U13AA Canes look to prove themselves at year-end provincial

By Lethbridge Herald on March 29, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes U13AA team begin the battle for a Provincial Championship banner in Olds today.

The Hurricanes are coming in as the only league championship finalist after being  swept by the provincial host Olds Grizzlys a couple of weeks ago in a 4-3 Game 1 overtime loss on March 17 on home ice and an 8-2 shellacking  a night later on the road.

The other four teams all won their respective leagues.

“Now we have something to really prove,” said head coach Greg Cowie.

“We have to really prove that we deserve to be there. Every other team there is a league champion and we’re coming in as a finalist. So the onus is on us to prove to the other four hockey teams, which are all really good hockey teams and they got lots of good players on all their teams, that we deserve to skate with those guys. It’s a pretty big accomplishment for these kids. I don’t think they realize these moments; they don’t come every year. You don’t get to play in provincials every year and some guys, this will be the only time they ever get a chance to play in provincials.”

The biggest thing being worked on in practice is critiquing their defence again.

“And really coming back through the middle and being in good defensive position,” he said.

“That’s the No. 1 thing we’ve worked on all year. That’s where we had a ton of success the whole season and we kind of got away from that, and we didn’t have as much success as we had hoped.”

The coaching staff  has also made sure the team was having fun over the last couple of weeks.

“There was a ton of smiles,” said Cowie.

“They competed hard against each other. It was funny, yesterday (Tuesday) was our last practice and the kids didn’t want to get off the ice, that’s a great problem to have.”

However, the coaches have preached the eyes on the prize mentality with the players.

“Again it goes back to you don’t get many chances to win a provincial title and it’s pretty cool if these kids are successful ,which I really hope that they are, to come back in 20 years and say, ‘Hey that white and blue banner, I was a part of that,’” said Cowie.

The Hurricanes will open up the championship today at noon against the NWCAA U13AA Stamps.

Joining the Hurricanes in the tournament are the host Grizzlys, the Stamps, Leduc and the St. Albert Raiders U13AA Stars.

The U13AA Provincial runs today through to Sunday with the Championship Final at 1 p.m.

 The schedule and teams can be found at www. u13aa.haprovincials.ca/home/.