The countdown to the Esso Cup continues for the St. Albert Slash.
The reigning back-to-back national champions are two victories away from returning to the midget AAA female tournament when the best-of-three Pacific Region playoff against the Greater Vancouver Comets starts Friday at Akinsdale Arena.
“To get this opportunity again is great,” said netminder Brianna Sank of qualifying for the Esso Cup, April 21 to 27 at Sudbury, Ont.
“It’s pretty exciting because we want to go to nationals and make history again,” Sank said of the first Alberta team to win the Esso Cup and the first team to repeat in the tournament’s 10-year history.
Faceoff times are 7:30 p.m. for the series opener and game two Saturday.
If needed, game three is 2 p.m. Sunday.
It’s the third Pacific Region in a row the Slash and Comets have clashed for a berth at nationals. The Slash swept the 2017 playoff in St. Albert by scores of 2-0 and 3-2 and last year’s confrontation was decided in the third period of game three on Madison Willan’s goal for the 1-0 series clincher in Richmond, B.C.
“The first time we didn’t know much about each other, but last year they felt more comfortable playing us and they battled us to three games so obviously we’re not taking anything lightly. We’re going to have to be playing our best to beat them. They’ve had a very successful season,” said Dan Auchenberg, head coach of the 30-3-1 Slash and during the 26-3-1 Alberta Female Hockey League regular season the team averaged 3.96 goals scored and an almost invisible 0.86 goals against.
The Comets are a formidable 36-0 in league and playoff action and in the five-team British Columbia Midget AAA Female Hockey League regular season averaged an impressive 6.78 GF and 1.28 GA while going 32-0.
The top nine scorers in the B.C. league were Comets – seven forwards and two defencemen – and the team leaders included Jennifer Gardiner (37-43-80 in 30 games), Jenna Buglioni (41-34-75 in 32 games), Madisyn Wiebe (30-22-52 in 32 games) and Rebecca Clarke (28-18-46 in 32 games).
“We’re coming in against a pretty good and big powerhouse team,” Auchenberg said. “We’ve got to step it up another level to beat the Comets, which is a really respectful team and a very structured team.
“They play a pretty hard game. Obviously, their goaltender (Jordyn Verbeek, 19-0, 1.30 GAA, four shutouts) is very good and they have three strong players up front and a pretty solid defence.”
The Slash and Comets tangled in September at the NAIT Blue Gold pre-season tournament and the St. Albert squad prevailed 1-0.
“They’re pretty aggressive. They’ve got a lot of goal scorers,” Sank said. “They like to shoot the puck and crash the net hard and I know they like going upstairs.”
Sank, defenceman Taylor Anker and forwards Isabelle Lajoie, Makenna Schuttler and Willan, team captain and the AFHL’s scoring leader (24-27-51 in 30 games) and MVP, are third-year Slash players among the nine returnees from last year’s lineup that split the first two games with the Comets by scores of 4-2 before Willan sealed the deal in game three.
“It’s good to play them again because we know some of the players,” Sank said. “We can remember them from last year and learn from the mistakes we made.”
Sank, 17, was the backup to Camryn Drever in the last two Pacific Regions and is expected to start the first game.
“It’s pretty exciting. I haven’t played in this before so it will be a good experience,” said Sank, who led all AFHL netminders with an 0.81 GAA and nine shutouts and tied teammate Holly Borrett for the most wins at 13 apiece. Borrett also posted six shutouts and an 0.86 GAA.
Sank was between the pipes for the Final Frozen Four championship against Calgary Fire and stopped 26 shots in the 5-1 victory March 24 as the Slash finished 4-0 at provincials at Go Auto Arena.
“There was a lot of competition but we really came together and gave it our all because we really wanted to make it,” said Sank, 3-0 with a 1.33 GAA at provincials. “People were not believing in us, but we believed in ourselves and kind of showed everyone that.”
Going from the team’s home rink at Go Auto to Akinsdale, which will be renamed Jarome Iginla Arena at the Aug. 26 ceremony, is not a big deal for the Slash.
“It will be OK because it’s a smaller environment so it will be louder with more fans,” Sank said. “It will be different because it’s not as big of an ice surface but we’ll do fine.
“The guys also gave us their (Raiders Hockey Club) room so that was really nice.”
The Comets completed their best-of-three final with wins of 5-3 and 6-2 against the second-place Fraser Valley Rush (12-15-5) last weekend while the Slash used the time off after provincials to prep for the upcoming series.
“Last week we had some easier practices and this week we will be working hard at getting our power play and penalty kill ready,” said Sank, a Grade 12 Archbishop Jordan student.
Leading up to game one Friday, “We’ll be getting the girls settled into this new rink for them to play and have a clear mind and really focus on what they want to accomplish,” Auchenberg said. “I always reach back to what they wanted at the start of the year and their goal was to get back to the nationals and so I kind of kept refreshing that to them and saying, ‘OK, how are we going to do this? We’re two wins away, how bad do you want it?’
“And they’re very determined to get it.”
Auchenberg was encouraged how the Slash raised their level of play at provincials.
“We got stronger as the tournament went on and now we have to ramp it up another level. We know that this team is going to be pretty hard to beat but at the end of the day if we play our game, we skate and move the puck and play the way we can play we'll come out successful, but they will do their due diligence to counter against us so we just have to be on top of it all the time,” said the 2017 AFHL coach of the year.
Auchenberg had trouble keeping his emotions intact as the last minute ticked down in the provincial final and the Slash on the verge of three-peating.
“I was basically in tears. It was emotional. I’m so proud of them. They just find a way. It’s about them committing and they’ve done a great job for three years so hopefully it continues,” said Auchenberg, who guided the Slash to an overall 34-11-1 record last season as Hockey Alberta’s Team of the Year after going 38-4-1 in 2016-17.
