The St. Albert Merchants are too good to be true as the No. 1 team in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
Winners of nine in a row, the Money Men are 20-2-1 as heavy favourites to win the Founders Cup championship and represent the CJHL at provincials.
“It feels good. It’s kind of like walking on sunshine that we’re having a good season,” said defenceman Dan Rombough. “We’re looking forward to the playoffs and excited to be a part of it.”
Rombough, 19, credits first-year Merchants’ head coach Scott Rodda for the team’s success.
“Scott is making sure we don’t get too cocky and that is one of the reasons why we’re able to win a lot of games. Scott is keeping us humble about it,” Rombough said. “We’re just trying to play one game at a time, knowing that we have to get better and Scott is making sure we’re always improving game after game. We set goals for every month and we try and meet those goals. It helps us to show up for every game.”
The Merchants are only two wins and seven points away from equalling last season’s 22-12-4 mark for third place in the west with 15 games remaining until the playoffs.
The best record in team history is 36-0 as the 1997 Founders Cup champions.
“We have a strong team from bottom to top. It’s hard to play against a team that has four lines that are always going hard,” said Rombough, one of 14 returning players from the 2013 playoff run that ended one win short of going to the Founders Cup final and provincials. “We’ve had a few players injured and there are other players that can step up and do their jobs.”
The Merchants are averaging a league-leading six goals per game and under three against after ripping the North Edmonton Red Wings 11-3 Sunday at Akinsdale Arena. The Red Wings (13-8-1) are second in the west and fourth overall in the CJHL.
Justin Pawlenchuk (14-1) was in net as the Merchants improved to 10-1-1 on home ice.
The scoring summary wasn’t posted on the CJHL website at press time.
“It was a pretty close game until midway through the second. We were up 4-2 and we scored a couple of quick ones and then the goals kept coming. We just built on our momentum throughout the game and found a way to put the puck in the net,” Rombough said the team’s fourth game with nine or more goals. “We do have a team that can win games that way.”
Friday the Merchants exploded for six unanswered goals after trailing 2-0 entering the middle period to defeat the Spruce Grove Regals 6-4 at Grant Fuhr Arena.
Mitch McNamara’s hat-trick and one assist led all scorers. His twin brother, Liam, tallied once and added two assists. Ryan Harrison and Blair Macuch also scored and Jeff Harrison had two helpers.
Shots were 46-25 for the visitors. In net was Max Cathcart (6-2), who sports a league-best 2.49 GAA.
“It was 6-2 until a couple minutes left in the third and they got a couple of quick ones on us in the third and kind of closed the gap a little bit,” said Rombough.
The second-year Merchant and was the team’s top-scoring blueliner after Friday’s win with five goals and 21 points in 22 games. Last season he posted seven goals and 21 points in 36 games as the recipient of the team’s best defenceman award and co-winner of the rookie of the year award with Casey Reid.
The University of Alberta kinesiology student doesn’t keep track of his stats and is more concerned about his all-around game than point totals.
“I play some power play time so I think that’s where some of my points are coming from,” said midget AAA Raiders’ graduate. “I try and do a little bit of everything. We have a lot of defencemen that are good at shutdown and I try to be one of those guys.”
The Merchants skate Friday against the 2013 Founders Cup champion Sherwood Park Knights (11-7-3) at 8 p.m. in the Park and Friday against the Stony Plain Flyers (11-10-1) at 8 p.m. in St. Albert.
The last home game before the Christmas break is Dec. 20 against the Beverly Warriors (12-9) at 8 p.m. It’s billed as Minor Hockey Day, as 320 players on 22 St. Albert initiation teams received free tickets for the game from the Merchants.
