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Olds 4 at Calgary Royals 3
The Olds Grizzlys, heavy underdogs heading into the series, moved one step closer to the biggest upset of the AJHL playoffs in the past several years.
Unlike the previous four games, the bulk of the scoring in this one took place in the early going. Midway through the opening period, Craig Bezjack scored for the Grizzlys to make it 1-0. The assists went to Tyler Brosz and Mike Gerstenbuhler, who is eligible for this year’s draft and recorded his first point of the post-season. Just over a minute after the Olds goal, Ben Knopp tied the game up on the powerplay for the Royals and three minutes after that Krys Kolanos scored an even-strength tally. Both goals were assisted by David Evans, who increased his playoff point total to 8 points. Colen Pappas tied the game up before the period would end as he scored a shorthanded goal at the 15:27 mark.
In the second period, Greg Davis gave the Grizzlys the lead on the powerplay 8:22 in. However, Calgary didn’t take long to tie it up as Ben Knopp, who has been having a terrific playoff thus far, scored a goal assisted by Scooter Smith and Krys Kolanos to knot the game at three. Under a minute later, Tyler Brosz scored what would turn out to be the winner, assisted by Ryan Watson and Joel Macauley.
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Grande Prairie 2 at St. Albert 4 (Saints win 4-1)
The St. Albert Saints put little doubt in the minds of Grande Prairie Storm players and fans that this would be their last game of the season early on in the first period as they exploded for three quick goals out of the gate.
The Saints were flying in front of their home crowd at Akinsdale Arena and struck for a quick goal 37 seconds in. Joey Bastien scored, assisted by Pavel Beranek and Ron Grimard on the powerplay. It would be the only powerplay opportunity the club would get that period so, to capitalize on a chance like that was a definite boost to both the home crowd and the team. The club carried that momentum and four minutes later made it 2-0 on Bastien’s second of the game, also from Beranek and Grimard. The Storm had yet to score more than two goals in a game against the Saints in this series and players on both teams knew it. Only three minutes after that, Beranek, Bastien and Grimard combined again to put the club up by three. This was enough to chase the Storm’s Chad Rycroft from the nets on this night. Despite his inspired play in the playoffs to this point, he was unable to stop the Saints on this night as they peppered 11 shots at him in under eight minutes.
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Hershey Kisses line the light poles as you drive through Hershey. No matter where you turn, there always seems to be something to remind you of the tastiness of anything “Hershey” made. Be it the chocolate they produce or the park and museum they run, the company always seems to present quality products to the public. Their factory produces some of the best chocolate one can buy and probably one of the biggest selections one can find. Goes to show you that Hershey knows how to create a tasty “treat”, but when it comes to hockey the treats can taste even sweeter.
Located between Hershey Park and the Hershey Museum, Hersheypark Arena sits and has done so for many years. It is a relic to most, being that it is the oldest arena in the AHL not to mention, on most days, it houses two outstanding “treasures” inside of the arena, the Hershey Bears and the arena’s zamboni driver. Zamboni driver? Yes, Hersheypark currently employs the longest working zamboni driver in hockey and like him the Bears are a priceless treasure to enjoy.
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The scouts sometimes say that an NHL power-forward is born AND made, and this is frequently true. A big, strong, physical forward who has excellent offensive skills is a desire of many NHL teams. The Maple Leafs drafted a young man, Frantisek (Frank) Mrazek in the fifth round, 111th selection overall from Ceske-Budjovice in the Czech. Republic. Frank is currently 19 yrs. old and finishing his second year with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL at the juniors level. He is 6-4, 220 lbs. with excellent strength. He scored 30 goals, 24 assists for 54 pts. in 65 games for Red Deer as a rookie in 1997-98. Great production was expected of him in Red Deer this season, particularly after he raised some eyebrows with a good showing in the Leafs’ training camp.
“Our expectations for Frank were very high coming into this season”, stated Rebels assistant coach, Peter Anholt. When Frank got off to a sizzling start with 6 goals and 12 pts. in a 4 game stretch early in the season, he seemed to be on his way. He was named WHL player of the week and player of the month in October. Leafs director of player development, Anders Hedberg called him “a young man with goals. He knows where he comes from and where he is going.” in a Toronto Star article by Ken Campbell.
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St. Albert 1 at Grande Prairie 0 (OT)
For the second night in a row, St. Albert and Grande Prairie played to an extreme defensive battle. While last night it was Kirby Millar against Chad Rycroft, tonight Rycroft’s opponent was Scott Kabotoff.
Kabotoff, who tied a league-record four shutouts in the regular season stopped seven shots in the first period, 15 in the second and ten in the third. He stopped one shot over seven minutes of overtime. Kabotoff’s goals-against average playing in three of the team’s four playoff games so far is Rycroft, who was not even the clear-cut number one goaltender in the regular season for the Storm, has played every single minute of the playoffs so far for his club. He did allow the game-winning goal tonight, but not before stopping 11 shots in the first period, six in the second and eight in the third as well as two in overtime. His average dropped to 2.47 and his save percentage rose to .922 on this night.
While the first three periods were scoreless, Mark Jackson scored his first of the playoffs with 3:53 remaining in the first overtime period. Pavel Beranek added the assist.
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