The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres finished the 40th annual John Reid Memorial Tournament with the most important win of the season so far for the bantam AAA team.
After one victory and three losses, with 10 goals scored and 19 against, the Sabres pulled it together in the third period against the Okanagan Hockey Academy of Penticton with five unanswered goals.
“The boys are happy we won,” said captain Tyson Greenway after the 5-2 decision Sunday morning at Go Auto Arena. “It’s always good to end up on a positive note. You never want to end up on a negative note.”
The Sabres competed in the B playoff bracket after placing third in pool play at the 16-team St. Albert bantam AAA invitational.
“We weren't happy with the result being out of the playoffs (in the A bracket),” Greenway said. ”But it was alright. It was good experience for us and we had a good time.”
The Sabres (19-2-6, 140 GF/55 GA), ranked second overall in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League, face a quick turnaround with nine games remaining before the playoffs and tonight’s contest against the SSAC Southgate Lions (10-12-7) starts at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
“We’ve got to focus on that and leave this behind us,” Greenway said.
Building on the win against Okanagan is priority No. 1 for the Sabres.
“It was really important we won this one. We were in a little slump for a little bit in this tournament but now our confidence is up there and we’re excited,” said defenceman David Saunders.
Playing five games in four days against elite-level teams forced the Sabres to sharpen up.
“It was good for us to go against these harder teams and when we go back into our league we’re going to be the same as when we played these guys and we’re going to do really well,” said Saunders, the recipient of the John Reid Memorial Award for heart and hustle, which is presented annually to the Sabre who symbolizes the person and hockey player Reid was.
Previous winners were Ethan Edwards, Noah Fayad, Ryan Cooper, Jake Warawa, Josh Perrott, Tyler Mrkonjic, Jake Mykitiuk, Jed Groenenboom, Josh Winquist, Ryan Harrison, Steve Wall, Blaine Bokenfohr and Nate Fleming.
“It means a lot,” Saunders said. "It was a really good tournament and it helps my confidence winning the award.
“My teammates really helped me too.”
Saunders, 14, was presented with the tournament’s most prestigious award at Saturday’s banquet.
“I was really surprised,” Saunders said when his name was announced. ”It was a little awkward because I had to walk all the way up there to receive it and everyone was looking at me but I liked how they announced my name.”
The five-foot-four Saunders is the team’s top-scoring defenceman in league play with nine goals and 18 points in 25 games and was one of five Sabres selected to play in the recent AMBHL all-star game.
The Grade 9 Vincent J. Maloney School student was pointless in the tournament and against Okanagan he left the game after his second shift with a swollen arm after blocking a shot.
“He’s not the biggest guy but when he plays he’s the biggest guy out there,” Greenway said of Saunders. “He’s always working hard.”
Saunders also suffered a nasty gash on the bridge of this nose from his cage while throwing a body check in Friday’s 6-1 loss to St. George’s School of Vancouver to wrap up pool play.
Jaxon Dube potted the lone goal for the fifth-most penalized team in the tournament.
“We would've been able to go into playoffs with a win but they had one really good guy, Trevor Wong (a Reid division all-star), and we couldn't shut him down and I guess that's the reason we lost,” Greenway said of Wong’s first period hat-trick to make it 4-1.
The day before, the Sabres lost 7-3 to the Rink Hockey Academy of Winnipeg and rallied in the third period to beat the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes 3-1.
In the B semifinals, Greenway opened the scoring against the Lethbridge Golden Hawks and in the second the Sabres trailed by three when Levi Fesyk struck on the power play.
Ethan Sundar’s goal with 16 seconds remaining closed out the 5-3 loss to Lethbridge (16-7-4), ranked sixth in the AMBHL.
The Sabres faced an uphill battle against Okanagan after giving up a pair of goals in the middle frame but Levi Fesyk cued the comeback at 4:15, followed by Sundar’s power-play marker and a pair by Greenway, including an empty-net tally in the last minute of play.
Evan Arnold also found the back of the net with 11 seconds to go.
Shots were 7-5 in the third and 26-21 overall for Okanagan as Carson Ironside backstopped the Sabres to victory.
“We played good as a team. We all played together. It was just a tight group,” said Greenway,
The Grade 10 St. Albert Catholic High School student recorded four points in the win as the team’s leading scorer in the tournament with 10.
Sundar finished with seven points and shared the team lead in goals with Greenway, Dube and Fesyk with three apiece.
Greenway, 15, is the only Sabre back from the 31-1-4 team in the AMBHL regular season that lost four playoff games as the north conference finalist.
“Last year of course we had one loss and lost out in the semifinals and this year we're beating teams like 8-1 but in playoffs they’re going to be tight games and we’ve got to be ready to play all the time,” said Greenway, the second-leading scorer on the Sabres with 17 goals and 39 points in 25 games behind Sundar’s 21 goals and 47 points 27 games.
Greenway has deep hockey roots with two cousins playing with NCAA division one teams – left-winger Jordan Greenway of the Boston University Terriers, who was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the second round (50th overall) in 2015, and defenceman J.D. Greenway of the Wisconsin Badgers and 2016 draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round (72nd overall).
His dad, Davie, also played 42 games in the Central Hockey League as a defenceman with the Nashville Nighthawks in 1996/97.
