The St. Albert Sabres made it as far as the semifinals at the John Reid Memorial Tournament, only to lose to the eventual champions from Los Angeles.
“We kind of knew what they were going to do. We had a game plan in place but every time we made a mistake, they made us pay for it. Every time there was a loose puck they were getting to it. They were burying their chances,” said assistant coach Rob Parrotta.
Landon Bow started in net, giving up six goals on 34 shots before being pulled for Mitch Martell, who was forced to make an additional 17 saves over 34 minutes.
“[Their offence] didn’t surprise us. We watched a few of their games, especially when we knew we were going to play them in the semi,” Parrotta said. “They have a high-powered offence and have played together for a long time. They really transition well and get the puck on net at every opportunity. We tried to combat it but we weren’t too successful.”
Luke Mahura, Sebastien Auray and Braenden Farge scored for the Sabres.
The Sabres finished 3-1-1, including a 2-0-1 showing in the round robin to qualify for the A–side playoff bracket in the 16-team draw.
“We thought we played fairly well against some great teams. We didn’t lose a game until that last one. We were really proud the way the boys battled. They had an opportunity to give up but they wanted to put a big foot forward,” Parrotta said. “There are times when our penalty kill could have been better [throughout the tournament], but that’s something we’ll look at this week and fine tune it. Basically we have to find a way to start well. We have to get that rectified for this stretch upcoming here [in league play].”
Despite losing out on their home turf the Sabres had some notable standouts from the tournament. The top line of Farge, Auray and Mahura combined for 32 points in five games including hat trick games by Mahura in Thursday’s 6-3 win against the Calgary Bronks and Saturday’s 4-1 quarter-final win against the Leduc Oil Kings.
Defenceman Jeff Harrison’s power-play quarterbacking earned him seven points.
Harrison and Mahura were named to the John Reid pool all-star team.
“Mahura really played well in the tournament. He came up big for us on a big stage for St. Albert kids. Him and Harrison did a good job of taking that opportunity. Both of those guys were making people around them better. That’s what we asked them to do and they did that,” Parrotta said.
“We were talking about how big it was that he stepped up,” Parrotta said. “We came out a little flat [against Leduc], which has kind of been a bit of an issue with us this year. We really needed him in the first and without him it’s a different game. It was kind of flattering for us that we were up tied into the second.”
Mahura opened the scoring against Leduc, banging home a point shot 1:31 into the game. Leduc bounced back before the end of the period on a defensive-zone turnover. Mahura’s second goal came five minutes into the second, a slapper from the slot.
Aurey put the Sabres up 3-1 seven minutes into the third period on a perfect cross-ice pass from Farge with a wide open net to shoot at. Mahura’s hat-trick goal came on a rebound with 3:36 to go.
“We did a good job of getting in on the forecheck and using our speed against their D,” Parrotta said.
Up next for the Sabres (15-6-5) in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League is Thursday’s game against the Maple Leafs (11-13-2) at 6:30 p.m. at Clareview Arena and Saturday’s visit by the SSAC Southgate Lions (19-6-3) at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
