Pee Wee Badgers claim provincial title

The Shaunavon Pee Wee Badgers eliminated all the drama from their provincial “C” championship series against the Unity Lazers.

The Badgers scored the first five goals of Saturday’s contest at the Crescent Point Wickenheiser Centre and had all but wrapped up the provincial title by the first period intermission. “We just wanted to score that first goal to settle the nerves down a bit and get some early momentum,” said coach Devin Floberg. The Badgers led 5-1 after 20 minutes of play and went on to score a 9-3 victory over the Lazers on Saturday. The Badgers opened the two-game, total-point series with a 6-3 win over Unity on March 23. Officially, the series ended 15-6 in favour of Shaunavon. “Everyone played well today,” said Floberg. “It was a complete team effort.” The Badgers were led on offence by Tyson Goffinet who scored five times, including three straight tallies in the first period. Goffinet also added a pair of assists for a seven point night. Taylor Lind scored twice and added an assist. Matt Fuller had a goal – including that all-important first marker to open the game – and added assist. Jaxon Barton had the team’s other goal. Colt Kornfeld chipped in with a pair of helpers and was rock solid on the blueline for the Badgers. Austin Smith, Kaden Floberg and Brock Oberle also had assists. Kenny Fesner scored twice for Unity while Raedyn Brown had the team’s other marker. Joel Timmermans, Dillon Poschenrider and Isaak L’Heureux had assists for the Lazers. In a unique circumstance, all four goalies saw action. Badger netminders Dawson Jacob and Janson Davidson shared goaltending duties while Ty Landry and Tyson Krpan were tagged with the loss for Unity. The game was surprisingly rough. Shaunavon was handed eight minors while Unity, a big and physical team, was whistled for nine infractions. The Badgers reached the Pee Wee “C” final after posting total point wins over Rosetown (a series that ended 19-1 after only one game), Davidson (11-5) and Wynyard (12-5). Unity had advanced to the final with wins over Hillmond (a series that ended 15-0 after only one game), Maidstone (17-0, one game), Delisle (15-3) and Rose Valley (13-4). It marks only the third time that a Shaunavon team has ever won a provincial championship. The first title was also won by a Pee Wee squad during the 2008/09 season. The second provincial title came last year when the Senior Badgers won the “B” championship. This Pee Wee Badgers team finished the year with an overall record of 43 wins and two losses. Their only two defeats came in exhibition games against the Ponteix Bantam Penguins and a Swift Current Pee Wee provincial team. (The Badgers played the Swift Current provincial team on four occasions and lost just once.) The provincial pee wee squad – which featured three pick up players from Ponteix including Tyson Goffinet, Jenna O’Neill and Evan Fournier – also earned several prestigious tournament titles during the season. The league team, meanwhile, was unbeatable. The team finished the regular season with a perfect 22 wins and no losses. They scored 372 goals while giving up just 26. They averaged almost 17 goals a game while giving up an average of 1.18 goals a game, for an average differential of almost 16 goals. Their closest margin of victory during the regular season was seven goals, which occurred twice (11-4, 10-3) to the second place Ponteix Penguins. Only one other game was within double digits, and that was an 11-2 win over the Swift Current Rustlers. The team went on to sweep all of their playoff games, including the final against the Penguins.

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