CANMORE – Charlie Dean of Canmore earned a bronze medal in Hockey Alberta’s Prospect Cup, while scoring a hat trick along the way.
Dean and the South Black squad locked in to win three straight games, including a 4-2 victory over Calgary Red to take third place at the provincial tournament.
“I thought it was huge for my development because the best players for my age in Alberta played there, so it was a good development opportunity,” said Dean.
Hockey Alberta’s Prospect Cup, held during the off years of the Alberta Winter Game, is a tournament for the most skilled second year U13 players.
“At the Prospect Cup they treated us so nice,” said Dean. “The trainers were ... kind of teaching us lessons [on what] to do when you’re going to high levels in hockey.”
In the second game against North Blue on May 10, Dean’s offensive touch was on full display as the forward scored a hat trick. The first of three came two seconds before the buzzer in the second period. He quickly followed it up with another snipe less than 50 seconds into the third. The big third goal was an unassisted less than 6 minutes in the third. Dean was named player of the game.
“I wasn’t expecting it to happen in the first place, because I didn’t score in the first game, but my line mates definitely helped me score a hat trick too,” said Dean.
In the third game of the tournament against Capital Green, Dean scored again enroute to a South Black 7-1 victory. It was the third most goals of the tournament in a single game.
All tournament long, the team had a mantra of four measurables: a maximum of 15 shots against, at most three penalties, 30 shots or more and 10 blocked shots.
The team checked off those boxes in the bronze medal game.
“One of the measurables we hadn’t reached all weekend was allowing less than 15 shots against and in the final game they had 14 with, like, a minute left,” said Dean. “Everybody was up and cheering, everybody's blocking shots just so we could get that [measurable] and we ended up getting it so that was pretty fun.
“I thought I gave my best effort [and] did what it would take to help my team win.”
The South Gold team won the tournament with a 9-5 victory against Calgary White. The golden squad also put the most shots in net of the tournament in a single game with a 13-goal barn-burner against Capital Royal on May 11.
