The stars will shine bright today at the 26th annual Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League all-star game.
Five players from the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres will be in the spotlight with the Western Hockey League sponsored event in their hometown.
Game time is 2:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena and admission is free.
“It’s pretty neat,” said netminder Evan Fradette of the Sabres. “It’s fun going into it with people you know. We’re going to have fun and work our hardest.”
Sabres captain Brady Nicholas, left-winger Blake Sydlowski, defenceman Kyle Fulton and netminder Ryley Osland will join Fradette on the north all-star lineup.
Each team will dress three goalies and they will play a period each.
The puck stoppers were selected based on their goals-against averages and save percentages with a minimum 600 minutes played by Dec. 25.
“It’s kind of humbling in a sense for both of us to get there,” Osland said of the Sabres’ all-star duo between the pipes. “We’ve worked hard all season and it’s been a good friendly competition between us in net. We’re both pushing each other to be better every practice and every game.”
Fradette, 14, is tied for the AMBHL lead in shutouts with five after staring down 21 shots in Monday’s 4-0 win over the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers.
The Grade 9 Vincent J. Maloney student brings a sparkling 11-1-3 record, 1.78 GAA and .929 save percentage into the all-star game.
“I’m just hoping to go out there and work hard and do my best and prove that I’m a good goalie,” Fradette said.
As for his season: “I think I’ve done pretty good but it doesn’t come without a good, strong team. If you have people in front of you that aren’t that good you’re not going to do as good so I’m very fortunate to be on a very good team this year,” Fradette said.
Osland, 14, provided a scoring report on Fradette.
“He’s a hard worker. He battles. He’s good in controlling his rebounds,” said the Grade 10 Bellerose Composite High School student.
Osland is 9-3-1, with a 2.35 GAA and .904 save percentage for the No. 4-ranked defensive team in the AMBHL.
“I felt like I’ve played pretty good. Obviously the team in front of me has helped me out a lot and helped me make the easy saves. They’re playing good defence,” said the son of former St. Albert Merchants’ junior B goalie, Corey Osland.
Fradette is Osland’s biggest fan.
“Ryley is just all around a good goalie. He works hard to get a lot better and he just focuses on all the things that he needs to get better,” said the bantam AA graduate of the St. Albert Blues.
The netminding tandem has formed the backbone of one of the strongest St. Albert bantam AAA teams in years. The Sabres (20-4-4) are fourth overall in the AMBHL as the second-place team in the nitro north division. The Sherwood Park Flyers (22-2-1) are first in the nitro standings with three games in hand on the Sabres.
The Calgary Bisons (22-2-3 in Challenger south) and Lethbridge Golden Hawks (22-3-1 in Ram south) are also ranked ahead of the Sabres.
“It’s been a blast this season and we’re looking to take it to the next step and try and take the playoffs,” said Osland, who played for the bantam AA St. Albert Bears last season.
The Sabres have five first-year players – three forwards and two defenceman – and Nicholas and Kye Buchanan are the only returnees from last season’s 16-12-5 team.
Monday’s win was the third in a row and seventh in eight games despite a rash of injuries. Justin MacDonald, Michael Benning, Ryley Morgan and Carson Henry scored as the Sabres improved to 9-2-1 on home ice.
“We’ve been working really hard. We’ve been focusing on all of our mental and physical aspects of the game,” Fradette said. “But without our coaches we wouldn’t really be anywhere.”
The Sabres face-off against the KC Squires Sunday at 8:15 p.m. at Go Auto Arena. It’s the last game before the John Reid Memorial Tournament starts Thursday at 8 a.m. at Servus Credit Union Place.
The 38th annual St. Albert bantam AAA tournament showcases 16 elite-level teams from across western North America. It’s one of the most scouted tournaments of the season. Last year more than 100 WHL and junior A scouts attended the four-day competition.
The Reid tournament was also recognized as Canada’s top minor hockey tournament for 2015 by Hockey Now magazine in a readers’ poll released last month.
“Since day one we’ve been excited about it. Everyone was asked what they were looking forward to the most this year and it was the John Reid tournament,” Osland said. “We want to embrace it and just seize the moment and take it game by game and not really think about the end result.
“But obviously we want to win the tournament being the hometown guys.”
The Sabres play the Notre Dame Hounds Thursday at 10:45 a.m. and the Los Angeles Jr. Kings at 8 p.m. and Friday go against the North Shore Winter Club Hawks at 2:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The playoff rounds start 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday’s final is 2 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The only St. Albert team to win the tournament was the 1983 Territorial Leasing Sabres.
Visit www.johnreidmemorial.com for the tournament schedule. It’s also in the Gazette Scoreboard on page 34.
“We’re excited. We’re hoping to do our best and try and win it all and have fun playing as a team,” Fradette said. “There is going to be a lot of good competition and we have to go in there and don’t worry about anybody and just prove we’re better and work a lot harder than the other teams.”
