OLCN Scouts play underdogs to win inaugural USPHL Premier Alberta Division title

Playoffs began with a mini round robin style tournament, where the division’s six teams were divided into two pools, with the last-place team in each being eliminated from playoff contention. For that, the Scouts were lined up against third-place Three Hills Titans and fifth-place Hanna Havoc. OLCN won the pool in dominant fashion, collecting an 11-6 win over Hanna and an 8-5 win against Three Hills.

Winning the pool also rocketed the Scouts past the elimination stage and into the crossover, where they beat the Diamond Valley Rockies in a tightly contested 5-4 game to advance to the best-of-three Alberta Final.

There, they met the division leaders in the Calgary Bandits, who finished the regular season at 25-7-1-2. Based on points, the Bandits were also the highest-ranked Alberta team in the USPHL Premier standings at 30 out of 77 clubs. The Scouts were ranked at 69.

The series began on March 28 in Lloydminster, where Game 1 went in favour of the Bandits in a 5-1 fashion, before things shifted to Calgary for Games 2 and 3. The Bandits had an early hand in Game 2 by jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first. The Scouts rallied in the second and managed to tie it at 4-4 entering the third, where OLCN squeaked out a 7-6 win to force a winner takes all Game 3.

The Scouts came out of the gate firing on all cylinders for the championship game, scoring twice in the first to take an early lead before piling on four in the third to pull away and capture the USPHL Premier’s inaugural Alberta Division championship. Henry Thunderblanket had two goals in the game for OLCN while Devante Pratt, Eli Quinney, Lee Burden, and Mason Sauvie each had markers of their own.

With the Division win, the Scouts would’ve been on a plane to head to the USPHL Premier National Championship, however, since it’s the division’s first year operating, plans were not made to include the winners in this year’s tournament in Wayne, New Jersey. Instead, the championship had the other 10 division winners compete along with two wildcard teams chosen based on the team highest ranked in the leagues power rankings that was not already competing in the tournament.

The USPHL Premier National Championship was played on March 29 between the Fresno Monsters and the defending national champions Vernal Oilers. Vernal led 5-1 at one point in the second period before Fresno rallied to make it 5-4 game. With a minute to play, the Oilers stayed on the pressure and scored to seal the national championship win, 6-4 over the Monsters.

For those interested in trying out for the USPHL Premier, the OLCN Scouts have two ID camps coming up in the summer with one in Lloydminster on July 4 and 5 at the Cenovus Energy Hub, and the other in Prince Albert on August 22 and 23 at the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre.

(Image Credit: Onion Lake Scouts Jr. Hockey Club/Facebook)

Founded in 2012, the USPHL is an independent league that operates outside of Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, and the USPHL Premier is the largest junior division in the world with a focus on development and college placement. The USPHL also has an Elite division that sits below the Premier level, along with the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) that sits above.

-with files from USPHL Premier

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

by Logan Lehmann

OLCN Scouts play underdogs to win inaugural USPHL Premier Alberta Division title

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