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Ponoka’s midget hockey clubs unable to reach for a provincial title

Laocka Warriors fall in semi-final, midget Wolves go winless in pool play
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The hockey season came to a close over the weekend for the last two Ponoka Minor Hockey teams still standing.

Both the Lacoka Warriors midget girls club and the Fountain Tire Wolves midget boys took part in their respective provincial championships, though neither was given a shot at winning a banner.

For the Lacoka Warriors, it was a pretty strong start as the club opened the Midget B Female tournament — held in Lac La Biche — by posting three straight victories. The Warriors defeated Beaverlodge 4-1, followed that up with an 11 dumping of Cochrane and a 10-0 win over Calgary. Unfortunately, the Warriors missed out on securing first place in their pool with a 4-3 loss to Cold Lake to close out the round robin.

That loss also put the Warriors into a rather tough spot for its semi-final game versus Irma, a team made up of players that won the female bantam B provincial title last year.

And the contest turned out to be tough with Irma showing strong goaltending. The Warriors were unable to capitalize on seven powerplay opportunities in the game and peppering Irma with 34 shots on goal in a 3-0 loss.

Willing Wolves

Meanwhile, the Fountain Tire midget Wolves gave it their all at the Midget D provincial championship in Taber, a fact that might be missed by simply looking at the team’s three round robin losses.

The Wolves opened up with a 6-4 loss to Tofield, a contest that went back and forth on the scoreboard with Ponoka holding brief leads in all three periods before Tofield tied it with under eight minutes left, then got the go-ahead marker two minutes later before sealing it with an empty-netter.

A strong team from Valleyview was next, with Ponoka falling 9-3. The club got down early, but battled their way back into the game with three goals in a span of just under two minutes midway through the second. However, a pair of powerplay goals for Valleyview later in the period would put any comeback on the backburner.

The team’s final game, against the host Taber squad, got away from the Wolves early and wound up as a 5-2 loss as well as a rough, penalty-filled affair. Ponoka wound up being tagged with 34 minutes in penalties — including one misconduct — while Taber was issued a pair of misconducts that helped add up to a total of 44 minutes.