The St. Albert Slash have their sights set on winning the Esso Cup as the Pacific region reps at the midget AAA female nationals.
The Slash swept the Greater Vancouver Comets in last weekend’s best-of-three series at Go Auto Arena for a shot at the championship.
“It’s amazing. This was our biggest goal that we set at the beginning of the season and just to make it this far is crazy,” said left-winger MacKenzie Reynolds.
The Slash will challenge the Prince Albert Bears (Western), Mid Isle Wildcats (Atlantic) of Summerside, P.E.I, the host Pembina Valley Hawks and the Ontario and Quebec champions at the ninth annual Esso Cup, March 23 to 29 at Morden, Man.
The Slash hosted the 2011 nationals when they competed in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League and finished fifth out of six teams.
The season marked the debut of the Alberta Female Hockey League and the Slash dominated the six-team division with a record of 27-2-1 (119 GF/44 GA).
The Slash also compiled a 9-1 overall mark at the Two Nations College Prep Series tournaments in Detroit in late October and in Brampton, Ont., in early December. The only loss was 3-2 in overtime to the California Wave in Brampton.
Last month at the four-team AFHL provincials, the Slash reached the final through the tiebreaker format and the 2-0 result against the Rocky Mountain Raiders – last year’s AMMFHL champions, Esso Cup bronze medallists and this year’s second-place league team at 18-9-3 – evened the Slash’s tournament record in Okotoks at 2-2.
The Slash continued pushing towards the Esso Cup with wins of 2-0 and 3-2 against the Comets.
“We’re so close as a team. I haven’t been on a team that has ever been this close. We’re all friends with each other and we all get along and I would say that helps a ton,” said Reynolds of the lineup of players from Sherwood Park (five), Edmonton (three), Wetaskiwin (two), St. Albert, Sturgeon County, Calahoo, Gibbons, Onoway, Edson, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, Fort Saskatchewan and Ardrossan.
The Slash roster also features seven players from the 2015/16 Sherwood Park Fury of the AMMFHL and the team’s head coach, Dan Auchenberg, is the Slash bench boss and the AFHL’s coach of the year.
The last hurdle for the Slash to clear on the road to the Esso Cup were the Comets, No. 1 in the six-team British Columbia midget AAA female league at 29-1 (131 GF/34 GA) and in two playoff series were 4-0.
“They were more aggressive than some of the teams we’ve faced all year and the fact that they didn’t know exactly what we did helped a lot,” Reynolds said.
In the series opener Friday, Camryn Drever of Edmonton stared down 22 shots for her fifth shutout of the season and the team’s ninth.
Drever also backstopped the Slash to victory in the provincial final with a game-high 36 saves.
Kaylee Vader of Sherwood Park and Cassidy Maplethorpe of Wetaskiwin provided the scoring in game one.
“It was very nerve-wracking the first two periods. We weren’t really into it to say the least but once we got on our feet and we were going it was a lot easier to play,” Reynolds said. “Once we got our first goal we gained a lot of momentum after that in our second period and the second goal at the very end of the second period definitely put us in a better place and from there in the third period we just managed the game and won it.”
Saturday’s goal scorers were Madison Willan of Edmonton, the AFHL’s rookie of the year and the top scorer with 25 goals and 50 points in 28 games, Jayme Doyle of Calahoo and Maplethorpe.
Drever faced an unofficial 24 shots.
“We got a 2-0 lead again and that was very early on in the first period and then in the second period we ended up giving them a goal on the power play and then right after that we got a goal again to make it a 3-1 lead and they just got a lucky goal again but once it was 3-2 we knew that we could manage the game by a one goal difference,” said Reynolds.
The Grade 12 Sturgeon Composite High School student and third-year Slash player recorded three goals and six points in 30 league games this season as the only returnee from the AMMFHL squad that was 10-16-6 as the second-most penalized team and the second-lowest scoring team in the nine-team league.
“Last year we weren’t as close and with the league changing this year it just made for better competition on our team and plus through the whole league,” said Reynolds, 18, who will play for the SAIT Trojans next season while studying chemical engineering technology.
