The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres are poised to complete a captivating playoff comeback tonight with the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League championship on the line.
The Sabres forced the fifth and deciding game in the tightly contested provincial series with two must-win performances at the home of the Airdrie Xtreme last weekend after two heartbreaking overtime losses in St. Albert.
Puck drop is 6:45 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
“Our team is determined to win. We have no quit in us. We play until the buzzer ends and we’re always willing to pay the price,” said centre Tyson Greenway, captain of the never-say-die Sabres.
The stands will be packed as the Sabres strive to win the first provincial banner in team history since 1999.
“It’s going to be a big game for us,” Greenway said. “We’re pumped right now. It’s exciting. it’s at home here instead of in Airdrie. All of our friends from school and outside of school will be there. Everybody really is going to be at the game.”
The Alberta champion advances to westerns, March 29 to April 1 at Kamloops.
“It’s really exciting knowing that we can win this series and we can go to westerns,” said right-winger Evan Arnold of the team’s turnaround from identical 3-2 OT setbacks.
Game one was decided at 2:28 of the first OT period and game two ended in the 33rd minute of sudden death in the third extra period.
“The last two games we got more quality scoring chances, we were working harder as a team, we were getting those good quality shots off and hard shots, we were driving the net and had good net presence and that was a really big factor in our wins,” said Arnold of Saturday’s 7-6 OT result and Sunday’s 4-3 decision. “We just never gave up. We just kept on going, moving our feet, making plays, forechecking hard, backchecking hard, playing good defence and we were buying into the team.”
Arnold’s series-tying goal in game four with 19 seconds left in regulation time was too good to be true.
“I just remember celebrating and looking back at the bench and everyone was just jumping and hugging each other,” said Arnold of his 10th goal and 15th point in the playoffs.
Breck McKinley and Jaxon Dube were credited with assists on Arnold’s second goal of the game.
“Ethan Sundar started it all but then he got it to, I think Jaxon Dube, and then the puck got somewhere and Breck shot it and it fell behind the goalie (Nathan Airey) and I saw he was about to lay down on the puck so I just came in and I jumped over him almost and I just stabbed it in,” said Arnold of one of the biggest goals of his career. “It’s definitely one of them.”
It also capped off a three-goal comeback after the Xtreme made it 3-1 with 12:54 to play as Arnold tallied with 7:48 to go and Zachry Desranleau sniped the equalizer (“Five hole off a rebound in front,” Arnold said) with 1:35 to play.
David Saunders opened the scoring in the first and the second of two goals by the Xtreme in the middle frame was a power-play effort.
Carson Ironside (7-3, 2.64 GAA) stopped 29 of 32 shots and the Sabres were credited with 31 shots.
The Sabres put themselves into position to even the series after Greenway found the back of the net 72 seconds into OT.
“It was a greasy goal,” said Greenway of his sixth goal and 16th point of the playoffs, with Dube drawing the assist. “It was unbelievable. It was a big moment for our team and for me.”
The Sabres led 6-4 on Chase Visser’s power-play marker with 5:43 to play and the Xtreme replied with 3:16 and 1:18 remaining.
“We knew the season could’ve been over when we were going into overtime so everyone buckled down and worked extra hard to get that win,” said Arnold, 14, a Grade 9 Richard S. Fowler student.
Arnold and Dube (power play) connected in the first as the period ended tied at two and Sundar, Arnold and Desranleau (shorthanded) lit the lamp in the second for the 5-4 lead.
Sundar finished with a pair of assists for a team-high 19 points in the playoffs.
Shots were 37-31 for the Xtreme, who capitalized three times on the power play, and Ironside was the winning netminder.
“We played hard throughout (Saturday's) game,” Greenway said. “Obviously going into it we were a little down on ourselves being down 0-2 but we battled through adversity with having everything going against us. We were the underdogs in that situation.
‘There was a huge drop off in our confidence in doubting our team that we can come back and win it in three in a row,” added Greenway, 15, a Grade 10 St. Albert Catholic High School student. “But once we got that momentum and being proud of ourselves for making it this far everything becomes positive and then you start generating offence and you put the puck in the net.”
ICE CHIPS: The Xtreme are 3-2 and the Sabres are 1-3 in playoff OT results.
The Sabres are 9-3 (59 GF/34 GA) in the playoffs and 25-3-8 (186 GF/58 GA) in league play and the Xtreme are 9-3 (51 GF/31 GA) in the post season and 25-5-6 (148 GF/72 GA) in the regular season.
