The St. Albert Flyers are soaring towards a season to remember in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
The midget 15 Flyers are perfect in 15 games and seven of those wins were by shutouts.
“We’re doing really good this year so far. We’re really tight as a team and that’s what separates us from most teams. We’ve really bonded well,” said captain Blake Sydlowski. “We couldn’t do it without each other so that’s what is really helping us.”
The streaking Flyers are piling up the wins at a prolific pace.
“The goal is to keep winning. Obviously that’s the expectation. That’s what we’re going to try and keep doing all year,” Sydlowski said.
The Flyers are savouring the sweet taste of success with an excessive thirst for more victories.
“Obviously it’s a lot more fun winning than it is losing,” said defenceman Justin MacDonald. “Sometimes it can be bad though because you can start to get lazy because you kind of think, Oh, we’re going to win, but we’re doing a pretty good job at keeping it going and not get into a losing mindset.
“We’ve got to keep the mindset that we still need to get better and there are teams better than us. We’ve got to keep competing so we can get to the next level and just dominate.”
The north division leaders and the AMMHL’s No. 1 overall team had a momentary lapse outside league play while going 2-1-1 at last month’s Prospects Cup in Chestermere. They tied the NWCCA Stampeders, 6-8-1 in the south standings, 3-3 and in the quarter-finals fell 5-2 to the CNHA Canucks, 6-7-3 in the south.
“It’s not fun losing but it was definitely a good thing to bring us back down to kind of re-focus but everything has been working out since then, so it was a good thing,” Sydlowski said.
The Flyers piled up 16 goals in three wins after the AMMHL-sectioned tournament and two were shutout decisions against the Lloydminster Rage (1-14-1).
After the last win, 6-0 over the Heat on Sunday in St. Albert, the Flyers are averaging 5.53 goals scored and a microscopic 0.86 against.
“We’re doing really good as a team as a whole,” Sydlowski said. “Our goalies are shutting the other team down every night and we’re helping them out by blocking shots and keeping the puck in the other end of the ice.”
MacDonald, 15, pointed out that everything starts from the Flyers’ back end.
“With our team, it’s mostly defence first and then offence comes with it. If you keep the pucks out of the net the goals will come and then they can’t win if they can’t score,” said the Grade 10 Bellerose Composite High School student.
The dynamic duo of Evan Fradette (7-0) and Ryley Osland (8-0) are basically stopping every shot in sight. The goaltending tandem of the 2015/16 bantam AAA St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres are first and second, respectively, in the AMMHL in goals-against average (0.71 and 1.00) and save percentage (.973 and .960).
Fradette is also the shutout leader with four, one more than Osland’s total.
“They are two of the best goalies I’ve ever played with. You can rely on both of them. You can put whichever in net and you know they’re going to be there for you and make the saves,” said MacDonald, the highest-scoring blueliner on the Flyers with 13 points.
Sydlowski, 15, is the offensive juggernaut of the Flyers with an AMMHL-best 36 points. The silky-smooth centre has also sniped 15 goals, which is three more than Stuart Dovey, who is second on the Flyers in the points with 23.
“I couldn’t be doing it without my linemates and my teammates. They’re helping to set me up and we’re setting each other up,” said Sydlowski, a Grade 10 St. Albert Catholic High School student.
Away from the rink, the Flyers spent Tuesday night bonding with the St. Albert Warriors during their annual floor hockey scrimmage with the Special Olympics team at Sir George Simpson School.
The Flyers will welcome the Warriors with open arms at Tuesday’s game against the Maple Leafs (1-13-2) at 8:15 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
“It’s a lot of fun coming out and helping these guys out. We actually know a couple of guys that went to our school (Vincent J. Maloney) last year so it’s really fun to come out and see them,” Sydlowski said.
“It’s pretty fun to help out the community. You get to meet new people and they’re great guys,” MacDonald added.
Tonight the Flyers host CRAA Blue (7-4-4), fifth in the south, at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
