The talent level on the St. Albert Flyers is spread evenly throughout the lineup.
“We’ve got a pretty deep team. Top to bottom we’re a pretty solid squad,” said Steve Ewaskiw, the returning head coach of the midget 15 Flyers.
Twelve of the Flyers are graduates of the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres, the 2018 bantam AAA provincial finalists.
“We’re a very deep team in that regard and then we’ve filled in some nice complementary pieces of guys who put up some good numbers in AA last year, so that’s definitely helped as well,” Ewaskiw said. “This is one of the better teams that I’ve ever coached. It doesn’t have a whole lot of holes in it.”
All 24 teams in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League, 11 in the north and 13 in the south, started off the season with new rosters and no returnees.
“It’s always a challenge because you have to kind of get to know each other from coach to player and player, so it’s always a new thing and the quicker you can get guys up to speed the better,” Ewaskiw said. “For us being able to affiliate a number of (bantam) guys last year, they’ve seen us at least once, which helped with a little bit of familiarity and then as we went into tryouts it’s trying to get guys up to speed as quickly as possible. This group has got a lot of hockey sense as well so I found it was very quick to get them up to speed.”
With league play underway, the third win without a loss for the Flyers was Wednesday’s 6-3 decision against the Canadian Athletic Club at Akinsdale Arena.
Ethan Sundar, the second-highest point producer in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League last season with 28 goals and 36 assists in 36 games with the Sabres, tallied twice against the CAC. Sundar’s four goals are tops on the Flyers.
Breck McKinley, Jordan Irwin, Chase Visser and David Saunders, an empty-netter for his third goal and team-leading sixth point, also scored.
The Flyers were credited 42 shots against two netminders, and Carson Ironside was tested 24 times by the CAC.
“So far so good, right? We’re off to a good start,” said Ewaskiw of the Flyers, who swept last weekend’s series in Grande Prairie by scores of 5-3 and 6-3 against the Storm. “We’re getting some contributions from our top-end guys, which is good to have, and then some of our depth guys have surprised a little bit as well. So it’s good for the team, especially if we can roll four lines deep as we go throughout the rest of the season. That makes my job as a coach really easy.”
The Flyers show signs of racking up the goals at the same rate as the 2017-18 team that averaged 4.2 per game.
“This team is a little more assertive when they’re playing. Last year’s team, especially offensively, we kind of hung out a little bit too perimeter. This team really wants to take the puck and take it to the net and basically give themselves opportunities to score,” Ewaskiw said.
Last season, the Flyers (24-6-6) finished second by one point for the north pennant and repeated at the Sutter North Cup provincial qualifier.
At provincials in Lethbridge, the Flyers ended the tournament with four losses while going 1-4 overall.
“We had a tight dressing room last year. The boys were all very close, which was good to see, and that helped us as we went towards the end of the season and into playoffs,” Ewaskiw said. ”The Sutter Cup was an amazing experience. The boys came together and played really well, and it definitely showed it on the ice. So now we’re two-time defending north champs, but obviously with a different coach the first year (in Joel Bernard).
“And then to go to provincials was a lot of fun. It was a great experience. There was some good hockey down there,” Ewaskiw added. “We’re looking forward to hopefully getting the honour to go there and represent the north again this year.”
The next game is Oct. 13 against the PAC Saints at 2:45 p.m. at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena.
