The first of many goals the St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders are shooting for is to score a spot at the Mac’s Midget AAA World Invitational Tournament.
The top north division teams at the qualification cut-off date in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League will face-off at the prestigious international competition over the Christmas holidays in Calgary.
“It’s definitely in the back of our minds to make that tournament. It’s been a couple of years now but it’s definitely attainable for our team this year,” said right-winger Garrett Clegg, prior to Thursday’s practice at Akinsdale Arena.
The 5-3 season-opening victory against the Canadian Athletic Club signaled a new beginning for the Raiders after their disappointing 7-24-3 performance last winter.
“We started off 0-7 so we were done right away for the Mac’s tourney,” said centre Aidan Steinke. “This year we want to get off to a good start so to win that first game was good for us.”
Steinke, Clegg and defencemen Owen Churko and Maxwell Struss are returnees from the ninth-place team in the north that finished 13 points short of a playoff spot.
“It’s been good so far. Everybody has been buying in to what the coaches are saying. They’ve got our full attention,” said Steinke of the new-look Raiders under head coach Jack Redlick. “It’s just a complete culture change from last year.”
The Raiders displayed plenty of positives last weekend against the CAC at Bill Hunter Arena and in the 2-1 loss to the Southside Athletic Club at Akinsdale Arena.
“We’re a really fast team. We’ve got some big boys who can really skate so team speed will be something that we’ll be very good at,” Clegg said. “We’re really physical too. We throw the body around and we’re hard on the forecheck so we’re going to be excelling at that this year.”
A strong work ethic by the Raiders will go a long way towards a winning record.
“We’re not going to be the most skilled team in the league, we’re not going to scoring eight goals every game, but we’re a team that’s definitely going to score by working hard just like we did against CAC. We have to get pucks deep and battle and forecheck lots and go from there,” said Steinke, who led the team in scoring last weekend with three points.
The Raiders held the upper hand at 3-0 after 40 minutes on goals by Xavier Halterman, Jack Langenhahn and Steinke.
Peter Michailides made it 4-1 with 11:38 remaining and Brady Nicholas closed out the win with an empty-netter for his second point of the match.
Shots were even at 35 apiece and Chris Curr drew the start in net.
“We were grinding down low deep and they had trouble getting the puck out. We kept getting momentum off that and we started scoring some goals,” said Steinke, who notched four goals and 16 points in 33 games last season.
The Raiders opened the scoring against Southside in the second period as Michailides capitalized on the power play and his linemates, Steinke and Clegg, picked up assists.
The Southside (2-0) tied it 57 seconds into the third and potted the winner at the 4:55 mark.
The Raiders were out-shot 12-7 in the third and 28-19 in total. Curr was between the pipes.
“We just couldn’t get any pucks past the goalie but we still played good,” said Steinke, 17.
“It was really tight and intense all game. It was the home opener so there was lots of people in the stands and we really wanted to win,” the Grade 12 Paul Kane student added. “In the third they got a quick one right off the start and we kind of got uptight about it and then they scored again to take the lead and there was lots of pressure after that.”
The last 20 minutes proved costly.
“It was tough at the end there but once we start playing 60 minute hockey we’ll be a very good team. We just about played a full 60 minute game against them,” said Clegg, 16, who collected two assists last weekend.
The Raiders have home-ice advantage this weekend against the SEAC Tigers (0-1-1) of Medicine Hat at 8 p.m. tonight and the CAC (0-2) at 1:15 p.m. Sunday.
Last season the Raiders dropped four in a row at the Akinsdale rink before pulling off their first decision at home.
“We’re playing pretty well so it’s good for us to start off the year with these games at home. It was disappointing when we lost at home (against Southside) but I think we’ll bounce back this weekend. We’ve got two teams that are definitely beatable for us and we’ll work hard today at practice and get ready for those games,” said Clegg, a Grade 11 Bellerose student who posted 11 goals and 20 points in 33 games for the 2015/16 Raiders in his first midget campaign.
