The St. Albert Slash moved one step closer to their goal of a national championship with a return trip to the prestigious Mac’s tournament.
The opportunity of defending their championship trophy against the top female midget AAA teams in western Canada is a step in the right direction, according to Terry Sydor, head coach of the host team for the 2011 Esso Cup.
“That was always one of the goals the girls set from start of the year,” he said. “We worked really hard to achieve this.”
Despite the Slash’s rampant success in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League — 11-2-2 for second place in the north — they are the league’s fourth seed for the Mac’s. Sydor said the placement shows the overall strength of the tournament.
“Our winning percentage was at .800, and even with that we were the fourth highest team in the league,” he said. “You would think with an .800 record, it would almost be automatic but some of the teams are almost flawless.”
After returning from a successful visit to Boston last month in which the Slash competed against NCAA division III schools, Sydor believes the experience gained on the trip could give his squad the edge at the Mac’s.
“We played some top tier teams there and we were able to raise the level of our game and compete with them,” he said. “That experience, combined with last year’s tournament, will help but it’s going to be a challenge and we need to be on top of our game.”
The tournament runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 at Calgary.
In the 2010 final the Slash beat the Calgary Flyers 6-2 to finish 5-0-1. They didn’t lose a game after tying the Red Deer Chiefs 4-4 in the opening game after trailing 4-1 after two periods. They also scored the first goal in every game.
In league play, the Slash are undefeated in five games and winners of three in a row by shutouts after blanking the last-place Lloydminster Steelers 4-0 in the Border City last weekend. Karly Heffernan, Krystal Reithmayer, Kate Lumley and Eliza Snider scored and Emily Mitchell stopped 25 shots. The Slash registered 49 shots on goal.
“We still haven’t played our best game yet,” said Sydor. “We’re really building towards the Esso Cup, the national championship [April 17 to 23 at Servus Credit Union Place], and the Mac’s tournament will certainly be a stepping-stone.”
One area that could use the most improvement is not the team’s overall skills but the consistency in which they are displayed.
“Some games we will be really strong on the power play and then other games we’ll struggle. We really need to bring a high level of play to the ice consistently,” said Sydor.
This weekend the Slash host the Highwood Raiders (10-4-3) today at 2:15 p.m. and the Calgary Bruins, (6-7-4) Sunday at 2 p.m. at Performance Arena.
