The second home game for the St. Albert Merchants once again delivered high paced action that kept the fans on the edge of their seats.
After besting Stony Plain the previous week, the Merchants went on to win a tightly fought affair against the defending league champion Beverly Warriors 4-3 in overtime.
Even though the season is still young, head coach Terry Moser has already been approached about the rapid improvement of his squad.
“A couple of people commented to me after the game that they saw us before in the Fort Saskatchewan tournament and they said there was a big improvement that they could see,” said Moser.
Although the Merchants took the early lead with a blast from Jamie Umbach, they quickly fell into a tie game with a trip to the penalty box resulting in a puck in the back of the net.
The Merchants responded with a power-play goal by standout forward, Jake Behiels, who again achieved multiple goals in a game, with a tally of two.
The Merchants lost the lead in the second, which can be attributed to a steady string of penalties by both teams. While Moser knows penalties are part of the game, he believes the Merchants have to cut down on the frequency of trips to the box.
“There was more [penalties] than I would like to see. I would like to not see some of them but it’s part of the game and you just have to work with it and play through it,” said Moser.
Entering the third period, and the score knotted at 2-2, the Merchants regained the lead on a goal by Zack Caines, coming moments after a goal by the Warriors was disallowed. Moser believes the referees made the right decision with the tools they held.
“We don’t have the luxury of video replay, so as far as I’m concerned it’s no goal and it was a good call.”
The Warriors (2-1-0-1) quickly responded and tied up the game with an even-strength goal by Todd Bryant with 56 seconds left in regulation. While Moser was disappointed about the last-minute marker, he was pleased with the reaction and the focused display of his team that led to the overtime winner by Ryan Harrison.
“We played very good, focused and disciplined. Even when they scored the tying goal sometimes a team would have unravelled but they stayed focused and knew what they had to do,” said Moser. “They stayed to the system and it paid off.”
Although the junior B campaign has been going for a little under a month, Moser believes competition between teams is still fairly tight but the pack will separate as the season progresses.
“There are some quality teams that are still nipping at each others’ ankles. Teams are still trying to get a feel for their players. We are still sitting at a roster of over 25 players, so we still need to make some cuts.”
Those cuts will occur at the start of December, with another round of cuts in January, which will then verify the final roster for the remainder of the season and playoffs.
The Merchants (2-1) skated Tuesday in Sherwood Park against the Knights (2-1), the host team for the 2011 Keystone Cup western Canadian championship, but the score was unavailable at press time.
The next game is Friday against the rival Morinville Jets (2-1-0-1). Faceoff is 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
