Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
The Prince Albert Timberjaks are going to the Prairie Junior Hockey League post-season, but they paid quite the price to get there.
With time expired in their post-season clinching victory over the Outback Thunder in Carrot River on Friday, tempers flared and when peace was restored more than 160 minutes in penalties were dished out. What followed was even worse as league discipline for the incident resulted in three Timberjak players and a coach being suspended for multiple games each.
Timberjaks’ management were reluctant to comment on the levies other than to say that they felt their end of the punishment was pretty severe. The suspensions took effect immediately beginning with a 4-1 loss to the Saskatoon Westleys on Sunday at the Northern Regional Rec Centre and will include the regular-season finale on Tuesday in Martensville against the Chiefs. The balance of the suspensions will carry over into the playoffs, which will begin next weekend when Prince Albert faces the Saskatoon Royals in a best-of-three Survivor Series.
Watching from the sidelines for the foreseeable future are Owen Willie (5 games), Taelan Casavant (3 games), Marc Bourdon (2 games) and head coach Stef Corfmat (4 games). Assistant coach Tim Leonard had control of the team, or what was left of it, for Sunday’s contest as not only were the three suspended players not in the line-up, but nine others also sat out the game nursing a variety of injuries.
Brought in to offer a bare-bone line-up were a handful of affiliate players from the U18AA Lake Country Co-op Timberwolves and even with just enough to ice three lines and two sets of defensive pairings, the Timberjaks turned in a solid effort.
“The kids worked hard,” said Corfmat, who watched the game from the stands. “We just have to get through it and reset to get ready for the playoffs.”
Josh Charko, one of the affiliate players put into action, staked the Timberjaks to a 1-0 first-period lead and the score remained that way until early in the middle session when Braxon Kabrud got the Westleys on the board. With time running out in the second period, and Saskatoon enjoying a two-man advantage, Raiden Clayton squeezed one through Prince Albert netminder Josh Henry’s pads to give Saskatoon their first lead of the game.
It was obvious that fatigue was playing a factor as the third period whittled away and as a result goals by Carter Walter and Jeter Korte put the game out of reach.
Henry was likely the most worn out of the Prince Albert group as he finished the game by turning aside 57 of 61 shots while his counterpart in the Saskatoon goal, Luke Hampton, was tested just 23 times.
“We’re really happy to get back to the playoffs, but we have to get some of our guys back,” said Corfmat. “It’s looking like we should have about eight of them ready.”
Tuesday’s game in Martensville is actually a rescheduled match from December so while it has no bearing on the standings for Prince Albert, it is crucial for the Chiefs as they are in a three-way fight for top spot with a pair of Saskatoon teams, the Quakers and Westleys.
While dates have not been set for the Survivor Series – the winner advances to the divisional semi-finals against the first-place team – it is expected to start next weekend in Saskatoon.
