coming out of the seeding round Martin was named the top goaltender in the division, while the decision is not solely based on stats, Martins were hard to argue with, with a GAA of only 0.5 and a stellar 0.947 save percentage.

When Team Alberta was granted a bye to the semi final game on the strength of their first place finish, some opponents hoped the rest might make them a little sluggish. Instead of sluggish The team came out hungry and ready to play, with the captain leading the way with a 4 point night, as Team Alberta Defeated New Jersey 5-2 to move on to the gold medal game.

In the gold medal game, Alberta once again had to face North Carolina, their closest opponent of the tournament. With both Teams playing technically solid hockey, the teams went into the half scoreless, with the sense building in the crowd that this could easily be another 1-0 game. With over half the second period gone the first goal finally came as Dunkle put I nice feed from Landon Heibert into the back of the net. As the clock wound down it looked as if Alberta would once again take a 1-0 victory to capture the gold, but in a frantic scramble with their goalie out North Carolina was able to tie it up with under 30 seconds to play and force the game into overtime.

Into the overtime the strong defensive game continued for both teams, as it appeared it would settle in to be a long game. Finally with only seconds left on the clock in the first overtime, none other than the Captain and final game MVP Tanner Dunkle was able to squeeze the puck past the goaltender at the side of the net. As the puck fell just over the goal line the crowd erupted, the bench emptied and Alberta was able to celebrate it’s first ever Team Alberta Inline Gold Medal.

Following a solid bronze medal performance in 2009, Team Alberta 1992 came out strong in the 2010 seeding round and got off to a good start defeating Colorado 5-0. Moving through the seeding round Team Alberta 1992 spread the offence around, and were able to defeat Pennsylvania 4-2 later in the first day or competition on the alternate Mount Prospect rink, which was challenging. "The much smaller surface really sped up the pace of the game and made any hesitation by either team and instant turnover", said Brain Scott the Program Coordinator. Each team made some costly turnovers in that game with the opposition able to capitalize and score. Fortunately Team Alberta came out on top in the back and fourth affair.

Into the next day of competition saw Alberta Face BC for the first time at State Wars. A strong team, BC gave Alberta all they could handle, but a pair of early game powerplay goals put Alberta out in front. BC was able to answer with a goal of their own late in the first half, but in the second half Alberta wa able to hang on to the lead. With BC pressing hard late in the game, Ewen MacPherson, the divisions top goaltender, was able to stand tall and weather the storm as BC threw everything they had at Alberta. With MacPherson shutting the door at every turn, Alberta emerged victorious at 2-1.

Riding high off their tough win over BC, Alberta jumped out to an early lead over Ohio and never looked back. Going up 3-0 and then allowing Ohio 2 goals to get back in the game, Kolton Gillett came out of the gate flying in the second half and quickly restored a 2 goal lead. Gillett then put the game away late in the second period by noticing another insurance marker, while goaltender Michael Figgures was able to stay solid as Ohio turned up the heat, turning away all shots in the second period.

Coming out of the round robin seeded first Alberta still faced a tough team from Michigan, who had earned their way back into the semi with an overtime quarterfinal win. For the first time in the tournament Alberta gave up the first goal of the game and found themselves behind. Fighting back on the streght of a pair of Gaols by Sherwood Parks Brayden Stauch Alberta found themselves going into overtime tied 2-2. Despite controlling the play for the start of the overtime thanks to a powerplay, Michigan was able to kill it off, and a few shifts later put in the overtime winner to send Alberta to the Bronze medal game.

Despite the heartbreaking overtime semi loss for the second year Alberta was able to regroup and prepare for a tough Bronze medal matchup against Pennsylvania. Despite having beaten them in the seeding round, the game would be a totally different style on the full sized surface of the Darien Sportsplex as opposed to the confines of Mount Prospect. Added to the mix was Pennsylvania’s deep desire to win after having lost the bronze to Alberta in 2009. As the puck drop it was clear that the bigger surface played to Alberta’s strength’s as they were able to slow the game down and frustrate PA. As time wore down Pennsylvania’s frustration began to boiled over. Alberta was able to keep calm and as PA began to get rough, their march to the penalty box began. In the end Alberta Was able to prevail 4-3 on the strength of their cool heads and 3 powerplay markers. Brian Scott program coordinator said after the game "I was very proud of our teams composure as the game got rougher, our players did not allow themselves to get pulled into retaliatory penalties, and in the end I think that was a huge part of our success.