(Madison Fox/Renegades Photography)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

BUILDING ON A STRONG FOUNDATION

Bulldogs swept by Bandits in AJHL semi, but future bright, says coach

Apr 15, 2023 | 2:41 PM

The Blackfalds Bulldogs had quite the season, but it ended Wednesday night at home to the Brooks Bandits, in what was the fourth game of a third round sweep.

The Bandits, perennially one of the AJHL’s best teams, move on to the final where they’ll face Spruce Grove.

Brooks won the league title in 2022 and 2019, the last two times the league had a playoffs due to the pandemic, as well as 2017, 2016, 2013 and 2012. They were runners up in 2015.

As for the Bulldogs, they did put up a fight despite going down in four straight.

Games to start the best-of-seven in Brooks went 5-2 and 4-2 in the home team’s favour, then the Bandits won 5-3 and 4-2 at the Eagle Builders Centre in Blackfalds.

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In the regular season, the Bulldogs actually beat Brooks twice in six games.

“Obviously we’re disappointed we’re out, but reflecting on how much we’ve grown as a team, we’re really excited because we did finish third overall. We saw some real growth in our younger players,” says Head Coach Doug Quinn.

“Guys like Layne Loomer, Connor Dick, Otto Hanson and Jack Plandowski, it was exciting to watch them. We’re building a strong core, and I feel we’ll be very competitive for many years down the road.”

The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Brett Meerman (30G, 64A), whose 94 points in 60 games was second-best in the AJHL, just three points behind Brooks’ Aiden Fink.

Tyler Wallace had 42 goals and 42 assists for 84 points, fifth-best league-wide, and Jason Siedem scored 27 times, assisted on 48 more, and had 75 points in 58 games, seventh-best.

Matthew Hennessey led the way in net, going 26-12-0-2 with a .909SV% and 2.72 GAA (third in AJHL).

Siedem, Wallace and Meerman are among 12 players on the Bulldogs roster who’ve made a post-secondary commitment.

Team commitments

Jason Siedem to the University of New Hampshire

Brett Meerman to Augustana University

Tyler Wallace to Niagara University

Evan Mitchell to St. Lawrence University

The eight who are committed but are going to (or very likely to) return to junior hockey next year are:

Connor Dick to Northern Michigan University

Otto Hanson to Western Michigan University

Jayden Joly to Western Michigan University

Brendan Ross to the University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Kurt Gurkan to Yale University

Layne Loomer to Augustana University

David Brandes to Sacred Heart University

Tanner Willick to American International College

Of those twelve, seven committed this season while playing for Blackfalds (Willick, Loomer, Ross, Hanson, Dick, Siedem, and Meerman). The other five either committed last season or arrived here already with their NCAA commitment.

As for their post-season and series against Brooks, Quinn agrees it was closer than a sweep may indicate to many.

“We were in every game. The Bandits scored three empty-netters. They are a highly-skilled team with lots of depth. We played our first two series extremely physically, and we were banged up and had injuries. We were missing three of our top forwards at one point,” he says.

“As a team which ran four lines all year, to all of a sudden not have that depth, we tired out a bit, and their top players made a difference.”

The second round seven-game comeback from being down 3-1 in the series against Drumheller also took a lot out of the Bulldogs, Quinn admits.

“I’m very proud of them. The biggest thing is we’re trying to build a team culture so that we can compete year after year against teams like Brooks and Spruce Grove,” he says, adding that the community has really embraced the club two seasons in. “We’ve laid a solid foundation and we’ll keep building on it. The expectation is to win a championship.”

The Bulldogs’ 39-18-1-2 record (81 points), good for second in the South Division, was a vast improvement on their fifth place finish in 2021-22 when they went 28-31-1-0 (57 points).

They’d go on this season to defeat the Calgary Canucks (19-32-6-3) in five games in their opening round playoff series, then took down the Drumheller Dragons (33-21-4-2) in seven games.

Their third round appearance is the farthest the Bulldogs have gone in a short two-season history. Last season, they were swept in the first round by Okotoks.