The captain of the struggling St. Albert Steel denied the Alberta Junior Hockey League team has thrown in the towel after its 13th loss in 17 games.
“I know personally I haven’t and I can speak for the majority of the team that they haven’t either. I would like to think as a captain, and the coaching staff would like to think too, that no one has given up,” said a sincere sounding Taylor Fraser after the Steel’s shoddy 7-3 effort Sunday against the Brooks Bandits.
The sixth loss in a row dropped the sinking 2-13-2 Steel even farther from the seventh and last playoff spot in the north division.
“I would be a liar if I told you it wasn’t frustrating,” Fraser said. “The record obviously doesn’t look good but it’s only going to get worse if we give up.”
Only 158 fans showed up at Performance Arena to see the Steel extend their winless streak on home ice to 0-5-2, six more than witnessed Friday’s 6-1 putrid showing against the Olds Grizzlys.
“Right now, just with the lull that we’re in, it doesn’t really matter where we’re playing,” Fraser said. “We’re not looking at home or away games, we’re just trying to get a couple of wins together. That’s the biggest thing that’s on our mind right now.”
Not dressed in the weekend losses because of injuries or sickness included a trio of veterans: John Baird, the Steel’s leading goal scorer and point producer with 10 goals and 16 points in 15 games, all-star centre Reed Linaker (2-11-13 in 13 games) and Jordan Abt (4-5-9 in 15 games), the team’s most valuable defenceman last season. A combination of midget AAA call-ups and junior B affiliates filled their spots.
“They’re our two leading scorers and our leading scoring defenceman. Obviously that’s a huge loss for sure, but that’s just another excuse if we use it,” said Fraser, the Steel’s MVP and top scorer in 2010-11.
A lethargic Steel line-up registered a woeful 17 shots against Olds, tied for fifth in the south at 7-12. The visitors chased starting goalie Ty Swabb after six goals on 28 shots before the second period ended. His replacement, Rhys Hadfield, was tested 14 times.
“That wasn’t a great game on our part, myself included,” Fraser said. “We were frustrated and when we get down we’re looking for excuses, like it’s his fault or that other guy’s fault, everyone except for you. We’ve got to take care of our own selves and keep going. Part of it is working hard every day and believe in what we’ve got here.”
The AJHL’s worst defensive club got spanked Sunday by a team playing its third road game in as many days. The Bandits sent Hadfield (2-7, 5.02 GAA) to the bench after their sixth goal on 15 shots with 5:55 left in period two to lead by five. Swabb (0-6-2, 4.52 GAA) gave up one goal on 16 shots against the first-place team in the south at 13-2-3.
“We had a couple of defensive lapses where they scored a couple of goals at a time,” said left-winger Ryan Berlin, the Steel’s player of the game against Olds and Brooks.
The Steel didn’t register their first shot until the 14:08 mark in the first during a power play and finished the game with 20.
It was 4-0 when Fraser deposited a shot that bounced off the end boards and onto his stick but the referee waved off the goal because the net was dislodged during the bing-bang play with 14:27 left in the second.
“If they don’t disallow that goal, in my mind that is a totally different game,” said the 20-year-old right-winger who ranks third in team scoring with 12 points.
Tough guy Stefan Meunier and rookie Colten Meaver scored before the four-minute mark in the third.
“We came out really hard in the third and we got back in it and then they got a lucky bounce off [Landan] Viveiros’ foot,” Berlin said of the fluky goal that put the Bandits up 7-3 halfway through the period. “We played a pretty solid game, it just didn’t work out in our favour with the bounces.”
The Steel trailed by five when Berlin struck on the penalty kill for his fourth goal and eighth point.
“Their guy went in on the left-hand side and put a hard rimmer around and it handcuffed their D on the point. I just poked it by him and went in on the breakaway and went backhand and scored.”
The Grade 12 Louis St. Laurent student also lit the lamp with the same breakaway move at even strength against Olds after the Steel fell behind by three in the second.
“We had a lot more lapses on Friday but the result was pretty much the same thing as the game (Sunday),” Berlin said. “We’ve just got to minimize the errors that we’re having, like lapses where they score two or three goals in a quick period of time that put us in a hole, so we can get a win finally.”
Berlin is confident the Steel will snap out of their depressing slump.
“Our heads are a bit down right now but with a couple of wins here soon we can get back up into the playoffs,” said the second-year Steel skater. “We’ve got a lot of guys injured and they’re mostly a lot of our top scorers so when they get back healthy we’ll start turning things around.”
The Steel’s five-game home stand continues tonight against the 11-4-2 Lloydminster Bobcats at 7 p.m.
