Battlefords Provincial A Barons win A side final in Kindersley. (supplied photo/Brendan Kramer)

By Keaton Brown

keep it rolling

Battlefords Provincial A Barons find early success ahead of provincial tournament

Dec 17, 2019 | 1:20 PM

The Battlefords Provincial A Barons had a great showing at their tournament in Kindersley over the weekend. The team went undefeated through five games to win the A final of the tournament.

The Battlefords Provincial A Barons is a team assembled from the two midget step league teams in the Battlefords. The team was put together to compete at provincials at the midget A level this year.

Head Coach Brendan Kramer said most people assume these types of provincial teams are assembled with guys from all over the province but this team is made up of boys who are all registered with Battlefords Minor Hockey.

This tournament was the first time this team played together on the ice. Kramer said the tournament was a great way to get some on ice experience for his team ahead of the provincial tournament in January.

“The reason I took them to this tournament was that this was an A tournament. It was to prepare them for the provincial playoffs. We are looking to schedule a few more exhibition games before we start our actual playoffs,” he said.

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With the results the team had, it would not be out of line to assume they had been playing together all year. They started the tournament with a 4-3 win over the Saskatoon Red Wings. The boys followed that up with a 7-4 win over the Regina Prairie Storm and a 4-2 win over the host Kindersley Klippers.

In the semifinals the team had a rematch against the Saskatoon Red Wings, toppling them for a second time by a score of 4-2.

Forty-five minutes later they found themselves in the final against the Cochran Rockies. They opened the game with an offensive explosion, taking a six-goal lead into the dressing room after the first period.

Kramer said opening up a lead that big early in the game allowed them to experiment a little bit with their line up to see what works ahead of their provincial tournament.

“We tried a few different things with the teams. With provincials you don’t get a lot of opportunity to have the team play in a game situation prior to [the tournament]. We juggled lines and juggled some different game strategies to see what worked and we had the room to do that in that game,” he said.

Kramer said they had fairly high expectations for the team as a lot of the players are the same as when he coached them to a provincial championship in Bantam.

“I felt that we would be competitive. There is a core of the boys on this provincial team that myself and my assistant coach had on our provincial team two years ago in Bantam. In those provincials in 2017/2018 we went undefeated all the way through provincials to win the championship,” he said.

The boys had a little bit of penalty trouble over the weekend and coach Kramer said if they can clean that up before heading to the provincial tournament they will be in a great position to find success.

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Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow