The St. Albert Raiders discovered their identity while racking up the wins in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
“We understand we need to play a certain style of game to have success,” said Sandro Pisani, head coach of the 15-5-2 Raiders. “When we can get on teams hard on the forecheck and we can play them below the tops of the circles, we’re difficult to handle down low. We’re starting to understand that’s our identity. When we play to that level we’re a difficult team to play.”
It was that aggressive, grinding style that carried the Steel to a 4-3 home-ice victory Sunday against the South Side Athletic Club (8-9-4) for their third win in a row.
“It was a good game. We didn’t execute as well early on, but we seemed to get better as the game went on,” said Pisani. “In stretches we controlled the play down low and just couldn’t seem to bury it.”
Leading 3-2 late in the game the Raiders took a penalty and SSAC scored the equalizer with the goalie pulled.
The Raiders replied with defenceman Ty Stanton’s game winner in the last minute of play. The goal was the fourth in 17 games by the Western Hockey League prospect of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
“It was a good response on our part,” Pisani said.
The night before in St. Albert the Raiders skated to a 5-1 win against the Maple Leafs (3-15-3).
“Overall it was a good effort. After the first period I think we outshot them 20-2 and we only had a 2-1 lead. It was a little discouraging in the fact we had that number of quality opportunities, but we continued to stick to the game plan and we got rewarded in the second,” Pisani said. “We were also very disciplined in the latter part of the game when things started to get a little bit ugly at times.”
Ranked second in the north division, the Raiders are 5-2-1 in their last eight games after losing 1-0 to the first-place Leduc Oil Kings (17-4-1).
“That was a very good hockey game, we just took ourselves out of it in the third period. I don’t think we were at even strength for more than four or five minutes in the third period. We were a little undisciplined, which obviously took some of our momentum out of the game,” Pisani said.
The Raiders have a rematch with the host team for the Telus Cup national championship Saturday at 1:15 p.m. in Leduc.
The last two seasons Leduc eliminated the Raiders in the north semifinal in the fifth and deciding game. In the 2011 series Leduc knocked off the Raiders 3-2 in double overtime to win the best-of-five affair.
“We feel we can compete with them. If we stay disciplined and stick to the game plan we have an opportunity to win,” Pisani said.
The Raiders have two other games remaining at Akinsdale Arena before the Mac’s tournament in Calgary during the Christmas break. Tonight they host the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (7-11-3) at 7:45 p.m. and on Sunday faceoff against the Calgary Royals (9-13) at 1:15 p.m.
“We’re excited to be going to the Mac’s and obviously excited about the opportunity that is there, but we do have three games prior to that that we need to focus on,” Pisani said.
Last year at the Mac’s the Raiders finished 2-2 in pool play after posting an 0-3-1 record the previous year.
“It’s a difficult tournament from a lot of perspectives and then on top of that there are obviously some very quality hockey teams there as well,” Pisani said. “When you’re playing on Boxing Day all the kids have to leave Christmas morning so they’ve got the whole Christmas thing going on.
“Your preparation needs to be at an elite level when you get there and sometimes you’re not quite prepared because of the holidays. You’re in a very highly intense situation. In the preliminary round you’re playing four games typically in four or five days. You really need to take care of yourself and take care of your body and really be prepared.”
ICE CHIPS: Luke Mahura was the team’s leading goalscorer with 14 before he was recalled two weeks ago by the Prince Albert Raiders for the rest of the season.
Kevin Miller is among the league’s top scorers with 29 points in 21 games.
Also contributing offensively to the league’s fourth-highest scoring team is Kyler Hehn’s 17 assists and 24 points in 22 games, Trace Elson’s 12 goals and 23 points in 17 games and Mitch McNamara’s 13 assists and 19 points in 22 games.
The Raiders have the third-best defensive record with Wyatt Hoflin (9-3-1, 2.72 GAA) and Landon Bow (6-2-1, 2.39 GAA) between the pipes. Hoflin has two of the team’s three shutouts.
