By Sheldon Spackman

Midget AAA Sutter Fund Chiefs win provincial Bronze

Mar 25, 2018 | 3:10 PM

The Midget AAA Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs are provincial Bronze medalists following a 4-3 overtime victory over the Lloydminster PWM Steelers at the Servus Arena on Sunday.

It was a character win for the Chiefs considering they were down by two goals at one point in the third period.

The first period in this one however saw the visiting Steelers take the early lead when Kelsey Hall scored just 54 seconds in to make it 1-0 Lloydminster.

Red Deer would later respond though when Cassidy Maplethorpe scored her first of three goals in the game at the 8:19 mark to tie it up at 1-1.

Lloydminster regained their lead once again though when Taylor Wilkinson scored at 17:45 to make it a 2-1 for the Steelers after twenty minutes.

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The game then tightened up in the second period with neither team able to put one in the net despite a pair of power play opportunities for both squads.

In the third, Lloydminster extended their lead when Jenna Plamandon scored at 2:45 to make it 3-1 Steelers and a Bronze medal for Red Deer seemingly slipping away.

With the chips down as they say, the Chiefs then turned up the intensity and pulled to within one when Cassidy Maplethorpe struck again, scoring her second of the game at 8:37 to cut Lloydminster’s lead to 3-2.

A little over a minute later, another big goal from Red Deer as Shae Demale found twine at 9:49 to make it a 3-3 tie with half a period to go, eventually sending the game to a sudden-death overtime.

The extra frame was short-lived though as the Chief’s Cassidy Maplethorpe picked up a hatrick in the biggest game of the year, scoring her third of the game just 57 seconds into O.T. to make it a 4-3 final in favour of Red Deer.

Head Coach Bob Rutz says the biggest emotion he feels for this team is pride.

“I’m so proud of this group, how they stuck together,” Rutz pointed out. “Even today being down 3-1, they just didn’t quit, we wouldn’t let them. It’s just a credit to everybody in that room that we managed to pull this off.”

He says in the second intermission when they were still down 2-1, the coaching staff told the team they were just one shot away from tying it up.

“They got the next one, so it was still a lot more psychology we had to do but hey, they didn’t quit,” reflected Rutz. “That’s what I said on the bench, nobody is allowed to quit and we got the next one and they fought back to tie it up, so it’s a great character team win and I can’t be more proud of a group of players than I am right now.”

As for hosting provincials, Rutz feels it was a great experience for them.

“The Optimist Chiefs gave us their room and we had a home, I thought that was a big advantage,” stated Rutz. “It was great to host it in front of family and friends and combined with the fact they played their best hockey in a long time, it was a great way to go out and we went out the right way.”