If the St. Albert Ron Hodgson Slash are going to win their third consecutive Esso Cup, the rookies will need to get up to speed with the team's winning ways.
Nine returnees, including five third-year players, from the two-time winners of the midget AAA female nationals have the task of continuing the tradition of excellence with 10 newcomers on board this season.
“We really want to give the first years that feeling and that opportunity of being at the Esso Cup so that kind of puts it on our shoulders to help them get there,” said Makenna Schuttler, who is joined by Isabelle Lajoie and Madison Willan as forwards, defenceman Taylor Anker and netminder Brianna Sank from the Slash’s inaugural Alberta Female Hockey League season as the first Alberta team to win the Esso Cup last year.
The end goal is competing at nationals, April 21 to 27 in Sudbury, Ont., as the Final Frozen Four provincial champions in the Alberta Female Hockey League and Pacific Region national qualifiers.
“It’s definitely more pressure,” Schuttler said of the Slash bid to three-peat. “But that's our goal and it gives us motivation to do our best and help the first years try and get there.”
The St. Albert Raiders Hockey Club team made its 2004/05 debut in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League and the 2018 Esso Cup was its third in team history, but second as the Pacific Region rep after hosting nationals in 2011.
“It’s exciting for girls' hockey in St. Albert what the Slash has done. It just kind of shows what's good about girls' hockey. It's also super good for the Raiders’ program too. It's super fun that all the girls see the Raiders’ program as something that is having success and that’s something that they want to be part of,” Schuttler said.
The Slash legacy of greatness – 34-11-1 last season and 38-4-1 the previous campaign – resumes with the AFHL season-opening weekend at Clare Drake Arena. Today’s game times are 11:45 a.m. against the Rocky Mountain Raiders and 8:30 p.m. against the Calgary Fire and Sunday’s face-off is 5:30 p.m. against the Red Deer Chiefs.
“It’s definitely super exciting after the past two really successful seasons we’ve had,” Lajoie said. “We definitely have a bunch of girls that are super excited to get going and have expectations that we want another Esso Cup and we want to get to nationals again so it’s fun working with a group that's so excited to work hard and so excited to kind of push the success envelope that we’ve had.
“But in a way there is pressure too,” Lajoie added. “The veterans know what it’s like being at the tournament and what it takes to get there and we’re trying to help those younger girls and the new girls kind of understand the level of compete and the work ethic that they need to be at but it’s also exciting knowing that we are the team to beat and that we have so much potential in this room that another Esso Cup isn't off the table and we truly believe that we can go for that three-peat.”
Questions were answered in the pre-season at the Calgary Firestarter and NAIT Blue Gold tournaments with the Slash going 7-1 (36 GF/9 GA) overall with two shutouts and the last game was a 2-1 decision against the Vancouver Comets last weekend at NAIT. The Slash beat the Comets in the last two Pacific Region best-of-three series.
“We’ve played the teams that we will see down the road and we’ve been doing well,” said Schuttler, a winger who posted eight goals and 12 points in 29 AFHL games last season. “The first years are seeing and starting to believe that we really can three-peat and the vets are starting to really believe that too.”
Everybody is committed to the cause, Schuttler noted.
“With last year’s team right off the hop we really gelled well and our chemistry was super good and this year it was the same. Everyone is getting along and our team is really gluing together really well,” said the Grade 12 Bellerose high school student.
Teams will be hard-pressed to catch the Slash on the ice.
“We’re really fast. Our speed is something we have over teams and if we use that to our advantage that will take us really far this year,” Schuttler, 17, who is committed to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees next season.
Lajoie agreed. “The strength our of our team is definitely our speed. We have a very fast team and a very hard-working team and those two aspects will allow us to have the success in games and allow us to score goals and protect our D zone just because we’re really gritty and we don't like losing.”
The Slash set the standard for greatness at the Esso Cup by establishing a tournament record of seven wins and no losses in 2017 in Morden, Man., highlighted by Tyra Meropoulis' memorable golden goal in the 1-0 overtime final against the Harfangs du Triolet of Sherbrooke, Que.
The Slash are also the first team to repeat in the 10-year history of the Esso Cup by knocking off the Saskatoon Stars 2-1 in the 2018 final at Bridgewater, N.S. The Slash finished 6-1 and the only loss was 4-1 to the Stars in the round robin.
At the 2018 provincials, the Slash rallied in dramatic fashion to edge the Raiders 3-2 in overtime on Mckenzie Hewett's power-play marker following a five-on-three penalty kill in sudden death after Willan scored the equalizer with seven seconds left in regulation time.
Willan also sniped the Pacific Region winner with 10 minutes to play in the deciding game against the Comets in Richmond, B.C.
The back-to-back championship teams were equally special, according to Lajoie.
“It’s really hard to compare both of them because we did win in two very different ways but the first time you win is always something that is spectacular. I will never forget I won Esso but after the first time we won it just made the second time even more exciting because we had all those girls from the year before that wanted to win so badly that I think it allowed us to sneak out of provincials and to upset a team in nationals that was expected to win,” said the Grade 12 Bellerose student, who compiled three goals and 10 points in 29 AFHL games last season.
Lajoie, centreman, has committed to the Alberta Pandas next season while following in the skates of her dad, Serge, a defenceman for the Golden Bears for five seasons and later coached the University of Alberta team the past three seasons, culminating in a U Sports championship in 2018.
Serge is now the head coach of the Kamloops Blazers in the Western Hockey League.
“It’s definitely exciting. It’s a good experience for him and he’s excited. It was a move that he really wanted to make and we’re happy we get to support him and kind of following his dream going into the Western Hockey League,” said Lajoie, 17.
