The stage is set for a winning performance by the host team at the John Reid Memorial Tournament.
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres skate into the 39th annual invitational tournament as the No. 1 team in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
“We’re really hoping we do good in this tournament this year,” said right-winger Austin Spiridakis of the 26-1-2 Sabres. “We’ve been doing really well. We’re winning lots of games. We have one of the best records probably in the past couple of years for St. Albert.”
The Sabres have their sights set on competing for the championship trophy.
“We want to win it. That’s the main goal,” said defenceman Marc Lajoie. “We have to work hard, pay attention to the details and play as a team.”
Last year the Sabres finished 1-3-1 as the C finalists in the 16-team draw after going 2-3 as the runners-up in the C playoff bracket in 2015.
Thursday the Sabres face-off against the Okanagan Hockey Academy of Edmonton at 10:45 a.m. and the Colorado T-Birds at 8 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The team’s last game in the Kal-Tire division of the John Reid pool before the playoffs is 2:30 p.m. Friday against the defending champion Yale Hockey Academy of Abbotsford at Go Auto Arena.
“If you have a good first game it will follow through for the rest of the tournament and if you have a bad one the second game might be a little bit sketchy,” said Spiridakis, a returning Sabre along with centre Ryley Morgan and Ethan Edwards and captain Mike Benning on defence.
“I felt nerves last year and I was really nervous coming into the first game. It was a loud atmosphere and I was new to it. I hadn’t really faced that before,” Spiridakis said of the 3-0 loss to the Notre Dame Hounds. “The first game last year we had schools there and they were really loud. You’ve got to keep that out of your own mind and you can’t watch the crowd because you would just be out of it too soon.”
The tournament was an experience to cherish for Spiridakis, 14.
“It’s really exciting. It’s fun to play in it. It’s really enjoyable. I liked it,” said the Grade 9 Richard S. Fowler student.
The Sabres have been counting down the days leading up to the high profile event.
“We’re excited. We talk about it a lot,” Lajoie said. “A lot of people will be there.”
The tournament website is www.johnreidmemorial.com.
The last league contest before the tournament was Sunday’s 3-3 tie against CAC Inland Cement (7-14-5) at Akinsdale Arena.
The Sabres outshot the visitors by a hefty 55-16 margin, inducing a lopsided 24-3 advantage in the middle frame.
In the last period, CAC pulled even at two with 7:13 to play and jumped in front with 56 seconds remaining.
The Sabres replied with the equalizer with 21 seconds to play as Spiridakis buried his second goal of the game after a point shot following a face-off in the CAC end.
“It was a lot better than getting a loss,” Spiridakis said of the result. “We could’ve gave a better effort.”
Ethan Whillans knotted the score at one in the second.
In net for the Sabres was Ethan Barwick (12-1-1, 1.78 GAA).
The Sabres were winners of eight straight and three were shutout decisions before settling for the draw.
“You want to win and a tie isn’t that good for us,” Lajoie said.
The Sabres rattled off 16 consecutive victories to start off the season before the streak ended in the 5-5 deadlock with the Sherwood Park Flyers (10-14-5) Nov. 29 in St. Albert.
The lone loss was 5-0 against the Calgary Flames (11-10-7) Dec. 11 in St. Albert.
“A lot of teams want to beat us and we’ve got to bring our best game every time because the other teams are too,” said Lajoie, 13.
The Sabres are poised to become the first St. Albert bantam AAA team to do some serious damage since the 1999 league and provincial champions and third-place finishers at westerns.
“We know we’re pretty good but there is a lot of other good teams too,” said Lajoie, who patrols the blueline alongside Benning, the league’s second-leading scorer among defencemen.
“We’re winning every game but we’ve got to know what it’s like to lose too.”
The Sabres are averaging 5.96 goals per game and only 1.86 against with six shutouts.
“We’re fast, we move the puck well and we work as a team,” said Lajoie, a Grade 8 Fowler student and one of 13 Sabres who attend the Catholic junior high school.
Five players have racked up 20 or more goals. Ethan Leyer leads the way with 30, followed by 28 for Matt Savoie, 25 for Spiridakis, 24 for Morgan and 20 for Carter Savoie. They, along with Benning, are ranked among the top 26 league scorers, with Leyer and Carter tied for seventh with 56 points apiece.
“We have a good group of guys on this team. They all bear down and it gives us momentum,” said Spiridakis, the fifth highest-scoring Sabre with 48 points.
