The boys are back in town with gold medals and a provincial banner.
17-year-old defenceman Braden Scott is the team Captain of the U18 Grizzlys that won a provincial title for Olds Minor Hockey last weekend in High Prairie. Scott says “super cool, yeah, something we worked towards all season and for us to finally win it and bring it home, and all the congratulations and stuff we got was just super awesome.”
17-year-old centre Hunter McDonald had a hat trick for Olds in the provincial championship game. McDonald says “just overcome with happiness. I mean just the best way to end a career for me in minor hockey, and just such a special group of guys that we got to play with this year and just worked so hard to get there and just finished proper.”
18-year-old left winger Aiden Cook says “playing with all my buddies that I grew up with playing hockey. We knew we were going to win after that final penalty they took. It was just a great moment to celebrate with all the boys and it was just amazing.”
17-year-old left winger Wyatt McDonald says “I honestly blacked out. It was an unreal experience. Never experienced that before. I was little when I got my first banner and to do it 9 years later, kind of a sporadic moment and, yeah, it was a good time.”
16-year-old right winger Evan Ellis says “we had a tournament in Radium (B.C) just after Christmas and it seemed that was kind of the turning point for us. We got second in that tournament and everyone was a little upset about that, not the happiest but I think from then on we kind of just collectively as a group flipped the switch and decided that we wanted to win it all, and take what we could from what we had left and make that push for provincials.”
Olds defeated Bow Valley 5-2 on Sunday, March 29th to win Hockey Alberta’s U-18 B provincial championship. It was the fourth straight win at the tournament for the Grizzlys. They began with a 5-1 loss to the Athabasca Hawks but then topped High Prairie 18-3, and SE702 4-2. The semi-final against the Kneehill Chiefs on Sunday morning required a third period game tying goal from Wyatt McDonald before Darren Walker won it for Olds with the skate away play in overtime. 4-3 was the final score.
96.5 The Ranch had this conversation with Braden Scott.
The Ranch also sat down with Aiden Cook.
Hear more audio with Hunter McDonald.
Listen to our conversation with Wyatt McDonald.
The Ranch gathered more audio with Evan Ellis as well.
