The Sylvan Agencies Atom AA Lakers played their semi-final game against the Stony Plain Predators in Bonnyville last weekend during Provincials losing 6-1.
In reflection of the game Lakers head coach Zenon Komarniski said the team didn’t get the results they wanted but they still played well.
“The score didn’t indicate the game but none the less we lost the game and the season is over,” Komarniski said.
Even though the score ended up in the Predators favour the Lakers controlled the game.
“Usually when you control the play that much you would anticipate a 4-3 game or 5-3 game, not a 6-1 spread,” Komarniski said. “We just ran into a goalie who stopped most of our shots.”
This is why he said the score doesn’t reflect on how hard his players were working to score goals.
“The score didn’t reflect at all the effort in the game,” Komarniski said. “I thought we out worked them, but we just couldn’t get the puck in the net.”
The players, coaches and parents were all excited to have journey to the Hockey Alberta 2016 Provincial Championship games. In the game against the Predators they worked as hard as they could for 60 minutes to try and win.
“They gave it everything they had right from the drop of the puck,” Komarniski said. “They did everything they possibly could and that’s all you can ask for.”
Komarniski said at the end of the game when the players were in the dressing room not one player was upset and in tears which he said is a good sign.
“The kids played their hardest, the best they can and that’s all you can ask of them,” Komarniski said. “I wouldn’t say they were okay with losing, but I think they were okay with the effort they put in right until the end of the game.”
Throughout the whole season Komarniski said they were a great group of athletes to coach.
He said he and the coaching staff asked a lot of the players this year. With half of the team being first year players, it was a lot for them to take but they still managed to do extremely well.
“It’s just a great group of kids,” Komarniski said. “Five or six months goes by really quickly when you’re playing every week. The reality is you’re practicing once, maybe twice a week.They did the best they could and we couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
“As coaching staff we did the best we could to lay a foundation for success,” he added. “The players executed it to the best of their abilities and hats off to them for their work effort.”
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com