Bantam Golden Suns shine brightest in regular season

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By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

Taber bantam “AA” Golden Suns (23-9-2) put the sting on the Cranbrook Hornets (17-14-3) to top off its South Central Alberta Hockey league season, with a 9-1 pasting at the Taber Arena on Saturday evening, giving them the top overall finish in the league.

The Golden Suns finished tied with the Okotoks Oilers with 48 points overall, but earned top finish with the tie breakers for overall league standings.

“We get to stay at the top of the board because we have more wins than they do and we have a higher goal differential for goals for and against,” said Cam Cleland, head coach of the Taber bantam “AA” Golden Suns.

Tristan Miller and Kalem Haney both scored twice and D.J. Tonin, Jayden Kostiuk, J.D. Hall, Tyran Kiss and Kolby James had singles.

Miller also drew three assists and Nolan Price and Haney each had two helpers. James, Wyatt Broderson, Tonin and Hall had single assists.

Blake Vaselenak faced 26 shots on goal to earn the win in net.

“Cranbrook has a dangerous team. They had a little slide in the back half of the season, but they got two or three very good players, dangerous guys. Our room was calm, they played six or seven shifts even with us and then we got to run all the lines out and slowly started to dominate and take the game away in every aspect,” said Cleland. “Be it 5-on-5, our power play was good, our penalty kill was really good and puck movement was strong. Everything you could hope for was put in place for us in that last win.”

Tie breakers are decided a different way for championship tournament seeding, where the Oilers earn top spot because of a head-to-head record at 2-1, with the added bonus of Okotoks also hosting.

Nevertheless, the Taber bantam “AA” Golden Suns have set the tone heading into the championship tournament where they are one of the front runners.

“Our main goal these last five or six games was to try and get the team in the right place where we go in very confident and we achieved that. I’m very comfortable with the boys, with our team feel and the atmosphere. We are in a good place with our game structure,” said Cleland. “The boys are pretty clear with the short format of the tournament. If you drop the ball more than once, you are going to be in tough trying to get that crossover game in the tournament. It’s all about getting into that semifinal by creating enough in your game slotting.”

MIDGET: Taber midget “AA” Golden Suns ended its regular season strong with a 2-0-1 record this past weekend.

Blake Vaselenak earned the win in goal for the Golden Suns, facing 26 shots on net.

Friday and Sunday saw the midget Golden Suns beat the Cranbrook Dynamiters 5-1 and 10-1 respectively.

The 5-1 game saw Hayden Mack tally twice and Kole Fujita, Logan Kiss and Darian Simmons score singles. Zach Trempner got two assists while Simmons, Fujita, Chase Gedny, Linden Gouw, Cole Jensen and Justin Astalos got single helpers.

Theo Paskuski had a quiet night in net, facing 15 shots on goal to earn the win.

Sunday’s 10-1 blowout had Weston Graumann pot the hat trick and Gouw score twice. Brant Mack, Gedny, Fujita, Astalos and Trempner notched singles.

Paskuski earned the win in net, facing 18 shots on goal.

Taber midget “AA” Golden Suns go to its championship playoff tournament in Medicine Hat this weekend.

PEEWEE: Taber peewee “AA” Golden Suns ended off its South Central Alberta Hockey League season with a 6-4 loss to Lethbridge Hurricanes White on the road on Friday.

Rylen Roersma had two goals and an assist in the loss. Nathan Verloop had a goal and an assist. Caden Heins notched a single and Ty Fraser and Jed Magarell drew assists.

Scout Sidam faced 32 shots on goal to take the loss in net for the Golden Suns.

Taber peewee “AA” Golden Suns are off to its championship playoff tournament in High River to end its season this weekend.

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