If the current standings mean anything, the St. Albert Raiders are in great shape heading into the Mac’s tournament in Calgary.
While the Raiders (16-6-3) keep stringing wins together, head coach Sandro Pisani hopes to use the Mac’s to prepare for the playoffs in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
“We’re going to build success. Anything we can do to gain momentum from this tournament will hopefully pay off in the playoffs later in the season,” he said.
The north division-leading Raiders will play four round robin games in four days against the Saskatoon Contacts (11:45 a.m. Monday), Calgary Buffaloes (11:45 a.m. Tuesday), Okanagan Rockets (8 p.m. Wednesday) and the Carolina Junior Hurricanes (12:30 p.m. Thursday).
“We just have to make sure we have a proper rest between games and be prepared and focused. It’s a challenge but we should be able to overcome it like everyone else has to,” said Pisani.
The Raiders experienced a difficult tournament last year while going 0-3-1, but assistant coach Geoff Giacobbo is confident the team has the right make-up this time around.
“This year we are going in fairly healthy and on a good note,” he said. “We are playing well and our goaltending is strong. Last year was last year. We are looking at this year now and we’re a different team.”
Giacobbo believes the experiences learned from last year will only be beneficial to the squad this year.
“To be successful you have to be mature. The returning guys are very mature and the rest of the team is starting to understand that we need that level of maturity to be successful,” he said.
The tournament features some of the best midget teams from across North America and even a squad from Russia. Giacobbo said the Raiders have a good shot at making it to the elimination round with hard work and determination.
“We’re going to go there and compete and play hard. If we do that, we have a chance to play in the quarter-finals and then we will go from there.”
Visit www.macstournament.ab.ca for results.
Meanwhile, the Raiders posted an 8-0 win Tuesday against the Rangers (7-10-7) in Fort Saskatchewan in their last game before the Mac’s. The team’s record in December was 4-2-1 after going 5-2-1 in November.
The Raiders resume league play Jan. 8 against the Southside Athletic Club (14-7-2) at 5:45 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena.
