Eston Ramblers’ season comes to disappointing close

By Jordan Parker

The SVHL Eston Ramblers have now been knocked out of both league and provincial playoff contention.

They were felled by the Kindersley Klippers, and will now be faced with looking toward next year. They finished with an 11-7-0-0 record on the 2021/2022 year.

“It’s really disheartening to be done playing so early. We got knocked out of league playoffs, and now we’re out of provincials too,” said coach Justin Oliphant.

The Klippers took game one 5-3, but Eston roared back to take game two. But they were taken down in the final game of the best-of-three.

“It was a rougher series. The first game, they knocked a few of our players out. In the second game, we came back to Eston, played well and took it home,” he said.

“In game three, we didn’t get a good start, they got some guys back, and we just couldn’t take the game back.”

Despite a valiant effort, the Klippers led 5-1 after the first period. It was an 8-4 final in the end in front of a huge crowd.

“We got down early and we tried for a comeback. We just couldn’t make it happen,” he said. “It was a tough season, and was done sooner than we wanted.”

He said the Klippers – when it came down to it – just controlled the tempo of the hard-fought series.

“They played a good game and they played it in their style. They mix it up after the whistle and play hard every shift,” he said.

“Put simple, they just played their game-plan. We just didn’t have an answer for it.”

Overall, though, the team really enjoyed getting back on the ice after a non-existent 2020-2021 year, due to COVID-19.

“We got some new guys in, and they just fit in really well with our team. These were good guys to go to the rink with every weekend,” he said.

“It was hard to lose early, but we had a lot of fun together. Overall, it was a great season.”

He said to come back, skate and play together after such a long absence was really great for everyone.

“The guys were just really happy to be back at the rink, be back in the locker room and do team-building,” he said.

“We got back to doing all the things that made hockey fun. After we digest this season a bit, we can look at next year, and hopefully be back to a normal rink life going forward.”