The St. Albert Merchants spent Sunday cleaning out their lockers after an early playoff exit in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
In the best-of-three qualifying round, the Spruce Grove Regals swept the Money Men by identical 5-4 scores.
Facing off against the Regals (19-17-0-2), the fourth-place team in the west division, the fifth-place Merchants (19-18-0-1) were able to keep both games close down to the wire but came up short in the end.
In game one Friday in Spruce Grove, the Regals erased a two-goal deficit with three unanswered markers in period two.
In the rematch Sunday at Akinsdale Arena, the Regals sniped the series-clinching winner with 25 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Even though the Merchants found themselves on the losing end of the scoreboard in game two, they were able to tie the score three times during the game.
Merchants’ standout Jake Behiels believes there was some solace the team could take from series.
“We showed our will to compete,” said Behiels, the team leader in goals (30) and points (42 in 38 games). “All of us wanted to be at practices. We were excited to come to the rink and we did that right until our last game.”
Dustin Robinson, Stefan Meunier, Alex Hawirko and Jamie Umbach registered goals Sunday. Period scores were 2-1 and 3-2 for the Regals. After the fifth goal by the Regals, the fights started.
In the series opener, Brayden Switner and Nicolas Addessi potted goals in the opening frame. It was 4-2 Regals in the third, when Hawirko connected with 2:20 to play. After a power-play goal by the Regals with 1:15 remaining, Umbach made it a one-goal game with 59 seconds left.
Curtis Ronaldson was in net for both losses.
Looking back on the regular season, the fourth-highest penalized team (1,349 PIM) had trouble keeping its emotions in check.
“Basically for us it came down to discipline. We constantly talked about that all year and the players got better at it as the season went along. We had our two steps forward, one step back, so we were constantly fighting that all season,” said head coach Wes Werhun. “Discipline though is not just in the penalty box but on the ice as well in terms of positioning. I asked a lot of the players this year, especially the returning players who weren’t familiar with the systems, and I think they grew a lot as players.”
After taking over the head coaching role following the departure of Terry Moser midway through the season, Werhun tried to implement a set of rules for on and off the ice. After taking a moment to reflect back on the season at large, Werhun is confident his message got across to the players.
“There was some things we wanted to clean up and we cleaned them up quite well. The boys cleaned it up and did a really good job with that,” he said. “The guys who stuck around wanted to make it a better year, not just for themselves but also for the organization and I think they have accomplished that.”
Whether or not Werhun decides to take his place behind the bench next season will be discussed between himself and management over the next few weeks.
“I like to be open to it but I have to discuss it with my wife.”
Looking ahead to next season, along with the potential returning players, Werhun believes the team is set to improve on what he considers a good season of Merchants hockey.
“It’s been a success in my mind,” he said. “We finished higher than last year [11-25-0-2 for sixth place] On a scale from one to 10, I would put us at a seven and a half.”
