The mark of success for the St. Albert Slash this season is a winning record in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
Head coach Phil Webb is confident the Slash will improve on their 6-25-1 record from the 2013/14 regular season and semifinal exit in the north playoffs.
“The goal is to be set up in a position that we can obviously attend the Mac’s tournament this year and we go for a bit of a run in the playoffs and what I mean by that is we’re shooting for a nationals type thing,” said Webb, the team’s third-year bench boss.
The roster of 11 returnees and seven new players with no under-agers will make their debut Saturday against the Lloydminster Steelers. Puck drop is 4:45 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
In preseason play, the Slash won three and tied one while outscoring teams 10-3. Two of the victories were by shutouts.
Last weekend, the Slash battled the Red Deer Chiefs, the host team for the 2015 Esso Cup national championship, to a 1-1 draw at the NAIT tournament.
“We’re gritty, we’re fast and we move the puck really well,” Webb said.
Last season, the Slash finished fifth in the north by one point ahead of the last-place Sherwood Park Fury after going 14-13-5 for third place in the previous campaign.
In the 11-team circuit, the Slash ranked last in goals scored with 53 and their 109 goals against were the second highest in league play.
In the playoffs, the Slash swept the best-of-three opening round against the Spruce Grove PAC Saints (9-15-8) but lost three straight to the Edmonton Thunder (23-5-4), the six-time reigning AMMFHL champions and 2014 Esso Cup silver medallists.
“We had 10 or 11 first-year players and we had an under-age player as well. It just took a long time for them to understand how to play at that level and playing against girls two years older than them,” Webb said.
It takes a special player to compete in the AMMFHL.
“You have to be able to give a complete 30 to 45 second shift where you’re working the whole time. In bantam AAA you can get away with taking a part of a shift off and here you can’t take part of a shift off. As soon as you do that the puck ends up in your net,” Webb said.
If the Slash are to go far they have to beat the Thunder. Last season the Thunder outscored the Slash 20-0 in four league games and it took the St. Albert squad until the third period in the semifinal opener to light the lamp for the first time against the perennial Edmonton powerhouse.
Webb believes the Thunder isn’t the only team that will challenge for the AMMFHL crown.
“It just depends who’s done recruiting and who’s taken the players and how many third years you have and how many second and first years you have to put in your lineup,” he said. “On a given year it could be your team that keeps most of its lineup. Year to year I think it’s different. It’s not like you could say there is any formula that is going to work.”
It’s a different season in several ways as the AMMFHL is now a 10-team circuit with one division instead of the north/south format. Girls Hockey Calgary is also going with one team, Calgary Fire, instead of two teams.
“Our travel is actually pretty good because of it. We do most of our travel up front,” Webb said of the 32-game schedule.
The first of seven road games this month is Sunday against the Saints at noon at Grant Fuhr Arena. Weekend trips include Grande Prairie for two games against the Peace Country Storm and Lethbridge for three games in the AMMFHL showcase event.
“After that, it’s more or less day trips than anything. It’s not a bad schedule at all actually that we ended up with,” Webb said.
A restructured playoff is also travel friendly with a five-team tournament to declare the provincial champion. The tournament host will be decided on a bidding process through Hockey Alberta regulations.
The first best-of-three round features the bottom four teams and the top six have byes. Round two is also a best-of-three affair involving the first-round winners and the rest of the teams. Round three is the four-day provincial tournament.
“The whole thing gets settled at the end of it,” Webb said. “Hopefully everything works out and we don’t have to travel too far.”
The AMMFHL has also adopted a three-person fourth-period shootout to resolve ties. There were 62 ties in 352 games last season.
Webb is a big fan of the shootout.
“I like it. I think we’ve got enough skill that we can probably win some of those shootouts and get an extra point where we wouldn’t have last year,” he said. “I’m going to get the win first and then the shootout second.”
ICE CHIPS: Wednesday the Slash visit the Fury at 8:30 p.m.
The Slash are entered in the Fire On Ice Tournament, Nov. 7 to 9 in Rochester, N.Y.
