Every shift is important for the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres at the John Reid Memorial Tournament.
“We need every single one of our players to be going as hard as they can during the John Reid weekend,” said right-winger Ethan Sundar of the 40th annual bantam AAA spectacle at Servus Credit Union Place.
Every year the competition is razor-sharp.
“Most of the players on their teams are good so we’ve got to give everything we’ve got and see what happens,” said captain Tyson Greenway.
The high-profile showcase of talent starts Thursday with 16 teams from across western Canada, as well as the Los Angeles Jr. Kings and Phoenix Jr. Coyotes, striving for tournament honours.
“It’s such a good chance for us. It will be a good experience,” Sundar said. “It’s going to be so exciting how many people are going to be there.”
The 42-game schedule consists of four divisions split into two pools to determine the playoff pairings in the A, B and C brackets.
In the Skybox Grill division, the Sabres play the Rink Hockey Academy of Winnipeg at 10:45 a.m. and Phoenix at 8 p.m. Thursday and St. George’s School of Vancouver at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Go Auto Arena.
The Alta-West Bus Charters division features the Calgary Bisons, Delta Wild Prep Green, Lethbridge Golden Hawks and Okanagan Hockey Academy of Edmonton.
The Burnaby Winter Club Bruins, Calgary Royals, Los Angeles and Yale Hockey Academy of Abbotsford form the C2 Homes division.
The Airdrie Xtreme, Northern Alberta Xtreme, OHA Penticton and Sherwood Park Flyers are grouped in the REMAX-Brian Cyr division.
The final is 2 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena.
The complete scheduled is listed in Scoreboard on page 30 and is also available on the tournament website at www.johnreidmemorial.com.
Last year’s Sabres finished first in their division with three wins and then lost two playoff games.
The 3-2 showing marked the first winning record for the Sabres since 2010 at 3-1-1.
Greenway is the only returning Sabre on the roster but sat out the 2017 tournament with broken left leg.
“This year I want to give more than I ever have. It’s just a great opportunity,” said Greenway, who returned to the lineup for the last three games of the regular season and the league playoffs after missing two months following surgery. “It was hard to get back at it but my teammates helped me out.”
The Sabres (17-2-6) are among six Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League teams in the tournament and are ranked third behind Bisons (21-2-2) and Airdrie (18-3-5) in points with 40.
“We’re doing good in our league. We’re one of the best in the north and I think we have a good chance to win our league,” Sundar said. “We all work hard, we’re a skilled team, we like to have fun and we’re all competitive.”
The Sabres lead the AMBHL in goals with 120 at 4.8 per game with six players in double digits and are second in goals against with 52 at 2.08 per game.
“We’re fast. Our goalies play well. D plays well. All around we’re a good team,” Greenway said. “We’re a tight group. We play well together. We make plays. We just dominate.”
The Sabres are smoking hot in the last 15 games with a sizzling 11-0-4 record and the last loss was 4-1 on Oct. 21 against CAC Leigh Cement (14-8-2) at Akinsdale Arena.
“We’re working hard right now in practice and games. We’re just getting better than we were,” Greenway said. “We’re coming together now and we’re tighter than we were.”
Sundar agreed. “All of our players are getting more involved in the games. We’re all getting more competitive.”
The third win in four games was Sunday’s 3-0 decision against the PAC Saints (14-9-2) in St. Albert.
“We worked hard but we could've done a little bit better. We could've been a little bit more competitive,” said Sundar, noting the team was coming off a 3-2 exhibition loss to OHA of Edmonton last Saturday in St. Albert.
Shots were 42-24 for the Sabres as Jaxon Dube (12th), Palmer Strang (11th) and Beck McKinley (second) scored and Carson Ironside recorded his third shutout of the season.
“We played well. That team won eight in a row so it’s good to shut that team down,” said Greenway.
The Grade 10 St. Albert Catholic High School student centres the top line flanked by Sundar and Dube.
“We all communicate with each other on the ice. We’re all fast players. We all do things differently and well,” said Sundar, the leading scorer on the Sabres with 17 goals and 39 points in 25 games after picking up two assists against the Saints.
“People are communicating with me when they’re open. I’m also shooting the puck from everywhere. I’m getting good opportunities,” said the Grade 9 Richard S. Fowler School student.
Greenway, 14, is close second behind Sundar in the team’s scoring race with 16 goals and 34 points in 23 games after posting four goals and 12 points in 16 games, plus four goals and six points in 10 playoff games, during the 2016/17 campaign for the 31-1-4 Sabres, who lost more playoff games (four), than league games (one).
“I’m a power forward. I’m willing to go to the net and play in the gritty areas,” said Greenway, who will be joined by Sundar, Ironside (8-2-2, 1.79 GAA), defenceman David Saunders (eight goals and 15 points in 23 games) and netminder Matt Tebbutt (9-0-4, 2.33 GAA) at the AMBHL all-star game today in Grande Prairie.
