Sherwood Park – The last game before the St. Albert Steel's home opener was greeted with excitement by the Alberta Junior Hockey League team.
"I'm very happy. It will be great when we're actually playing for keeps," head coach/general manager Greg Parks said after the Steel wrapped up their pre-season with a 3-1 loss to the Sherwood Park Crusaders last weekend.
"The exhibition is just part of the process. You have to identify some players and give some young players exposure and get them in a uniform and let them have some games and see what they can do."
The AJHL opens its 60-game schedule Friday, as the Steel host the Drumheller Dragons at Performance Arena. Saturday's visitor is the Drayton Valley Thunder. Game times are 7 p.m.
"It's always nice to get the first two weeks [of training camp] over with," said right-winger Taylor Fraser. "I really want to get the season going and get back into the mix of things."
The Steel had 25 players left in camp after going 3-3 in the pre-season.
"Depending on what we get back from the western league, we'll probably stay around that number for a while, mainly because we've got a couple of players that are a little bit banged up," Parks said. "Ideally we would like to be carrying 23 so that we don't have too many guys sitting in the stands."
Parks was "relatively optimistic" about the upcoming season, the Steel's fourth in St. Albert as the transplanted Fort Saskatchewan Traders. The Steel are coming off a sixth-place 24-win and 55-point finish in the north division.
"As a whole, the attitude is a lot more positive and a lot more upbeat," he said. "Expectations are also little bit higher than they have been in the past."
Fraser, 19, was also encouraged by the talent on display in the pre-season.
"It's been good. There has been a lot of surprises," he said. "As we all know everyone has low expectations for us but I think we can raise the bar higher than what people expect."
The Steel showed they can skate like the wind. They are also projected to be deeper than in previous years.
"Ever since I've been on the team we've always had that speed," said Fraser, a strapping six-foot-one and 176-pound power forward who broke into the AJHL with the 2008/09 Steel. "We're also not a two-line punch this year. Everyone out there can hold their own and we're definitely safe with all four lines on the ice."
Bright lights
Among the promising newcomers is Ryan Berlin from the midget AAA Southside Athletic Club (11-11-22 in 34 games) and netminder Rhys Hadfield, a Southside product who split time between the Grande Prairie Storm (2-1-1, 4.21 GAA in six games) and Nanaimo Clippers (2-6, 4.11 GAA in 13 games) as a junior A rookie in 2009/10.
"Berlin is a young kid, but he's been very impressive," Parks said. "Hadfield has definitely been a pleasant surprise in terms of not knowing exactly what he would bring and he's been real good."
The AJHL's third-worst defensive team (4.30 GAA) last season will start league play with Hadfield and Fort Saskatchewan junior B product Sean Reilly between the pipes. In the pre-season Hadfield was the better of the two goalies.
Reilly made his AJHL debut in the Steel's second-last game before the playoffs, and drew the start in games two and three against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, as St. Albert went down to defeat in three straight games.
The status of Chris Sharkey (6-8-1, 4.32 GAA in 20 games), a Steel rookie last season who is trying out with the Spokane Chiefs after an unsuccessful bid to crack the Saskatoon Blades last fall, was unclear at press time.
"Instead of winning games 6-5 or 6-4, that sort to thing, we want to clean up our own end," Parks said. "We want to play a little more defensive and keep the goals against down a little bit and that's a pretty big goal for us this year."
Pre-season finale
Reilly started the Steel's last exhibition tilt after giving up six goals on 36 shots behind a rookie-dominated line-up two nights earlier in a 6-2 loss to the Crusaders in St. Albert. In the rematch, Reilly let in three even-strength goals on 13 shots in the first frame and was tested only once in the second before giving way to Hadfield at the halfway mark. Hadfield faced only six shots the rest of the way.
At the other end, St. Albert product Pat Terriss went the distance with 33 saves. The Steel generated only four shots in the opening 20 minutes. Both teams also hit a couple of posts in the contest.
"We lose 3-1 tonight but we outshot them 29-6 the last two periods, so it was a good way to bounce back. We showed them that we can play with them for sure," Parks said of the team's third loss in four games against the Crusaders in the pre-season.
"Without losing any points in the regular season, we learned a valuable lesson that good teams have to play for 60 minutes. You can't afford to be the better team for 40 minutes because that's not always going to get you two points."
Steel rookie Kyle Smart put the visitors on the board with 10:51 left in the game during a five-on-three power play. Spencer Pommells, one of nine players off the Steel playoff roster dressed, showed good form with the puck in setting up the goal as Smart beat Terriss with the Steel's 28th shot.
"It's good to see that we came back and put in a good effort at the end," said Fraser, who just missed scoring on a one-timer during a five-on-four man advantage seconds after Smart's goal.
Prior to training camp, Parks singled out Fraser as a player he expects to score 20-plus goals. The former captain of the midget AAA Raiders collected 27 points, the seventh-highest total on the Steel, with 16 goals and 11 assists in 57 games in his second AJHL season.
"It's time, right? I've had two years to adjust and I've shown in midget [24 goals in 36 games in 2007/08] that I can do it. I've got more games to do it in too and I'm really looking forward to it," said the veteran of 116 AJHL games, with 22 goals, 26 assists and 89 penalty minutes on his stats sheet.
"I haven't exactly had that role before here but it's awesome. That kind of pressure is almost nice sometimes, knowing that they are counting on you and they want you to do that. It's also a kick in the butt, you know what I mean? It's a goal to reach and it's definitely doable."
