Putting the D back in defence before the playoffs is a work in progress for the St. Albert Merchants.
The junior B team averaged 4.44 goals-against per game before ringing in the new year Friday against the rival Morinville Jets at Akinsdale Arena.
“We’ve got to figure that out definitely before we make it into the playoffs or else we won’t go too far,” said left-winger Jake Mercier.
The Merchants were also a minus-12 in goal differential at the Christmas break.
“We’ve got to work harder in our own zone and then the offence will come,” said centre Ryan Cooper. “We’re a skilled team and we’re fast, we just have to put everything together.”
The tandem of Ryen Papirny (7-9, 4.64 GAA, .880 save percentage) and Ethan Crotty (6-5, 4.05 GAA, .885 save percentage, one shutout) formed the last line of defence for the 13-10-4 Merchants, fourth in the west division prior to hosting the first-place Jets (19-5-4). The score was unavailable at press time.
“The first quarter of the year we had a really good record (6-1) and then in the middle there we kind of had a bit of a rough patch. We couldn’t really figure out our defensive zone and we were dropping a lot of games that we probably should’ve won, just like a more experienced team I guess would probably win or like a team later on in the season would win,” Mercier said. “Before Christmas we kind of started to pick it up again. We started picking up some more wins and some more points but it wasn’t as good as the very beginning of the year. We definitely have to get back to that style of play.”
Last month’s 2-1-3 record included back-to-back wins for the first time since five in a row early in league play.
“It’s been a rollercoaster,” Cooper said of the up and down season. “We’re still a good team. Where we finish off in the regular standings I don’t think it really matters because I know we can beat any team in the playoffs.”
The Merchants have 10 games remaining after playing the Jets and five are home dates, including Sunday’s tilt with the Fort Saskatchewan Hawks (16-8-3) at 8 p.m.
“We start off with a big team on Friday against Morinville and if we take them down I think we can go on a roll,” Cooper said.
The top two teams in the west and east divisions receive first-round byes and the Merchants were 10 points back of the second-place North Edmonton Red Wings (19-7-2), winners of the last two Founders Cup playoff championships, in the west standings.
“We need to go on a big run here just so we can get a decent playoff spot and try not to get stuck playing in that wild-card round, that first round with the three games. It’s pretty scary. You never know what can happen. Last year we almost got knocked out by Stony Plain,” said Mercier of the preliminary round series against the sixth-place Flyers that ended with Cam Mazur’s breakaway winning goal in double overtime in the third and deciding game.
“Our goal is definitely to try and win as many games as we can so we can avoid playing a better team, a higher seed, in the first round.”
Last season the Merchants finished third in the west at 24-12-2 and after knocking off the Flyers they needed four games to defeat the second-place Edmonton Mustangs in the best-of-five quarter-finals before bowing out to the east division Wetaskiwin Icemen in the best-of-seven semifinals in five games.
“With last year’s team we were a lot harder to play against. We were just meaner and bigger and we were kind of built more around that,” said Mercier, one of 14 returnees on the roster. “This year I would say we’re kind of built more around speed and skill and just winning off offence.”
“We’re finding different ways to score,” added Cooper, the team’s second-leading point producer with 34 in 26 games.
Cooper, 17, has also filled the net 13 times in his first junior B campaign after spending last season as captain of the midget AAA St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders.
“I thought it would be a bigger transition. The bodies are bigger and the speed is a little bit faster too. It’s good to get that experience,” said the 2014 recipient of the John Reid Memorial Award for heart and hustle with the bantam AAA St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres.
The Grade 12 Bellerose Composite High School student started the season flanked by Mazur and Matt Havens, ranked seventh in goals with 20 and fifth in points with 48 in league scoring, before Mercier took over Havens’ spot on the line in early December.
Mercier, 19, has produced 13 goals and 29 points in 22 games after compiling 17 goals and 33 points in 34 games as a first-year Merchant following stints with the 2014/15 midget AAA KC Pats and 2013/14 midget AA St. Albert Blues.
“I feel definitely point-wise I’ve been having a pretty good year,” said the St. Albert Catholic High School graduate.
