The St. Albert Flyers ring in the new year today with a bang.
The first game after the Christmas break in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League is a biggie between the top two teams in the north standings.
Faceoff is 4:15 p.m. between the Flyers (14-3-5, 91 GF/60 GA) and first-place Sherwood Park Squires (17-3-2, 79 GF/36 GA) at Akinsdale Arena.
Both teams are undefeated in 11 games: 8-0-3 for the Flyers and 9-0-2 for the Squires.
“We’ve had some good battles with Sherwood Park this year,” said head coach Steve Ewaskiw of the 3-2 loss Oct. 21 in St. Albert and 3-2 win Nov. 5 in Sherwood Park. “We’re looking forward to the rubber match.”
Three points separate the division leaders with 14 games remaining before the Sutter North Cup tournament to determine the provincial qualifiers.
“We had a meeting with the boys last week going into the second half of the season and we told them as part of our season plan we go back to scratch so we start focusing on the habits again,” Ewaskiw said. “We want to make sure we have good habits as we go into playoffs because we don’t want to cost ourselves anything and we want to put ourselves in the best position to succeed.”
So far the Flyers are flying high.
“The team has played very well and the results show on the ice,” Ewaskiw said. “I’ve been quite impressed with the level of talent we’ve got on our team. We lost a bunch of guys to the academies this year and we ended up filling in with a lot of talent with some guys who were on the AA teams last year and I’ve really been impressed with a bunch of those guys.
“I’m looking forward to continuing to build as we go forward into the playoffs and I think we’ve got an opportunity to make some noise as well.”
The Flyers are the highest-scoring team in the north and second overall in the 25-team circuit averaging 4.1 goals per game.
“We’re a very offensive minded squad. The boys get the puck and are looking to turn it up the ice,” Ewaskiw said. “We built our team on speed and pace and the boys have shown that so far. We’re definitely one of the better skating teams in the league as well so that’s helped us especially in the north. The teams in the south that we’ve played have been comparable to us and we played Rockyview (4-4 tie Oct. 15), Lethbridge (2-2 tie Nov. 26) and Red Deer (Dec. 30 exhibition) and they’re three of the top four teams in the south.”
Mathieu Gautier and Ryley Morgan lead the Flyers in points with 22 apiece and Maddux Nollski is the only player in double digits in goals with 11.
Gautier is flanked by Nollski and Matt Reidy, fourth on the team in points with 19, on the Red Line.
“They wore red practice jerseys to start the year and have been the same combo all year,” Ewaskiw said.
The back end is fortified by Ethan Barwick (9-2-3, 2.29 GAA) and Matt Clement (5-1-2, 3.38 GAA) tending the twine.
“Our defensive play was a real work in progress when we started the year and it’s starting to come around,” Ewaskiw said. “The boys are starting to understand what it takes to play a complete hockey game. Our game against CAC (2-0 win Dec. 21) was probably our most complete game of the year. I told the boys basically the way they played that’s how you’ve got to learn how to play as you go forward if you want to continue on and play in junior.”
The CAC (10-8-3) was limited to 13 shots as Barwick posted the team’s first shutout of the season.
Ethan Pool and Taige Harding lit the lamp in the third period and Luke Cust assisted on both goals as the Flyers racked up 48 shots.
The Flyers, with forward Noah Wilson providing a strong presence as captain, are like all the other midget 15 teams this season with a completely new roster.
“They set up this league as a way for the 15-year-olds to be able to compete at the AAA level. Your elite AAA players play midget AAA – Jack (Redlick, head coach of the midget AAA Raiders) has got (Austin) Spiridakis on his team and he was definitely the most elite 15-year-old this year – so this is an opportunity for these kids who are at the AAA level to continue playing AAA hockey even if they don’t make midget AAA. It’s a good opportunity for them,” said Ewaskiw, who joined the Flyers this season after coaching the bantam AA Sherwood Park Sabres. “I agree with the format of the league because of the spread from the 15s to 17s. It’s quite a spread in terms of physicality and compete level.”
The Flyers lost only six games in league (32-4-1), North Sutter Cup (5-0) and provincials (5-2) last season as the 2017 Hockey Alberta bronze medallists.
Sunday the Flyers host the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (12-8-2) at 5 p.m.
