There were gloves flying, helmets flying and the kids got their hats to put on just like the big boys get to wear...
— Rene Kulcsar, 07 Parkland Prospects manager
The 07 Parkland Prospects ‘AAA’ spring hockey team made up of players from the Parkland area of Saskatchewan and Manitoba travelled to Alberta recently to take part in the prestigious Alberta Champions Cup spring hockey tournament in Edmonton and Calgary.
After months of rigorous practicing at Yorkton’s Farrell Agencies Arena, the team made up of the top hockey players in the Parkland area born in 2007, opened the tournament up with a convincing 10-2 win over the 07 Surge thanks in large part to a four goal performance by Cade Legaarden and a three point effort from Connor Bear while Jase McNichol (two goals), Grady Keith (one goal) Deagan Kulcsar (one goal) and Kaleb Dewar (one goal) also found the back of the net.
The boys from the Parkland picked up right where they left off in game two of the tournament, trouncing the 2007 Junior Eagles Selects 9-3 with Legaarden (two goals, two assists) and Bear (four goals) once again leading the way with four points each. Kulcsar (two goals) and Reese Hamilton also put the puck in the Eagle net in the win to wrap up a very successful opening day.
Day two saw the Parkland Prospects continue to post big victories, this time crushing the Havoc 2007 AAA North 8-2 to move to 3-0. Bear’s second hat-trick of the tournament led the way for the Prospects while single markers came off the sticks of Braden Walker, Justin Whitrow, Hamilton, Dewar and Kulcsar.
Next up was another undefeated team in the form of the 2007 Huskie Prospects. A pair of goals in each of the first two periods and four in the final 20 minutes powered the Parkland Prospects over the Huskie Prospects 8-5. Legaarden picked up three goals in the game while Whitrow added two.
Kulcsar, McNichol and Dewar rounded out the offence in game four to send the Parkland Prospects into the final day of the tournament with a perfect 4-0 record.
The Parkland Prospects moved to 5-0 on the tournament early Sunday morning with a hard fought 6-5 victory over the 2007 South Sask Selects. Six different players scored in the Parkland victory with Montana Jubenvill and Ryan Schuster picking up their first goals of the tournament while Kulcsar Hamilton, Dewar and Bear continued their torrid scoring paces.
The 6-5 win meant that the Parkland Prospects had a chance to finish undefeated at the 2015 Alberta Champions Cup. The only thing standing in their way was their Saskatchewan rivals the Saskwest Wheat Kings, who were also looking to finish undefeated in the tournament.
The Parkland Prospects wasted little time in opening the scoring as Jase McNichol made it 1-0 less than three minutes into the first frame. Reese Hamilton made it 2-0 5:24 into the game quickly followed by a Justin Whitrow goal less than one minute later giving Parkland a 3-0 advantage.
Cobe Perlinger got the Wheat Kings on the board just 11 seconds later to wrap up the first period scoring.
The second period started off much the same as the first as McNichol potted his second of the game, however a pair of Wheat Kings goals, one each by Cob end Cam Perlinger, brought Saskwest back to within one at 4-3.
Hamilton regained the two goal advantage for the Parkland Prospects with nine minutes left in the second period, however the Perlinger boys evened the game up not long after as first Cobe, then Cam, found the back of the Parkland net to make it 5-5.
It seemed as if the game would remain tied after 40 minutes of play, however Hamilton had other ideas, capping off the hat-trick before the end of the second period to give Parkland a 6-5 lead through two periods.
The third period saw the Parkland Prospects offence erupt for six goals, including three from Connor Bear and two from Cade Legaarden, to officially put away the Wheat Kings.
Grady Keith also scored in the gold medal clinching victory.
“Everybody contributed. All three lines, all five defencemen they were all firing on all cylinders,” Parkland Prospects manager Rene Kulcsar told Yorkton This Week following his team’s successful return from Alberta. “The goaltending was great, everybody contributed to the tournament win.”
Also contributing to the win was the coaching staff of Damon Kustra (head coach), Chad Korczak (assistant coach) and Matt Kustra (goaltending coach), who Kulcsar says brought some stability and experience to the team. “We have a non-parent coaching staff this year that brought a lot of hockey experience with playing, coaching that did a good job,” said Kulcsar, continuing, “When you walk into that dressing room it is boom, boom, boom. Everything is the same thing and because of that everything clicks together.
“The motto for the weekend was ‘Stick to the Plan’, and that was Damon’s theory and right from the beginning of the tournament they did that. They had to keep skating, they had to keep moving their feet, had to go for the puck, go hard and they did that and good things happened.”
Overall 16 kids from 12 different communities including three from Manitoba brought home not just gold medals, but great memories as well. “The kids know what they won. They know it was a big tournament, they knew that they were competing for the championship there and to see the celebration after was awesome,” offered the team manager. “There were gloves flying, helmets flying and the kids got their hats to put on just like the big boys get to wear and they were skating around the ice with the gold medals around their necks and big smiles all around.
“This is something they probably won’t forget.”
