Midget Suns set in semis

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

Given they were a team that hovered around the .500 mark (14-14-8) in the regular season, the Taber midget “AA” Golden Suns weren’t expected to make much noise in its league championship tournament over the weekend.

But the opposition heard the Golden Suns loud and clear, as the team peaked at the right time and almost punched their ticket to the championship final in a tight 3-2 loss to Lethbridge Hurricanes.

“We lost two 17 year olds in the game, one in the second period and one in the third period. One was a 10-minute misconduct and the other was a major hit from behind. That’s a huge impact losing two key players in Logan Kiss and Linden Gouw,” said Geoff Oster, head coach of the Taber midget “AA” Golden Suns.

“Without them, it made our job that much harder.”

That being said, Oster noted his team had its chances to pull out the win.

“We missed three open nets to put it away and two out of their three goals went off one of our players,” said Oster. “It was a combination of no puck luck and the hockey gods weren’t smiling on us.”

Wheatland Chiefs (31-2-3) would go on to beat Lethbridge in the final 5-0.

The midget “AA” Golden Suns finished 3-0 in pool play, finishing first in its pool.

The Suns beat Okotoks Oilers Green (5-2), Lethbridge Hurricanes (4-3) and Foothills Bisons (7-4).

“Going into the semis we were 5-0-1 so we had plenty of momentum. The kids really, really bought into the system all weekend and played their hearts out. It was unfortunate it turned out the way it did. They deserved a better fate, that is for sure,” said Oster.