Ryan Berlin is skating in select company this weekend at the Canadian Junior Hockey League's prospects games.
The St. Albert Steel left winger is one of the top 40 National Hockey League draft-eligible players in the CJHL chosen to compete in the two-game, total-goal series in Langley, B.C.
Player selection for the seventh-annual event was a joint initiative of the CJHL and NHL Central Scouting.
"I'm proud that I actually made that squad," Berlin said. "It's a big honour for myself and the St. Albert Steel and even for the AJHL."
Team West is comprised of players from the CJHL's five western leagues and Team East features players from the CJHL's five eastern leagues.
The Alberta Junior Hockey League is represented by five players on the Team West roster, including two former midget AAA St. Albert Raiders with the Spruce Grove Saints: defenceman Matt Benning and forward Carson Samoridny.
Berlin, 17, is excited to showcase his skills against the best junior A players in his age group.
"I got picked for this team because of how I've been playing right now so I will just go there and try and play the exact same way I've been playing. I've made it this far so I won't change my style of play at all," he said.
Berlin ranks among the Steel's leading scorers with 14 points in 23 points.
"I didn't think I had the best start to the year but I'm starting to get a lot better," said the Grade 12 Louis St. Laurent student.
Last season Berlin potted 10 goals and added six assists in 56 games in his AJHL debut with the Steel.
"It was my first year in the league so you don't see as much ice time. It's hard to adapt to the speed and hard to adapt to the size of the players when you're not seeing first or second line minutes," he said. "Last summer I worked out really hard on my speed and now I'm on the top two lines so I'm getting a lot more ice time. I've adapted to the speed and physicality of the game so it's a lot easier."
Scores against Saints
In Tuesday's 6-3 loss to the AJHL champion Spruce Grove Saints in St. Albert, Berlin sniped his sixth goal with a low shot on the blocker side of netminder Joel Miller to make it 1-1 in the first.
Berlin also assisted on Bryce Sauer's power-play marker to even the count at three apiece in the second.
The Saints (18-1-4) eventually pulled away with a goal at 16:07 of the second against Rhys Hadfield (2-10, 4.93 GAA) and two more in the third, including an empty netter.
"I thought we had them for most of the game. We just had a couple of errors and somehow they always seem to end up in the back of our net," Berlin said. "We just have to minimize the errors we have and we'll be able to win some games, even against the top teams like Spruce Grove."
It was a stronger effort by the Steel than in their 5-1 loss Saturday in Spruce Grove.
"Our boys played with confidence today. We thought we were going to pull it off," said Sauers, the Steel's assistant captain who tallied twice with the man advantage in Tuesday's rematch.
"We were banging bodies today. Our passes out of our end were a little bit better. We were trying to put a lot more pucks on the net, too," said the second-year centre. "The boys are getting better for sure. We're starting to work harder in practice and it all starts in practice. We just need to keep getting our confidence up."
Shots were 36-19 for the Saints. They also outshot the Steel 40-21 Saturday.
"In the last game in the first period we only had two shots, so this game we worked a lot on our shots and getting pucks on the net," said Berlin. "We're a bit more grittier than their team, so we got the puck down low a lot more."
Losing record
The loss was the third in a row and the 17th in 23 games for the bottom team in the north standings.
"Obviously we haven't been winning a lot of games but we did win two in our last five before this game so it's not that bad," Berlin said of the Steel's 5-2 victories against the Lloydminster Bobcats (14-6-2) at home and on the road to raise the team's win total to four. "We've got to come to the rink positive every day and stay united. We have to work our hardest in practice and try and get better."
The Steel were seven points behind the Grande Prairie Storm (7-13-3) for the seventh and last playoff spot in the north going into Thursday's home game against the Drayton Valley Thunder (10-10-1). The score was unavailable at press time.
Tonight the Steel visit the Bonnyville Pontiacs (17-6-1) at 7 p.m. They also travel Tuesday to play the Fort McMurray Oil Barons (17-3-1) at 7:30 p.m.
The next home game is Friday against Lloydminster at 7 p.m.
