The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres are better prepared for the John Reid Memorial Tournament after the team’s performance at the Winnipeg Jets AAA Classic. The Sabres finished 4-1 as tournament finalists. “It’s one hundred per cent going to help us,” said Lee Zalasky, head coach of the 11-2-3 Sabres in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League. “With us getting to the final your goal is to finish it off and try to win it but you learn from it and it gives us an opportunity to reflect on it for what we need to do moving forward.” The Reid tournament is Jan. 18 to 21 at Servus Credit Union Place. The 40th annual St. Albert bantam AAA competition features 16 teams across western Canada, as well as the Los Angeles Jr. Kings and Phoenix Jr. Coyotes, while the Jets Classic consisted of eight teams, including CAC Lehigh Cement (8-7) of the AMBHL. “The John Reid is a similar format in terms of how many games you have to play and stuff like that. It’s a learning experience for these players, whether it’s their off-ice preparation or their on-ice execution and what they can do and what worked for them and what didn’t work for them,” Zalasky said. “It gives us an opportunity as a team to refer to something and make some comparisons and see what we’re going to use and know what we can change. “It’s a great learning step for the players.” The Sabres were winners of four in a row and undefeated in six games in the AMBHL before jetting off to Winnipeg. “Overall it was a chance for the team to grow and bond together so in that four-day window I saw a lot of positives come out of it even though we finished second,” Zalasky said. “Ultimately the goal was to go there and get some development and make it essentially a positive learning experience and I think the players played outside their potential, took their game to new levels and set a new standard for where our team needs to be moving forward here for the remainder of the season.” The Sabres showcased their skill in wins of 8-2 against the Winnipeg Warriors, 6-1 against the Winnipeg Sharks and 4-3 against the Southwest Cougars in pool play and 8-1 against the Winnipeg Monarchs in Saturday’s semifinal before dropping a 3-1 decision to the Sharks in Sunday’s final. The CAC finished 2-2-1. “The biggest thing I noticed is once we started playing and got some games in succession we started to hit our stride and there was a cohesiveness to our play. The defence was working with the forwards well moving pucks up the ice, the goalie was working well with the defence transitioning pucks and playing pucks so there was a cohesive team dynamics that I noticed moving from defence to offence and vice versa which really helped us,” Zalasky said. The first tournament of the season was a stiff test for the Sabres. “The teams were balanced and you had to be prepared so it was a good experience but in comparison to our league a lot of the teams would be in the upper half so it was good competition overall,” Zalasky said. “There weren’t any weak teams. You had a couple of good players on each team that you kind of had to be aware of. “The refs also let a lot of physical play go which we were fine with. It was end to end action.” Chase Visser opened the scoring in the final with his fifth goal of the tournament and the Sharks tied it up before the first period ended. The Sharks struck in the middle frame and the third goal was a shorthanded effort in the third. Shots were 27-26 for the Sharks and Carson Ironside was in net for the Sabres. “We played them once before and beat them 6-1 but I don’t think that score was really indicative of the game that was played. They definitely were our strongest competition when we played them in the round robin and when we got to the final we knew we were going to have our hands full,” Zalasky said. “We looked a little bit mentally fatigued so in saying that it’s an opportunity for us to reflect and see essentially how we can correct and improve on that moving forward.” Ethan Sundar led the Sabres offensively in the tournament with eight goals and 11 points. Visser and Breck McKinley posted seven points apiece and Tyson Greenway, Evan Arnold and Dylan Leslie had six each. Ironside (2-1, 1.53 GAA) and Matt Tebbutt (2-0, 3.00) anchored the back end. Sundar is the Sabres' top scorer in the AMBHL with 24 points in 16 games, followed by Palmer Strang’s 22 points and 21 for Tyson Greenway. Greenway’s 12 goals is a team high and Evan Arnold is second in goals with 10. Graeme Hampton and David Saunders are the leading point producers on defence with 15 and 11, respectively. Ironside (3-2-2, 2.24 GAA, two shutouts) and Tebbutt (8-0-1, 2.15 GAA) have provided steady net-minding. The Sabres are also ranked No. 1 in the north conference in goals for (82) and against (35) after 16 games. Greenway is the only returning Sabre from 2016/17 AMBHL regular-season leaders at 31-1-4 but in the playoffs the St. Albert squad lost the best-of-five north final in five games to the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (27-7-2), the league champions and bronze medallists at westerns. The Sabres also had three players eligible to return to the team this season but forwards’ Matt Savoie and Zack Ostapchuk and defenceman Marc Lajoie opted to join the Northern Alberta Xtreme, a bantam prep academy team based at St. Francis Xavier High School. The Xtreme are among several academy teams confirmed for the Reid tournament. “This year it’s a different style of team for sure. We create and we generate our offence differently than we did last year, which is fine. It's taken us a little time to get there but we're getting there,” said Zalasky, who is back behind the bench in his second season with the Sabres. “Defensively I would say we're pretty stable. We’ve got a group that defensively are pretty dependable and reliable back there. They can move pucks up quick to our forwards. "Our forwards are pretty blue collared. They’re willing to go in the tough areas to generate offence so that bodes well as we move into tighter games and playoff style games where those types of goals are the ones that kind of occur that way," Zalasky added. “There is skill there it’s just a different style of team in the way we create our success but we do move pucks well. “They’re also very good kids and respectable kids. They all get along. Overall the team dynamics is good.” The Sabres are back in action this weekend for games against the host Sherwood Park Flyers (9-6-1) at noon Saturday and the Camrose Red Wings (4-12-1) at 3:45 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena.
