So far, so good for the St. Albert Nektar Raiders.
Two wins with only one goal against bodes well for the 2019 Mac’s Cup champions and Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League provincial finalists.
“That’s how you like to start the season. The boys definitely came together,” said left winger Jaxon Dube, one of five returning Raiders in the lineup for the opening weekend of league play. “We’re building off of last year for sure. We finished pretty good and this year is going to be good too.”
Scores were 4-1 against the KC Pats at Castledowns Arena and 3-0 against the Southside Athletic Club at Jarome Iginla Arena.
“We definitely came out very strong. We got a ton of shots in both games (42 against KC and 44 against Southside) and defensively all over the ice we were really strong,” said netminder Andreai Proctor-Ramirez. “We may have to tone it down on penalties, but other than that we played amazing.”
Proctor-Ramirez was beaten once on 17 shots by KC and was tested 16 times by Southside.
“There wasn’t that much action. The guys were making me work less and giving me a better opportunity to win games so I can’t explain,” said Proctor-Ramirez, who faced “maybe one or two” difficult shots in both games.
Dube sniped the team’s first two goals of the season with Evan Forrest drawing assists and notched the game’s third goal against Southside.
Dube’s linemates – Forrest and Koehn Ziemmer, a U16 Team Alberta selection for the WHL Cup starting Oct. 23 in Calgary – finished the weekend with three assists and one goal, respectively.
“Good players, good playmakers. Ziemmer’s got a nice shot and Forrest is a good passer,” said Dube.
The 16-year-old rejoined the Raiders with a spring in his step as one of the last cuts at the Brandon Wheat Kings’ training camp.
“Definitely the speed up there is faster so coming back if I keep that speed up it helps my game here,” said the fifth round (108th overall) pick by Brandon in the 2018 Western Hockey League bantam draft. “They have a good camp so coming back from that obviously is going to make it better for myself with this team.”
In his first midget season, Dube produced five goals and seven assists in 30 games and in the playoffs chipped in with four goals and one assist in 11 games.
“My role last year was to kind of learn the ropes of the league and figure it out,” said the Grade 11 Paul Kane student. “I played lots of PK so hopefully I can contribute more on the power play end of things.”
As for Dube’s strengths, “Probably hitting kids and shooting the puck,” he said.
The Raiders are anxious to continue their winning ways today against the Canadian Athletic Club at Bill Hunter Arena and Sunday against the visiting Airdrie Bisons. Faceoff times are 2:30 p.m.
“The goal is to go further than we did last year obviously. We want to make it to Telus (nationals) and hopefully make it to Mac’s again,” said Proctor-Ramirez of the 19-11-4 north division pennant winners that finished 6-5 the playoffs while going 1-4 in overtime games.
Proctor-Ramirez, 17, was 10-5-3 with a 2.66 GAA, .908 save percentage and one shutout in the regular season and in the playoffs played in 42 minutes while giving up two goals as the backup to Evan Fradette (6-5, 2.17 GAA, .929 save percentage, one shutout), the AMHL’s playoff MVP.
“Stop the puck obviously is my number one goal,” said Proctor-Ramirez. “My goal is also to win at least 90 per cent of the games I play or something along that line and hopefully help the boys get to our end goal.”
As a returning Raider, “My role is just to keep the guys' attitude up and make sure they’re loose and not taking everything so seriously. There is a point in time that we’ve got to stay focused, but we can’t be uptight or else we grip our sticks a little bit too tight and stuff like that.”
Proctor-Ramirez attended the Alberta Junior Hockey League training camps of the Sherwood Park Crusaders and Canmore Eagles before returning to the Raiders. Last season the former midget AAA Lloydminster Bobcat saw action in three AJHL games as an affiliate with the Spruce Grove Saints.
The Stony Plain resident spoke glowingly of Canmore’s longtime head coach Andrew Milne, a St. Albert pugilist back in his playing days before working his way up the coaching ranks.
“He has a great attitude. He knows how to make guys work their butts off and coming back here I have that same mentality,” said the Grade 12 Memorial Composite student.
