The St. Albert Crusaders can celebrate a championship repeat this weekend at Akinsdale Arena with a victory in the Fountain Tire Cup final.
The Crusaders returned home from Peace River with a 2-1 series lead against the Royals in the best-of-five Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League playoffs.
“We expect a battle this weekend. Peace River is a very good team,” said Ron Laird, head coach of the 42-15-4 Crusaders.
The defending champions host the Royals at 7 p.m. Saturday and if a deciding game is required it will be staged at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“We never said it was going to be an easy series. It’s two good teams battling,” said co-captain Kris Kraychy. “Peace River is super strong, really fast and a really tough team to play against. We compare ourselves pretty good to them.”
Last year, the Crusaders knocked off the Royals 8-2 in game five in Peace River to finish 50-10-6 overall.
“We’ve worked hard all season and our coaches have put so much time and effort into it so it would be great to repeat on home ice,” said Kraychy, one of seven returning Crusaders from the first St. Albert team to hoist the Fountain Tire Cup in the four-year history of the NAMHL, formerly the Rural and Edmonton midget AA league.
Last weekend, the Crusaders won the series opener 6-4, lost game two 3-2 in overtime and the third game in three days was a 5-2 decision.
“It was a good weekend. I thought the results were fair. We deserved game one and three and had a chance to sneak out of game two with a win but they tied it late and won in OT,” Laird said. “The team played well. Power play (four goals) was good. PK (three power-play goals against) was good. Everyone played their role well. Everyone contributed.”
The Crusaders were out-shot in every game by margins of 39-31 Friday, 53-39 Saturday and 46-30 Sunday with Connor Mckay (8-3, 2.75 GAA) standing tall between the pipes.
“Our goaltending was good all weekend (and) outstanding in game two and three,” Laird said.
Tristan Gavin shredded the Royals for seven goals during a nine-point weekend to leapfrog into top spot in the league playoff scoring race with 12 goals and 23 points in 11 games.
The team’s second-leading scorer in the regular season with 24 goals and 59 points in 29 games recorded hat-tricks in the first and third games.
The Crusaders outscored the Royals 4-1 Friday in period two for a commanding 6-3 lead.
Brendan Bow, Sam Milner and Mattias Neset found the back of the net, Kraychy racked up four assists and Gavin finished with a four-point night.
“The first 10 minutes in they scored two quick goals and the boys were a little bit down but the whole year we’ve been battling back. The boys tied up the game (before the period ended) and then after that we took over the game and took charge and got six unanswered goals,” said Kraychy, noting the Crusaders prevailed in four elimination playoff games in two consecutive series before the final.
In game two, the Royals forced sudden death with 5:09 left in regulation time while outshooting the Crusaders 20-14 in the third.
Matt Laird’s goal in the last minute of the first frame opened the scoring and Gavin made it 2-1 at 5:41 of the third.
“In game two, they did outplay us. The boys were feeling a little bit tired, you could notice it, but we stayed together as a team and kept the positive energy in the air,” said Kraychy, a Grade 12 Bellerose Composite High School student.
Kraychy, 18, Gavin and Neset collected four points apiece in game three while combining on three goals in the first to put the Royals down 3-1.
Kraychy’s one goal and three assists lifted the slick centre into second place in playoff scoring with 19 points.
He led the Crusaders in goals in league play with 26 goals in 29 games and ranked third in points with 45.
Neset’s four assists gave him 18 points for third place in playoff scoring. His 42 assists and 62 points were team highs in league play and he was third in goals with 20 in 31 games.
Affiliate forward Peter Corrigan, a huge addition to the lineup from the midget 15 Flyers, also scored as the Crusaders regained their series advantage.
“It was almost like a must-win game. You don’t want to come home down 2-1 so we came out really hard and got two goals right off the bat (in the opening 8:18 minutes) and we just kept rolling from there and took charge the whole game,” Kraychy said. “We had everyone on board and all the guys were going. It was great to see. Connor also made some unbelievable saves to keep the boys in the game.”
In league play, the Royals (25-7) and Crusaders (22-6-4) finished first in their respective divisions and in January it was 6-0 for Peace River in St. Albert.
“We went down to Red Deer for provincials (the weekend before the final started) to watch Peace River so we could do well against them,” Kraychy said. “All the boys were going the whole weekend and hopefully it continues this weekend.”
