Slave Lake’s Bantam ‘AA’ Thunder got the job done last Tuesday night, beating Barrhead in the final game of their playoff series. As a result, the Thunder are the Sturgeon Pembina Bantam ‘AA’ League champions for 2007/2008.
“It was a wonderful year and a wicked series,” says coach Glen Monaghan. “It was probably our best game of the season – out of the box, all focused.”
It was a close one. Slave Lake took a 2 – 0 lead in the first period on goals by Riley Eben and Travis Malbeuf, but gave that up in the second when Barrhead evened it up.
The Thunder had a big edge in shots. Monaghan says they had Barrhead pinned in their own end for much of the game, but the Barrhead goalie was stopping just about everything. And although Barrhead only got 14 shots on Slave Lake goalie Bud Dyck, there were a couple of very close calls.
“The puck rolled right to our goal line twice,” says Monaghan, “and it was cleared by our defencemen.”
Travis Malbeuf scored the winner in the third period off a shot by Mathew Monaghan. Also picking up assists in the game were Brandon Devos, Riley Eben and Malbeuf.
The series started with a 2 – 1 Slave Lake win in Slave Lake on Mar. 9, with the league’s goals against average leader Zach Pollard in net for Slave Lake. In Barrhead for game two on Mar. 12, the momentum went all in the other direction, with Barrhead pounding Pollard for 46 shots in a 5 – 2 win.
Last Tuesday, the Thunder regrouped, and ended up hoisting the trophy.
“They all dug in and played hard,” says Monaghan.

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