The up and down St. Albert Nektar Data Systems Raiders are on the upswing after bouncing back from a six-game winless streak.
Sunday’s 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames also raised the team’s record to 5-5-2 in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
“It was a big win the guys needed, not only with the win column but mentally for the guys turning it around before the Mac’s (tournament) cut-off before the Christmas break,” said Erik Boers, right winger and captain of the Raiders. “The first third of the season is done now and ending the third with a win was a nice touch. It got us back to .500.”
The Raiders lost three in a row during an awkward 0-4-2 slide, with three losses and two ties against south division foes, before celebrating the first win since Oct. 13.
“We don’t deserve the record we have. We’re a really good team but we’re our own biggest enemy,” Boers said. “Most of the games we were winning going into the third period and we ended up beating ourselves. We gave up mentally.”
Ethan Whillans, Kye Buchanan and Mathieu Gautier registered their first goals as the Raiders and Evan Fradette stopped 24 shots in his first win since rejoining the team from the Portland Winterhawks in the Western Hockey League.
The Raiders tallied twice in the third period after the Flames (4-8-1), the bottom team in the south, knotted it at one in the middle frame at Go Auto Arena.
“That game since I’ve been back was probably one of our best games. We played a really good close, if not full 60-minute game which helped us win,” said Fradette, whose season debut with the Raiders was 22 saves in the 2-2 draw against the Red Deer Chiefs (8-2-2) Oct. 20 in St. Albert.
“A lot of the guys are a lot more upbeat in the room. Everybody is enjoying hockey a lot more now that we’ve got that win under our belt and I think it’s going to be all uphill from here,” Fradette added.
The Raiders, 2-4-2 against the south, have north division games on tap this weekend at Akinsdale Arena against the KC Squires (4-8) tonight at 8 p.m. and the first-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (8-4) Sunday at 1:15 p.m.
“We’ll come into it game by game, period by period and we’ll even take it shift by shift,” Boers said. “Guys need to go in with a mentality that we’re going to win and we have to work hard every shift. Special teams will be huge, too.”
The main focus, Boers stressed, was playing the Raiders Way, which is: “Being accountable and continuing the legacy and checking your ego,” said the Grade 12 St. Albert Catholic High School student. “You’re not going to win a game by yourself, you need to win games as a team and you need to be accountable about what you can do and everything will fall into place.”
Boers, 17, noted the Raiders have to play with purpose from start to finish. “Our second periods haven’t been the best so at intermission in between periods we have to stay focused at the task at hand and carrying on with the good first periods we’ve been having,” said the third-highest scorer on the Raiders with eight points in 11 games.
Entering the middle portion of the schedule, the Raiders are tied for third, one point back of the second-place Grande Peace Storm (6-5-1) with the Mac’s tournament qualifying deadline fast approaching for north division teams.
After the 12-game mark last season, the Raiders were 5-7 but skated into the Mac’s as the top team in the north at 13-8-4.
“We had a pretty good season from stats and all that perspective. It was a good team last year, so we did well,” said Fradette, who joins Boers and forward Carson Henry as returnees from the second-place Raiders (18-12-5) and semifinalists in the north playoffs.
Fradette, 17, was a rock-solid 8-7-2, with a 1.94 GAA, .925 save percentage and four shutouts working in tandem with Mitch Reidy for the No. 1 defensive team in the north that averaged 2.08 goals-against per game.
“I feel like I did really well. I constantly worked hard in practices and games, which helps boost my team as well," said the Grade 12 Paul Kane High School student.
Fradette gave it his best shot trying to crack the Portland lineup before the former midget 15 St. Albert Flyer and bantam AAA St. Albert Gregg Distributor Sabre was sent down to the Raiders and replaced Ethan Barwick, who wound up with the Maple Leafs (0-12).
“I was battling for a spot – nothing is guaranteed in hockey and nothing is guaranteed in life – so it was just a constant battle, a constant grind in trying to make the team,” said Fradette, who backstopped Portland to a couple of pre-season wins.
Fradette is wiser for the experience.
“Playing with a lot of top-tier guys definitely helps especially in a leadership factor in seeing how those guys play and how they prepare, so by coming down here and trying to bring it back to this team I feel it can help the rest of my players on my team to improve as well,” said the 2017 recipient of the Top Goaltender Award in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League with his Flyers’ partner, Ryley Osland, who is stopping pucks with the midget AAA Southside Athletic Club (5-6).
