Atom team takes title in Kalispell tournament

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Taber Times

Taber’s minor hockey teams were busy on the weekend, with the highlight being the Oil Kings atom “A” team, which scored a tournament win in the United States.

Below is a recap of the weekend’s hockey action.

INITIATION: Taber’s initiation 1 team defeated visiting Bow Island 18-3 on Saturday.

Six players record hat tricks for Taber, as Ryler Kiss, Chase Stronge, Nizen Miller, Maxwell Anderson, Jaida Peters and Madix Miller all lit the lamp.

NOVICE: The Oil Kings1 attended the Redcliff tournament and emerged with a 2-1 record.

Taber dropped the first game against Redcliff 11-9 . Scorers were Kade Duell with eight goals and one assist and Carter Jensen with a single.

In the second game against Swift Current Sharks the Oil Kings took the win 12-5. Duell had goals and an assist, Jensen added two goals and Hunter Damberger, Carson Love, Jaxson Coutts and Vance Kramer each had singles.

The third game against Swift Current Kings had the Oil Kings capture a 19-2 win, as Duell had six goals and assists. Wieler Krahn, Coutts and Damberger each had hat tricks, while Love, Jensen, Tristen Egeland and Jessica Turgeon all had singles. Jensen added an assist.

ATOM: What started as a down week turned into a positive weekend for the atom “A” team.

Taber played Coaldale for provincial “B” playdowns Thursday and lost 14-6.

Nathan Verloop led the way with two goals and three a asists, while Zachery Hauck scored two goals. Walker Skiba scored a goal and added one assist and Connor Eldridge had the other Taber goal. Rylan Millo had three assists, Kole Reynolds had two helpers and Kyler James, Heath Hansen and Matteo Blasetti all had one assist each.

On Friday, the team headed south of the border to play in the Outdoor Winter Classic Jamboree in Kalispell, a tournament the team would go on to win.

It started with an 11-3 win over Chestermere, as Verloop scored four goals and added three assists. Millo (three goals, one assist) and Zachery Hauck scored (three goals, two assists) were the other big point getters, as Heath Hansen scored a goal, Skiba had an assist and Luke Turgeon had the win in net.

Saturday Taber played Simons Valley Storm and won 23-0. Hauck scored five goals and added one assist, Reynolds scored four goals and picked up two assists and James and Eldridge scored three goals each. Skiba (two goals, one assist), Blasetti (two goals, one assist), Turgeon (one goal, one assist) and Verloop (two assists) made multiple-point games. Hansen, Cooper Ross and Levi VanBeers each scored once, while Rylan Millo had the win in net.

Sunday the atoms played Raymond in the morning and won 8-6, as Hauck led taber with three goals and one assist, while Hansen had two goals and one helper. Verloop and Skiba had a goal and an assist each, while Millo added a goal and Eldridge has an assist. VanBeers and Turgeon both were in net for the win

In Sunday’s final, Taber played Raymond again and won 11-5, as Verloop came up big with five goals and two assists, while Hauck had two goals and five assists. Millo and James had a goal and an assist each, while Hansen and Eldridge each scored a goal. VanBeers and Turgeon shared goaltender duties.

PEEWEE: The peewee “A” team had two home games this past weekend, and played the Medicine Hat Venom on Saturday, where the game ended in an 8-8 tie.

Max Nevil led Taber with with three goals, on assists by Jayce Jensen, Josh Verloop, Carter DeBoer and Josh Verloop, while Cody Stange added two goals, set up by Darci Wright and DeBoer. DeBoer also scored twice, with assists to Verloop and Carter Hendricks. Joey Fabbri added the other Taber goal, with an assist from DeBoer.

Taber played the Okotoks Oilers on Sunday Feb. 8 and won with a final score of 10-7.

DeBoer had five goals, one assisted by Joey Fabbri and Jack Murphy, one assisted by Max Nevil and Darci Wright, one assisted by Wright and Josh Verloop, one assisted by Max Nevil and Trey Halvorson and the other assisted by Cody Stange and Trey Halvorson. Stange’s two goals were assisted by DeBoer and Nevil and the empty-net goal assisted by Brylan Span and DeBoer. Jayce Jensen had two goals, assisted by DeBoer, Nevil, Stange and Halvorson. Carter Hendricks also scored, as DeBoer and Jensen drew the assists.

The peewee team has a regular-season game left to play on Saturday in Lethbridge. Taber is currently sitting in fourth in the league, and the top four teams will go into playoffs. However, the points for the teams sitting in fourth to sixth are so close the teams continuing onto playoffs will not be determined until next weekend once all the games have been played.

Taber’s peewee “B” team lost a road game against Kainai by a score of 8-6.

Carson Komery and Byron Kress had two goals each, while Jesse Andrus had a goal and two assists. Michael Stronge had a goal and an assist and Luke Bell and Logan Kromm added one assist each.

BANTAM: The Taber Oil Kings fell 6-5 to Airdrie in weekend hockey action.

Ryan Hubble scored twice for Taber, while Eric Loewen, Ryan Mankow and Kyle Turner added singles. Mankow also had two helpers, while Hubble, Ryan Hewitt, Spencer Phillips and Dallas Bodnar had single helpers.