Home or away, the St. Albert Slash are finding ways to walk away from the rink with a win attached to their resume.
Wednesday night at Performance Arena, the Slash pulled off a 4-0 victory over the Spruce Grove Saints in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
While the 4-1-1 Slash have found a great deal of success over their opponents in recent games, head coach Terry Sydor believes the effort displayed by his squad was the most solid of the year.
“The last couple of games we were successful but tonight was a really strong effort throughout the line-up,” he said.
The Slash outshot the Saints (1-6) with a whopping total of 24-7 in the first period, but scored only one goal. It squeaked past the pads of goaltender Amy McGinnis, off a deflection from the point that took a route from the post to Jessica Kampjes’ stick, who fired the puck home.
Kampjes also scored a goal in the second and third periods of play. She said the chance to complete a hat trick in front of the home crowd was a welcome relief from previous game struggles.
“I haven’t played the best in a little bit but this game kind of boasted my energy and confidence for future games.” said Kampjes.
Even though the Slash entered the first intermission with a narrow lead, Sydor believes a game can turn directions in the blink of an eye.
“We outshot them but you are always nervous about holding a one goal lead. If you give them anything to get momentum on, it’s tough,” said Sydor. “Momentum is a powerful thing and you want to keep it on your bench and in your dressing room.”
The Slash finally managed to jet past McGinnis with a pair of goals in the second. Assistant captain Lindsay Cox scored once. She said the entire roster played a role in the victory.
“We competed well as a team. We finished, backchecked and worked hard on all ends of the ice,” said Cox. “We had a good effort from the team tonight.”
Slash goalie Emily Mitchell didn’t face the same number of shots as McGinnis, but she managed to make the saves crucial to her team’s victory. Even though Mitchell earned the shutout, she is confident her defence was the main reason behind the elusive statistic.
“I thought I played pretty good today but the team made it kind of easy for me. They played strong in front of the net and worked hard,” said Mitchell.
An area to work on as the season progresses is the power play, which currently has a little trouble with assertiveness.
“People are still are a little tentative, waiting and watching other people go to get the puck,” said Sydor. “We just need to keep repeating the message and work on it and we’ll get better.”
The Slash are in Grande Prairie this weekend for a pair of games against the Storm (0-6).
The next home game is Oct. 12 against the Calgary Bruins (3-1-2) at 2:15 p.m.
