The NAIT Ooks men’s hockey team is starting their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) semifinals against the same team they started the season against. The Ooks will head south on March 6 to face off against the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Trojans for a North vs. South Alberta polytechnic showdown.
Overtime Ooks take quarterfinal game one
The Ooks ended their ACAC quarterfinals with a tournament win against the Concordia Thunder last weekend. Game one was an overtime win for the Ooks in a game filled with scrappy plays, open ice hits and extraordinary plays from both goalies.
NAIT played with confidence and shook the boards with big hits in the first period. However, Ooks forward Sean Mitchell’s hit was a bit too ambitious and illegally hit Concordia’s Lukas Konashuk into the boards.
“I don’t think it was the wrong call,” says Ooks men’s hockey head coach Scott Fellnermayr. “But he was also right out there, he got the penalty shot a couple minutes later, so I wonder how hurt he was.”
Goalie McCoy Bidewell’s night went from quiet shot blocker to roaring hero as he saved Konashuk’s soft shot with a brilliant toe save, and the game was back to the penalty kill. The Ooks kept Concordia silent on the scoreboard as time ran out for the first period.
NAIT was at home in Concordia’s zone during the second period. Ooks forward Josh Medernach won a faceoff and it landed on defenseman Tristan Taylor’s stick to slam the puck into the top corner for an Ooks goal.
A surge of confidence followed this goal as NAIT became more ambitious in their distribution and their shooting. Brophy Dunne’s blue line slapshot rebounded off Concordia goalie Ashton Billesberger’s pad, and Decker Mujcin scored to put NAIT up two goals. Five minutes later, Concordia was finally able to break through Bidewell to score, ending the period 2-1 for the Ooks.
The third period ramped up as the Thunder risked it all for one last goal. Concordia got their chance — Dunne’s last ditch effort to dive for the puck tripped the Concordia attacker, but Thunder forward Dylan Handel’s second goal tied the game, taking it to overtime.
Overtime was packed with more top tier saves from Bidewell. As NAIT worked the other way, Ooks forward Ty Whitford found teammate Kyle Venneman ahead of the defender who floated a shot at Billesberger, and the arena went silent as the puck disappeared.
As the puck dribbled over Billesberger’s pad and into the back of the net, the arena exploded with cheer as the Ooks players mobbed Venneman. NAIT headed to Clareview for game two on Feb. 28.
Ooks crush game two, replacement forward scores twice
Game two was the opposite of game one. The Ooks’ Tyler Blocha scored within a minute. Then, Odin George — one of the forwards Fellnermayr said was “chomping at the bit” to get ice time after Mitchell’s game one penalty suspension — started off his series debut with a goal assisted by overtime hero Venneman.
In the second period, forward Ethan Leyer showed the fans the Ooks are also great on the power play. Leyer’s goal broke a silent second period and put the Ooks up 3-0.
The game exploded in the third. Concordia’s Ethyn Hopp and NAIT’s Odin George traded goals, scoring within forty seconds of each other. Hopp scored again at the halfway mark of the third period to bring the opposing forwards to two goals each.
With the Thunder closing the gap, Noah Wilson scored to bring the game to 4-3 for the Ooks. Concordia hoped to send the game to overtime again with a power play, but Blocha had other plans. The Petroleum Engineering Technology student took the puck the other direction and ended game three hopes for Concordia. The shorthanded goal brought the final score to 5-3 for the Ooks, who would now be heading to the ACAC semifinals.
Goalie McCoy Bidewell stands ground against ‘nightmare’ team, NAIT off to semifinals against SAIT
Coach Fellnermayr says that the Concordia Thunder is a “really well-coached” team.
“That team’s a nightmare,” he says. “They’re smart. They have a good game plan against us. They know what we’re going to do, we know what they’re going to do. It’s just good old competition.”
The star of this series was Bidewell, who leads the playoffs in goals against average and save percentage.
Fellnermayr explained how games that go from zero shots at the Ooks’ net to a swarm from the opposition can be difficult.
“That’s tough for a goalie when you don’t see a lot of shots and all of a sudden it’s a point-blank, high-end chance,” says Fellnermayr about the Ooks goalie.
“Sometimes his aggression can be a lot. He runs around out there, but then he makes those big saves. That overtime save [in game one], to come over there and make that with the middle of your body … I don’t know how a guy gets over that quickly, you’re just so happy to have him on your side.”
NAIT is headed to Calgary to play rival polytechnic SAIT in what will be a high intensity matchup, cleverly named the “Battle of Alberta” amongst the Ooks hockey team. The Ooks will be back at home for game two on Saturday, March 7 at 6 p.m.
Feature image by Ana Kostyrko / The Nugget
