The St. Albert Merchants have games in hand to cash in while challenging for the division lead in the west standings.
The Merchants (6-2) skated into the weekend trailing the North Edmonton Red Wings (7-3-1) by three points before hosting the Wetaskiwin Icemen (4-3-1) Friday and Stony Plain Flyers (5-3-1) Sunday at Akinsdale Arena.
Wednesday the Merchants and Red Wings clash at 8 p.m. at Londonderry Arena.
“They’re probably our three biggest rivals other than Morinville. They all have pretty solid teams so we just have to come ready to play,” said left-winger Matt Havens. “Those points will be big and hopefully we move up into first place and stay there.”
Friday’s score against Wetaskiwin, an east division club, was unavailable at press time.
Puck drop against the Flyers is 8 p.m.
The homestand will stir up memories of the 2016 Capital Junior B Hockey League playoff run when the Merchants downed the Flyers in double overtime in the deciding game of the best-of-three west division qualifying round on Cam Mazur's breakaway series clincher and in the best-of-seven semifinal against Wetaskiwin they bowed out in five games.
“Those are two teams we consider rivals, especially since last year’s playoffs. Wetaskiwin is the team that knocked us out so the boys will be ready to go Friday. They’re really excited for that game,” Mazur said. “Stony is a good team this year so we’ll have to bring it Sunday. They’ve got some new players so they will be looking for revenge on us since we knocked them out last year.
“It will be a huge weekend if we can pull out four points before we face the Red Wings next Wednesday.”
The Merchants drew first blood in the season series with the Red Wings, the winner of the last two Founders Cups in the CJHL playoffs, in last month’s 3-2 affair in St. Albert to kick-start a five-game winning streak.
“I’m excited to see how the year goes. I think we’ll make a good run at the championship this year and we'll be one of the stronger teams in the league,” Havens said. “We’ve got a good group of guys this year. We all want to win. We’ve also gelled together pretty quick as a group. We’re all pretty tight already and it’s early in the season so that’s good.”
Six wins in eight games before Friday’s contest exceeded expectations after going 4-3-1 in the opening eight games last season.
“I don’t think any one of us could’ve asked for a better start than this,” said Mazur, one of 17 players on the roster with ties to the 2015/16 Money Men. “We have lots of returning guys helping out so we’re a very familiar group and a very tight team.”
The Merchants averaged 4.75 goals per game and 3.88 against before hosting Wetaskiwin. They had also capitalized 11 times on the power play while letting in eight on the penalty kill.
“It’s been an all-around game surprisingly for us. Coming into the year we thought we were going to be very offensive and we’ve shown that we still are offensive but defence and goalies are a pleasant surprise,” said Mazur, third in team scoring with five goals and eight points.
“In net Ryen Papirny (4-0, 2.63 GAA) has been phenomenal to start the season. You can tell he really wants to be that No. 1 goalie this year and he’s put the work in to get there,” Mazur added. “In the back end we’ve had a couple of new guys show up that we weren’t really expecting to get and they’ve helped us out huge as well.”
Ryan Cooper, a welcomed addition from the midget AAA St. Albert Raiders, and Havens were ranked top 10 in scoring with 17 and 16 points, respectively. They also shared the team lead in goals with six while skating with Mazur on a dangerous line combination.
“Matt and I have played a few seasons together now and Ryan has come in and fit in perfectly. He’s very fast and offensive. He sees the ice very well and he finds Matt and I in great situations. He’s a very skilled player,” said Mazur, 19, a Bellerose Composite High School graduate.
Last season Havens placed eighth in CJHL scoring with 61 points and was the team’s main sniper with 27 goals in 28 games.
Mazur was the third-highest scoring Merchant with 46 points and his 21 goals in 30 games was second best on the team.
“It's pretty much the same line as last year with Cam there. Of course Casey (Reid, a linemate last season) has moved on but Ryan Cooper is with us and he’s playing good. We both kind of see the ice the same way. He likes to shoot the puck and I like to pass the puck so it works out well,” said Havens, a teammate of Mazur as the captain of the 2014 midget AA St. Albert Crusaders and Fountain Tire Cup playoff champions.
Thomas Rotundo, Brenden Passek and Jake Mercier, a trio of returnees, have also contributed offensively.
“We have no troubles scoring. We know how to do that,” Havens said. “Once we start shutting down defensively and playing tighter in our own zone it’s going to help us out even more.”
The Merchants were 20 minutes away from their sixth win in a row last weekend against the visiting Edmonton Mustangs (3-6) but three unanswered goals on 16 shots, including a shorthanded marker to knot it at four with 7:24 to play and the 5-4 winner with 2:20 remaining, completed the third-period comeback by the team St. Albert beat in the 2016 best-of-five quarter-finals in four games.
“We just collapsed. We got a little complacent and they just took it to us,” said Mazur, who had his bell rung in the third period. “Our coach (Jake Behiels) used to coach them so that was a hard one for him definitely.”
The Merchants led 3-1 after the first frame on goals by Mason Kenny, Havens and Passek, who later made it 4-2 on the power play with 1:55 to go in the second.
Havens and defenceman Mike Bruni also collected two assists apiece.
“We had a good start and then kind of broke down in the third period and lost our focus. We just backed off a little bit and took our foot off the gas and it came back to hurt us,” said Havens, 19, a graduate of St. Albert Catholic High School.
