U-13 advances to second round

By Rob Vogt
The Claresholm Under-13 Thunder have advanced to the second round of Central Alberta Hockey League Tier-4 playoffs after a convincing first round series win.
The Thunder opened playoff play on Friday, Feb. 13 at Claresholm Arena with Game 1 of their two-game, total-goal series against Kainai.
Claresholm won that game by a score of 10-5, after leading 2-1 after one period and blowing the game open with eight unanswered goals in the second period.
Scoring for the Thunder were Cohen Smith, unassisted; Rhet Schuler on the power play, assisted by Owen Martin and Courtland Blake; Smith, assisted by Austin Larkin and Avery Gibson-Morrison; Schuler on the power play, assisted by Quinn McIntyre; Alonso Quinteros, assisted by Tomas Quinteros and Cruz Kornfeld; MacIntyre, unassisted; Kornfeld, assisted by Alonso Quinteros and Tomas Quinteros; Martin, unassisted; MacIntyre, assisted by Blake and Martin; and Smith, assisted by Burke Heggie and Larkin.
The Thunder wrapped up the series in Kainai on Saturday, Feb. 14, with a 4-2 win.
The game was much closer as Claresholm lead 2-0 after 20 minutes, and 4-1 after 40 minutes before skating to the 4-2 win.
Scoring for the Thunder were Burke Heggie, assisted by Owen Martin; Burke Heggie, assisted by Dakota Sundquist; Quinn MacIntyre, assisted by Courtland Blake; and Blake, assisted by Rhet Schuler.
Awaiting Claresholm in the second round were the Picture Blades who finished first in the regular season.
The series opened at Claresholm Arena on Sunday, Feb. 15, where the Blades won by a score of 13-2.
Scoring for the Thunder were Rhet Schuler, assisted by Alexis Hutchison and Owen Martin; and Quinn MacIntyre on the power play, assisted by Merrit Bolduc and Dakota Sundquist.
Game 2 goes in Picture Butte on Friday, Feb. 20.