The talk around the rinks all season, was that the Battlefords Peewee AA Barons had the best chance to win a championship.
This past weekend, those thoughts came to an abrupt end, as the Barons were eliminated from both the Centre Four Hockey League playoffs and SHA provincials.
The Barons played three games in three days, and although they kept them close, they couldn't pull out a victory.
In CFHL action the Barons played Lloydminster in the league semi final Friday and Saturday.
Friday at the Don Ross, the Barons fell 4-2.
Paul Cubbon and Gavin Nolin were the Barons' goal scorers while Chase Wouters was the Lloydminster star with two goals.
The Barons had some powerplay chances, as the Blazers took six separate stick infraction penalties, but Ryan Gilchrist stood tall for Lloydminster in net.
The next day, the Barons played in Lloydminster and lost 5-4. The final score of the series was 9-6 for the first overall Lloydminster Blazers. The Blazers advance to play the second overall West Central Wheat Kings in the CFHL final.
In provincial action, the Barons trailed the Saskatoon Titans by four goals after losing game one, but made game two interesting.
The Barons led 1-0 after the first period after Jayden Nachtegaele scored. In the second the Barons were outscored 4-2 and the game ended 4-3 for Saskatoon. Brandon Lesko and Owen Lamb were the Barons' second period goal scorers.
Dax Desmarais was the Barons' goaltender in the losing effort.
Despite the upsetting weekend, the Barons have a season they can look back at and be proud of with a 13-9-2 regular season record, a first round playoff win over Melfort and three provincial series wins.
Another CFHL series was underway on the weekend, but didn't end well for the Battlefords. The Midget AA Barons lost 5-0 in Warman in game one of the consolation final.
Game two of the best-of-three series goes Wednesday at the Battleford Arena at 7:30 p.m.
The Hi-way 14 Barons played two games with Kyle in league playoffs and lost game one in Kyle. The Barons only goal was scored by Craig Swiftwolf. In game two, the Barons hosted Kyle and fell 2-0 and finished their season.
The bantam girls were also in action and lost 5-3 in Rosthern. Game two of the two-game total-goal series will be played Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
