Cold Lake Ice eliminated in five against Clippers

The Cold Lake Ice’s season is over.

The Ice lost Game 5 against the Lac La Biche Clippers 8-1 on Friday night to be bounced from the NEAJBHL playoffs.

The Clippers advance to the NEAJBHL Final and await the winner of the St. Paul Canadiens vs Wainwright Bisons series.

Dawson Boucher and Brody Rosychuk each had four points as Lac La Biche exploded for six goals in the second period to put the game out of reach.

Cold Lake played 11 games in a little over three weeks after beating the Killam Wheat Kings in the quarterfinals.

“It was a good season,” said coach Scott Hood.

“As a young team that worked a lot, it’s tough to save if anybody’s coming back or who’s coming back, but if that group stayed together we have a chance to win a few more games.

“But we achieved a lot more than people expected by beating Killiam is six games and then playing probably the craziest game in Junior B hockey beating them 9-6 in Game 3. It was a good season overall.”

Noah Cook led the team in playoff scoring with 13 points with his brother Wyatt earning 8 points.

Netminder Matt Henwood, a leader from the crease on the team ages out.

He had a .892 save percentage in 11 regular-season games, before playing in every playoff game.

Over three years he appeared in 20 postseason games.

“I had him for two years, two and a half years almost and he’s just a great all-round kid,” said Hood.

“He battled every night no matter if it was practice or a game, he went full throttle.”

Affiliate players Austin Saint and Curtis Hammond were big contributors to the team offensively.

Saint posted 19 points in 15 total games with the Ice, Hammond 13 points in 9 games.

The Ice finished 5th during the regular season.

Meanwhile, the St. Paul Canadiens lead the Wainwright Bisons 3-2 after the Bisons staved off eliminated for two straight games.

St. Paul can reach their first NEAJBHL Final since 2016-17 with a Game 6 victory on Tuesday night at the Clancy Richard Arena.

Game 7 would be in Wainwright on Wednesday.