The Cold Lake Jr B Ice have advanced to Round 2 of the Northeast Alberta Junior B Hockey League Playoffs after taking the Onion Lake Border Chiefs in five games. The Border Chiefs put up a great battle and managed to take one game away from the series, as well as, make for a stellar deciding Game 5. Friday night’s Game 5 went into overtime with an 9-8 win for the Ice in front of the home crowd. Head Coach of the Cold Lake Ice, Scott Hood, says the fans got a real treat Friday with intense back-to-back action on the ice.

The Ice came out blazin’ in the first, with just 1:49 into the game,  Chase Brown put in the first goal of the evening from Jacob Bartman. It took less than a minute for Onion Lake to answer back, Greg Cameron tied it up with the assists going to Colton Stanley and Daylin Smallchild. Back to the Ice at 7:11 Taylor Anshelm put in a goal #2 from Curtis Witney and Mike Harbich, back to Onion Lake at 10:01  Regan Yew got some help from teammate, Colton Stanley to tie it up at 2-2. Harbich got his second point of the night with an assist on Nicholas Murrell goal, which would put the Ice in the lead at 15:49. Josh Wik took an assist on the go-ahead goal. The Border Chiefs wouldn’t let the period end like that, Cameron put in his second goal of the night to tie it up 3-3 Smallchild and Robin Yew  pick up the apples again for Cameron.

“Onion Lake’s a good team, obviously, they didn’t quit,” Coach Hood explains the Ice fell behind at the start of the second. The Border Chiefs took advantage of the fresh ice and cut it up, two goals recorded in less than three minutes from Yew. “We battled back after being down and we’re able to catch up,” the Ice didn’t quit and answered for one of the two goals at 4:11 when Murrell put in his second goal of the evening. Ryan Evans  and Anshelm recorded the assists to make the game 5-4. Cameron with a hat trick at 14:05, gave the Border Chiefs a comfortable lead, but the Ice would let them sit back and relax, the answered back and got a go-ahead with goals from Anshelm, Witney and Harbich before the close of 40 minutes.

Onto the last 20 minutes of regulation, the Ice up 8-6, when Anshelm recorded a hat trick at 11:57. Onion Lake came back to tie it with goals from Smallchild and Regan Yew, which would force extra time with a score of 8-8.  Witney would get the game winner 46 seconds into OT.

The Ice now look forward to meeting the number one team in the NEAJBHL, The Wainwright Bison. The Ice go into the series being one of the only teams to have beaten the Bison during the regular season. Coach Hood says there’s some comfort in that knowledge, but the team is also very much aware that the Bison finished number one for a reason. “We’re gonna respect them, they finished number one for a reason and won a lot of games. We beat them three out of four, that doesn’t mean anything now, but it does show our guys we can beat them. We have to be prepared to come to the rink and work hard.”

We’ve had a rivalry with Wainwright for a few years now. – Scott Hood Head Coach Cold Lake Jr B Ice

Game 1 of Ice – Bisons series is Friday in Wainwright.