Four Okotokians brought Team South back on the podium for the first time in four years.
Team South forwards Zachary Okabe, Peyton Krebs, Jaevon Buschlen and blueliner Kirby Proctor earned the bronze medal at the 2016 Alberta Cup in Canmore after dispatching Calgary North 4-1 in the B-final on Sunday.
“It was a great group of guys who came together with lots of skill,” said Krebs on the experience. “I think over the weekend we got a little stressed trying to live up to the expectations.
“We just had fun (in the B-final) and came out on top.”
Krebs opened the scoring on a feed from Proctor and added the fourth insurance marker in the comfortable bronze medal triumph.
He was named South’s player of the game.
Team South opened the event with a pair of wins on day one. First, South took out Team Northwest by a 4-1 count with Okabe earning player of the game honours in a two-point performance. South then blanked Calgary North 2-0 as Krebs and Proctor found the back of the net and Claresholm’s Byron Fancy pitched a 16-save shutout.
South finally tasted defeat on day two when it fell 5-2 to Edmonton Yellow despite outshooting the capital city squad by a 49-28 margin.
In the playoff round, South’s gold-medal pursuit ended in gut-wrenching fashion in a 3-2 overtime defeat to Northeast. South had owned a 2-0 advantage in the third period on goals from Okabe and Max Bulawka before Northeast tallied three unanswered.
“We had them all game and the bounces just didn’t go our way,” Krebs added. “That’s okay. Hopefully next year the South can take it.”
Named to the tournament all-star team, Krebs finished with a team leading three goals and six points in the competition. Not far behind was Okabe who potted three and added two assists while the 6-foot-1 Proctor chipped in with two points.
Featuring the top 2001 born prospects in the province, the Alberta Cup is one of the stepping stones into the Team Alberta program. The top-80 players from the event are invited to attend a summer evaluation camp for Alberta’s U16 program.
Moreover, the Alberta Cup is the last chance for prospects to impress scouts and leave a lasting impression with the Western Hockey League’s Bantam Draft just days away.
“You try to not put too much stress on yourself for the games,” Krebs said. “There is a lot of scouts there, but you just stay focused and have fun.”
The MVP and Top Scorer of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League, Krebs has been pegged as a top-three overall WHL prospect by a number of scouting services over the course of the season.
“You just hope for the best,” he said. “You can’t control anything now, you just hope you did your best. It’s on the computer in the morning so I’ll just watch and see where I go.”
The Bantam Draft goes May 5 in Calgary. The top three picks are owned by the Kootenay Ice, Vancouver Giants and Saskatoon Blades, respectively.
To keep track of the results go to whl.ca
