The St. Albert Raiders are playing like a train picking up speed at the Mac’s tournament in Calgary.
The midget AAA team was 2-1 in pool play prior to Thursday’s game against the Carolina Junior Hurricanes (1-2) to close out the round robin draw. The score was unavailable at press time.
“It was disappointing to lose the first one but we bounced back and have posted two strong efforts since,” said head coach Sandro Pisani.
It was a must-win game against the Hurricanes if the Raiders were to make the quarter-final round.
“They’re a big team, very physical. They’ll try to play tough on you but we just need to try and make sure we’re disciplined and we match their physical intensity,” said Pisani.
In the 25-team draw, the top team in the five pools plus three wildcards make the playoffs. The final goes today at 2 p.m. at the Saddledome and will be broadcast on Shaw TV. Last year the Raiders finished 0-3-1.
“There is a lot of quality hockey teams and many of them have a chance of winning it,” said Pisani. “We have to stay away from making the glaring mistakes we seem to make at times. We haven’t made many mistakes yet but some of the mistakes we’ve made have cost us and we just have to be a little more stronger with the puck at times to ensure we don’t create that costly turnover.”
The Raiders remained in the thick of things with victories of 6-3 against the Calgary Buffaloes (2-1) and 8-3 against the Okanagan Rockets (0-4), which placed them in second place in their pool, two points back of the Saskatoon Contacts (3-0).
In the tournament-opening 5-4 loss to Saskatoon, the Raiders outshot the number-one ranked team in Saskatchewan 37-19. Jayden Hart and Joel Harnden scored to give the Raiders an early 2-0 lead, but Saskatoon tied it up before the end of the first period. Saskatoon jumped ahead in the second and tallied twice in the third before Brady Goebel potted goals 24 seconds apart late in the game. In net for the Raiders was Tanner Kovacs.
In the next game, the Raiders spread the offence around as Hart, Harnden, Goebel, Carson Samoridny, Shane Brolly and Luke Mahura filled the net while outshooting the Buffaloes 30-21. Wyatt Hoflin was between the pipes.
The scoring summary against the Rockets was unavailable.
The Raiders marched into the Mac’s as the north division leaders in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League. The Raiders (16-6-3) also share first place overall with the south division Red Deer Rebels (16-5-3) and Calgary Flames (15-4-5).
Meanwhile, the north first team all-stars were announced. Selected to the starting line-up by the league coaches was Hart at centre and Kovacs. Pisani and assistant Geoff Giacobbo will coach the north team at the 22nd annual all-star game, Jan. 23 in Fort Saskatchewan.
