If the first round of the playoffs can be used as a benchmark for success, the St. Albert Sabres have proven themselves as a formidable opponent in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
After blitzing the visiting Sherwood Park Flyers with a 5-0 onslaught Saturday, the Sabres swept the best-of-three affair the next night with a 4-2 victory. It was 3-0 Sabres after two periods in Sherwood Park.
The sudden change in team mentality after a history of slow starts throughout the regular season was nice to see, according to assistant coach Rob Parrotta.
“We did a good job in both games scoring early. We had good starts and that’s something that necessarily hasn’t been a strong point for us,” said Parotta. “We wanted to get some strong starts and it paid off. We got a few quick ones and we played well defensively all year against that team.”
Offensively the Sabres shared the workload. Steven Canduro, Paul Lovsin, Brett Smythe, Brenden Passek and Andrew Kary all scored in the first period of the series opener. Luke Wright-Mascotto, Joshua Perrott and Michael Bruni each had two assists.
Matteo Gennaro, Lovsin, Passek and Smythe tallied in game two.
“We had a lot of different contributors but that’s our team. We rely on a lot of different guys to net goals. We are more of a team that scores by committee and it’s good to see we are getting contributors from a lot of our guys,” said Parrotta.
Patrick Gora posted the shutout at home with 21 saves. In game two he stopped 14 shots.
After disposing of the Flyers (17-13-3), the Sabres (23-7-3) will now battle the first-place SSAC Southgate Lions (26-4-3) in the best-of-three divisional final.
“They don’t have many weaknesses. They are a team that’s very deep. They have good goal scoring, excellent goaltending and a really good stay at home D-line,” said Parrotta. “There are not that many weaknesses on that team and we just have to play very well in order to beat them.”
Game one goes Thursday at 8 p.m. at Millwoods Arena. Game two is Saturday at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena. Game three, if needed, is Monday at 9 p.m. at Kinsmen Arena.
The Sabres will have to focus on SSAC standout John Quenneville, who posted 35 goals and 75 points in 33 games.
Defensively, the Sabres boast two of the league’s top three goaltenders in Gora (12-4-2, 2.10 GAA) and Patrick Dea (11-3-1, 2.50 GAA), with three shutouts apiece in the regular season.
“We haven’t decided who we will start but we are going to see who is playing well. With that said, we are confident with the two guys in net,” said Parrotta.
