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Lars Kaliel made 25 saves for his 8th win of the season
By Shaun Penner
Dramatic Fashion

Storm top Wolverines in Aasman’s head coaching debut

Dec 18, 2019 | 9:08 AM

Ryan Aasman’s AJHL head coaching career started in dramatic fashion.

Cade Mason fired home his fourth goal of the season with just 19 seconds left on the clock, giving the Storm a 3-2 victory in both Aasman’s debut and the team’s final home game of this decade.

The win caps off a whirlwind day for the team on Tuesday, which started with Aasman finding out he had been promoted to Interim Head Coach, following the team’s dismissal of Matt Keillor after parts of four season at the helm.

“A lot of ups and downs today. We battled through some adversity, but full credit to the room for what they’ve done all season and they came together for another character win,” said the 27-year-old bench boss after the game.

For the most part, the game was a goaltending duel between Lars Kaliel and the Wolverines’ Vincent Duplessis. Both goaltenders made a number of high profile stops through the opening 40 minutes of the game, with only Bonanza-product Lukas Konaschuk finding the back of the net late in the second on a backhand to give the Storm a 1-0 lead.

The Wolverines would finally sneak one “passed” Kaliel exactly nine minutes into the third to tie it up, much to the disagreement of both the Storm and the Revolution Place faithful.

The puck appeared to hit the crossbar and bounce back out, but the ref saw it as hitting the backbar and come back out, therefore he called it a good goal.

“I don’t think it was in, the way it bounced out,” said Kaliel. “Sometimes that is just the way the game goes and you just got to deal with it.

Aasman echoed that sentiment, deciding to not lose his cool on the officials for the perceived missed call.

“There is no point in yelling. The refs are going to make mistakes just as much as I will and the players will.”

Keeping their cool paid dividends rather quickly, as the Storm would find themselves on a power play 88 seconds later. Devin Sutton would capitalize on the opportunity, firing a slap shot by Duplessis to make it 2-1.

Whitecourt would draw even again less than two minutes later, with Tyler Mahan sneaking a shot under Kaliel’s right arm to make it 2-2.

That’s when Mason got the chance to play hero for his new coach.

The 18-year-old defenceman would trail in behind Austin Schellenberg breaking into the Whitecourt zone. Schellenberg would feed the puck back to Mason, who wristed home the game winner at the 19:41 mark.

“It was pretty exciting. It’s probably the biggest goal I’ve ever scored,” said Mason after the win. “It meant quite a bit, especially to get Ryan his first win as Head Coach. It was pretty special.”

The game presented a little bit of everything for Aasman in his first game running the bench: Seven power play opportunities, an injury to Nathaniel Bierd and the two goals he disagrees with.

“I was definitely thrown to the Wolves out there,” said Aasman. “It was a great first win and I’m very proud of the boys for finding a way to get it done.”

Now for the players in the room, starting the day by finding out there has been a coaching change comes as quite a shock. Both Mason and Kaliel reflected on that postgame, both suggesting that the change could bring about new energy and new focus as the team enters the second half.

“I think they made a change for the right reasons,” said Kaliel. “I think moving forward, it’s going to be a positive change.”

The Storm will now close out the 2019 portion of their schedule with a three-in-three road trip down south. Friday the team will meet the bandits in Brooks, Saturday they’ll face the Olds Grizzlies before the finish up on Sunday against the Calgary Canucks.

by Shaun Penner