For the first time since relocating to Airdrie five years ago, the Bisons AAA U18 hockey team is back in the post-season.
After finishing fifth in the Alberta Elite Hockey League's (AEHL) U18 AAA South Division this year, the CFR Chemical Bisons qualified for the playoffs, and are in a best-of-three opening-round series against the Calgary Royals.
Airdrie won the series opener 4-1 on Feb. 23, and are getting set for Game 2 tonight at the Ron Ebbesen Arena. Puck-drop is 7:15 p.m.
Forward Matthias Bessey scored twice for the Bisons in Game 1, while Cooper Brown and Calan Blondeau also added to the visitors' scoring total. In net, Austin White saved 21 of the 22 shots he faced.
“I was pretty proud of the boys," said head coach Brad Bourke after Wednesday night's win at the Stu Peppard Arena in Calgary. "That was probably our most complete game, especially when the going got a little tough in the third period."
Back in the playoffs
While the Bisons were formed in Airdrie, the AAA team moved to Strathmore in the 1990s and played there for 24 years, before moving back to Airdrie for the 2017-18 season. That campaign, they finished at the bottom of the South Division of what was then called the Alberta AAA Midget Hockey League (AMHL) with a 10-21-4 record, well outside a playoff berth.
They came closer in 2018-19, just narrowly missing out on the AMHL playoffs. That year, the Bisons ended the regular season in seventh place with a 16-15-3 record, but were just two points away from the playoffs in what was a hyper-competitive South Division.
A downward slide came the following season. A young, new-look Bisons with mostly first-year U18 players finished in the basement of the south division in 2019-20, this time with a 6-24-2 record. The team ended the campaign 15 points adrift of the post-season, with a goal-differential of -60.
While they got off to a decent start the following season, their 2020-21 campaign came to an early halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, however, the Bisons managed to stay in a playoff position throughout the regular season, ending the campaign in fifth place of their division with a 14-16-8 record.
“I think we’ve kind of been playing playoff hockey all year," Bourke said, adding the team has been "scrapping and clawing" in every game.
"It’s been an awesome league this year, with how much parity there is," he said. "It’s really helped our team as far as, we have some top-end guys, and some of our depth players have really made huge improvements."
The head coach added he feels the team is peaking at the right time.
"We’ve played like this all the way through – we know we give ourselves the chance to win any game," he said.
The Royals are a familiar opponent for the Bisons, who had played the Calgary-based team four times already this season. The head-to-head record saw the Royals win three of those encounters, one of which was in overtime. Airdrie's win over the Royals – who finished just above the Bisons in the south division – was also in overtime.
"We definitely know their team well, and we knew a little bit about what they were going to throw at us," Bourke said. "We played two pretty good games at Stu Peppard [earlier this year], so we were pretty confident that if we stuck to a game plan, it would give us a chance to win [Game 1].”
If the Bisons win tonight, they will advance to the next round of the AEHL playoffs. If the Royals come out on top, Game 3 will take place the following day in Calgary.
"Hopefully next week, we’re on to the next round," Bourke said. "We’ll take it one game at a time.”
