The St. Albert Steel are fighting a losing battle to salvage their season as the last-place team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League continues to struggle.
Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Camrose Kodiaks at Performance Arena left the Steel 13 points back of the seventh and last playoff spot in the north division. Still, there is a feeling among the players that all is not lost.
“Everyone is staying optimistic about the playoffs. Nobody has given up,” said rookie Colten Meaver.
The Steel are 1-9 in their last 10 games and 5-23-2 overall before Tuesday’s road trip to play the Drayton Valley Thunder (14-14-2). The score was unavailable at press time.
“Everything hasn’t clicked all at once for us,” Meaver said. “We’ve had different parts of everything, it just hasn’t all come together yet.”
After their sixth loss in a row Saturday the Steel had the fewest wins, most losses, fewest points (12) and the most goals against (137) in the AJHL.
“We’ve only been blown out once or twice this year so they’ve all been close games,” Meaver said. “I don’t want to blame it on luck or anything, but in a lot of our games we don’t get the bounces.”
The Steel have 29 games remaining to turn around their season.
“It’s crunch time now,” Meaver agreed. “We just have to go on a bit of a tear. If we put a win streak together we’ll be right back on track.”
A difficult stretch of six games in eight days starts Friday in St. Albert against the Canmore Eagles (8-21). The Steel are in Camrose before returning home Sunday to host the Bonnyville Pontiacs (20-8-1) at 2 p.m.
“We have to come prepared and have a good weekend. If we get a win or two, that’s good momentum,” Meaver said.
The Steel have a tough five games before the Christmas break when they play the AJHL champion Spruce Grove Saints (24-2-4) twice in five days and the Fort McMurray Oil Barons (24-3-2) three times in a row.
“We’re just starting to get everything together so hopefully we’ll have a strong couple of weeks,” Meaver said.
Part of the problem is the Steel have struggled at home, going 2-11-2 after losing to Camrose and the Calgary Canucks 5-3 last weekend.
Meaver opened the scoring in both games on set-ups by centre John Baird, the Steel’s top scorer with 14 goals and 29 points in 28 games.
The Steel got off to a promising start against the Canucks (10-20-1) with an early breakaway goal by Meaver against netminder Michael Matyas.
“I deked him and kind of went backhand. It was a pretty standard move,” Meaver said.
Reed Linaker cashed in a power-play goal before the Canucks scored once in the first and twice in the second for a 3-2 lead.
“We came out with a strong first period and then we kind of had a lapse in the second,” Meaver said.
The Steel got back on even ground 4:57 into the third on Mitch Loose’s first goal of the season, but three minutes later the Canucks got the game winner on a power. With a second left they scored into an empty net.
“Shots were pretty even [at 40-36 for the Steel]. Scoring chances were the same, too,” Meaver said. “It was a really good game. It wasn’t one-sided at all.”
Against Camrose, Meaver sniped his eighth goal with a nice move against netminder Matthew Gibney at the 11-minute mark of the opening period.
“Baird passed me the puck in their zone and I kind of dragged it for a couple of seconds on the side and then flipped it over him. I kind of out-waited him I guess. I showed a lot of patience,” Meaver said.
Before the period ended Camrose potted two quick goals against netminder Ty Swabb (3-11-2, 4.04 GAA). Loose knotted the score 63 seconds into the middle frame, but Camrose regained the lead on the power play at 16:19. Camrose added the insurance marker halfway through the third. The final shot count was 43-26 for Camrose.
“We were right in there with them. Their third goal was probably the turning point,” said Meaver, who split time on both wings last weekend.
“I’ve bounced around the lines quite a bit, but overall I’m pretty happy personally how I’m doing,” said the Steel’s highest scoring rookie with 14 points in 29 games. “I’m finding my game now. Hopefully it will get better.”
ICE CHIPS: Former midget AAA Raiders’ defencemen Craig Bokenfohr and Matt Waseylenko and forward Nelson Gadoury picked up assists for Camrose in Saturday’s win.
