The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres took their first loss in league play to heart.
"It's a wakeup call but we've just got to keep working and continue the way we're going," said assistant captain Ethan Edwards, after Sunday's surprising 5-0 setback to the Calgary Flames at Akinsdale Arena.
The Sabres (18-1-1), Lethbridge Golden Hawks (18-3-2) and Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (17-3-1) have separated themselves from the rest of the pack as the top teams in Alberta bantam AAA hockey.
"There's games we've slipped through where we haven't played a strong game but we ended up with a win so it's kind of misleading," said head coach Lee Zalasky of the team's near perfect record.
"We continue to drive home the point that we've had success standings-wise and have put together some wins but it's about our process and our details being as strong," Zalasky added. "We're continuing to push and to challenge each other to be better in all aspects of the game and ultimately have a strong team game so when we get into tight games as we get into the John Reid (tournament) and playoffs that we can continue to push forward."
Game star Connor Unger (5-4-2, 2.84 GAA) buffaloed the Sabres with 41 saves, including 19 during a busy middle frame.
The Flames (9-7-5) were credited with 34 shots while potting a pair in the opening 20 minutes and in the second period Joel Freer struck twice during a 3:14 span before the eight-minute mark to put the visitors up by four.
"From a game standpoint there were lapses mentally and we weren't fully engaged to be committed to a team buy-in," Zalasky said. "The other team worked hard and they made it hard on us and we need to continue to learn to be resilient."
The Sabres will regroup and refocus at the task at hand tonight against the PAC Saints (4-16-4) at 7:15 p.m. Grant Fuhr Arena.
"We do post game reflections for each player. We'll discuss and find out more and then we'll come back to Tuesday's practice and we'll talk more as a team about it," Zalasky said.
The day before in Sherwood Park, the Sabres polished off the Flyers 5-1 as Ryley Morgan produced one goal and three assists and Austin Spiridakis added four assists.
Carter Savoie netted two goals and Edwards and Matthew Savoie notched one apiece.
Ethan Barwick (8-1,1.88GAA) stopped 27 shots while the Sabres collected 41 in total.
"We had a good all-around game," Edwards said.
Incentive was high to beat the Flyers (9-9-5) after their last meeting Nov. 29 in St. Albert, as the Sabres rallied with two goals in the third for the 5-5 tie after rattling off 16 wins in a row to start the season.
"Yeah, you bet," Edwards said. "That one definitely felt like more of a loss because it was the first point against us but we're past that now."
The Sabres entered Sunday's contest averaging 6.3 goals per game and 1.9 against.
"We definitely skate well. We're a smart team with a smart bunch of young athletes or intelligent athletes you could say who think the game well," Zalasky said. "They're creative. They do have lots of skill. It's a talented group and it's a matter of them working in a cohesive unit as five when we have the puck and the same when we don't have the puck.
"These are definitely our strengths and essentially the more consistent we do all of them the more success we'll have this year."
The Sabres haven't looked this sharp since 1999 as the league and provincial champions and third-place finishers at westerns and the goal is "playing an honest hockey game, game in and game out," according to Zalasky.
"You're dealing with young teenagers whose minds are racing a million miles per hour. They see scouts showing up at our games more often maybe now and they see success and they want to be part of the offence and points and all that," he said. "We try and keep them level headed. In the games where we have played well and we end up on the good side of things we try not to let them get too high but at the same time like a day today not being too low.
"But every game we approach we know we're going to get that team's best effort on the other side and we have to be ready for that."
Edwards, 14, and captain Mike Benning on defence and Morgan and Spiridakis up front are returning Sabres from the 23-6-7 team that placed second in the Nitro north division and lost the best-of-three opening playoff round in two games.
"We've really come together as a team. We don't give up, we don't take any shifts off and we just keep it going," Edwards said. "On this really skilled hockey team we've got a lot of roles to fill and you pick one and roll with it.
"And just like last year, everyone is getting along in the dressing room and everyone is part of everything so it's going good."
Reid tournament
Looming large for the Sabres is the John Reid Memorial Tournament, Jan. 19 to 22 at Servus Credit Union Place.
"We're just starting to think about things in the John Reid. We're hoping to come in there strong and hopefully win it," said Edwards, a five-foot-four spark plug on the blueline and the 2016 recipient of the John Reid Memorial Award for heart and hustle.
The Sabres are pooled with the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Edmonton, Colorado Thunderbirds and the defending champion Yale Hockey Academy of Abbotsford.
Last month at the Rocky Mountain Classic in Calgary, the Sabres lost 5-4 in the playoff round to Yale, the eventual tournament winner.
"Yale is definitely a bigger and hard working team. We've just got to stick with our game and take the hits and take the adversity and keep it going," said Edwards, a Grade 9 Richard S. Fowler School student.
The Sabres finished the Calgary competition 3-2, with wins of 4-2 against the Calgary Northstars, 2-1 against the Okanagan Hockey Academy of Penticton and 6-1 against the Notre Dame Hounds. The other loss was 11-3 against the Pursuit of Excellence Academy of Kelowna.
The academy teams from Penticton and Kelowna, plus Notre Dame, are confirmed for the 39th annual St. Albert bantam AAA tournament
"It gave us an opportunity to see for the John Reid who would be coming potentially and the competition," Zalasky said of the Calgary event. "The competition is obviously really good because the academies can recruit and it's hand selected. It could make for a very strong team or maybe not but ultimately (it) gave us a measuring stick to see where we're at within our own game and what we need to work on and what we've had success at. Playing those teams we learned a lot about ourselves in the few days that we were there and we've continued over the last month to improve on the areas and play at a high level within our league play."
The team's schedule is broken down into three-game segments, or mini round robins, while ratcheting up the preparation as the season unfolds.
"Every game is a different time and it's a different team but it's an opportunity for us to continue to focus on short term preparation and being strong in that and knowing that the John Reid is coming up. We just finished the third game of our three game mini round robin and we'll start another game on Wednesday and that will be another three. That's how we're focusing on December and then in January we'll move into more of an internal competition, which will be based off individual stats and things just not goals and assists but hits, blocked shots and things that help our team be successful," said Zalasky, a former player and assistant coach as a two-time University Cup winner with the Alberta Golden Bears who played 276 games with three Western Hockey League teams and the last two years he was the bantam AAA bench boss of the PAC Saints.
"We're trying to challenge the guys in the short term aspect but also internally to challenge them on how to be better so getting to the John Reid we're trying to be as prepared as possible."
Visit www.johnreidmemorial.com for tournament information.
