The St. Albert Merchants haven't lost interest in a winning season despite equalling their loss total from the previous campaign.
The 2014 Founders Cup finalists and fourth-place finishers at provincials are off to a sluggish 5-3 start following their third defeat in five games in Sunday's 7-4 result against the North Edmonton Red Wings at Londonderry Arena.
"It's definitely not the same team as last year in the sense that we've already lost as many games in regulation as we did during all of last year," said forward Mike Roeleveld of the team's 34-3-1 mark in the regular season and 45-11-1 overall.
Roeleveld stressed "we'll have to work a lot harder" to turn things around.
"There is going to be a lot more progression needed rather than success all the way through," he added. "We know that we're not going to be as great but as long as we keep getting better and better throughout the year then we'll make our push at the end of the year."
A combination of injuries and seven newcomers, including two goalies struggling to develop consistency, have the Merchants trailing the rival Morinville Jets (6-1-1) by three points for top spot in the Capital Junior B Hockey League's west division.
"It's been a lot of ups and downs. We've had a lot of guys coming in and out of the lineup. We've had injuries to guys like Josh Jewell, A.J. Yariwon and Mitch McNamara and those are big, key players on our team. It's been hard without those guys but we're definitely giving it a good push with the guys we have now," Roeleveld said. "The big thing is we're coming together well as a team. We're all one big family and we definitely try and feed off each other as we try to build."
Friday the Merchants pulled together to edge the Beaumont Chiefs 4-3 on Roeleveld's winner early in the four-on-four five-minute overtime period.
"They tried to chip the puck out and it was going towards the blueline and I just cycled it back down low. Once I did that I saw Blair Macuch had it and that's when I went hard to the net with my stick on the ice and called for it. He just hit me with a hard pass and it was on my backhand so I chipped it to the net. Luckily it went glove-hand side on the goalie and he just missed it," said Roeleveld of his second goal of the night in Beaumont.
After a scoreless opening frame Braeden Farge tied it at two on the power play with 8:20 to play in the second.
With under five minutes left in regulation time defenceman Jed Groenenboom joined the rush on a three-on-two to knot it at three.
"Blair was driving wide and he gave it to Jed and he was about at the hash marks and he went short-side top shelf. It was actually an amazing shot," Roeleveld said. "It really got our guys going for the rest of that period as well as in the overtime period and we luckily pulled out the win."
Macuch led all scorers with three assists.
Shots were 42-36 for the Merchants and William Fink (2-1, 3.82 GAA, .867 save percentage) posted the win in net.
"It was actually one of our more hard-fought games this year. We were battling with their team as well as the referee all game," said Roeleveld of the Chiefs (2-3-2) going 1-for 11 on the power play, while the Merchants were tagged for 41 minutes on 11 infractions. "It was definitely a tough game in that sense. We were controlling them when it was five on five but whenever we would go shorthanded we would lose some momentum. It was hard to keep in it but we battled through."
Hot Wings
Sunday the Red Wings (3-3-1) broke open the contest with three unanswered goals during an 11-minute span in the middle period while outscoring the visitors 4-2 to lead 5-3 after 40 minutes.
Roeleveld tied it at one in the first and Farge evened the score at two with 2:23 gone in the second.
Casey Reid's goal closed out the second but 79 seconds into the third the Red Wings made it 6-3.
Reid also tallied in the third. Macuch and Roeleveld assisted on Reid's two goals.
"It was tough to catch a break. We were just battling from behind the whole game. When we did score it was hard to get the momentum going," Roeleveld said. "We also had a tough time just getting the puck out on our breakouts and they kept intercepting pucks through the middle."
The Merchants outshot the Red Wings 40-36. Fink and Ethan Maertens-Poole (3-2, 4.09 GAA, .842 save percentage) split time between the pipes. Fink let in three goals on 13 shots during 24 minutes and Maertens-Poole gave up four goals on 23 shots in 36 minutes.
"If we got a save or two we would've definitely been in that game," Roeleveld said.
It was an emotional evening for the Red Wings, who honoured the memory of Cam LeClair during a pre-game ceremony. The former Red Wing died Oct. 6 at the age of 29 and his funeral service was held Saturday.
"The arena was really quiet because of that ceremony. Everyone was kind of at a loss of words I guess you could say. It was tough to get the game going it seemed like," said Roeleveld.
His three-point performance raised the winger's totals to a team-high five goals in eight games and 11 points, third best on the Merchants.
He sat out last season after surgery to repair his right shoulder and an appendix operation.
"The whole year I was just in recovery mode. I definitely had to do a lot of training to be where I'm at right now," said Roeleveld, who is enrolled in the NAIT personal fitness training program. "I'm happy that I'm able to keep playing hockey after missing a whole year. I'm playing some top minutes, which is really nice, and I still have my legs under me. After a year off the timing is a little off the first couple of games just with the decisions you have to make so it's hard to get back into that kind of mindset but now I'm really seeing the ice."
Two seasons ago Roeleveld led all Merchants in playoff scoring with seven goals and 17 points in 14 games and in the regular season notched 14 goals and 34 points in 31 games.
"I want to keep building on that success I had with the team and playoff run we had (as semifinalists in 2013)," said one of the four over-age (21-year-olds) players on the roster.
Friday the Merchants host the defending champion Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (5-2) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena and Sunday they travel to Wetaskiwin to play the Icemen (2-5) at 6:30 p.m.
