January is shaping up to be a make it or break it month for the St. Albert Steel.
"Absolutely it's a huge month, especially when it's 13 games and nine of them are on the road. It will really test our mettle and we're looking forward to it," right-winger Taylor Fraser said after the Steel hung on to beat the Grande Prairie Storm 5-4 in overtime Monday in front of a season-low crowd of 189 at Performance Arena.
In the race for fourth place in the north division and home-ice advantage in the best-of-five opening playoff round, the sixth-place Steel (21-14-2) trailed the Storm (24-14-4) by eight points with five games in hand prior to tonight's trip to Drayton Valley to play the last-place Thunder (7-30-5). Faceoff is 7:30 p.m.
The Steel are 8-6-1 away from St. Albert.
"We're doing OK on the road, especially against the south teams," Fraser said. "It would be nice to start off against the south teams but it's a new year. We don't want to look at the past in how we've done or how we haven't done, so it's clean slate."
Tonight's contest is the first of seven road games in 12 days because of the World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling, Jan. 13 to 16 at Servus Credit Union Place.
"It's like a pro schedule with the travel. We have to take it game by game and keep it simple," Fraser said. "We know what makes us a good team and that's using our speed and taking the body every night."
This weekend's swing through southern Alberta includes games against the Drumheller Dragons (15-20-6), Brooks Bandits (21-14-5) and Calgary Mustangs (15-27-1). On tap the following week are the Olds Grizzlys (17-16-6), the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion Spruce Grove Saints (31-4-3) and Lloydminster Bobcats (24-16-2) before the Steel host the Bobcats on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.
"It's going to be tough," Fraser said. "We've got to take care of ourselves off the ice when we're home and make sure we're all getting our rest."
Big win
After closing out 2010 with three losses — all at home — in four games, the Steel started the new year with a solid showing against the Storm, despite gassing leads of 3-0 in the second period and 4-2 late in regulation time.
"It was a pretty good effort for the most part," Fraser said. "Obviously it's tough giving up the lead in the last couple of minutes but we were able to bounce back."
Fraser, 19, opened the scoring at 2:01 in the middle frame with a hard shot during a man advantage. Reed Linaker did all the work around the net to set up Fraser's 19th goal and team-high eighth on the power play.
Thomas Ward-Cardinal and newcomer Jordan Kochan also capitalized on the power play before the 10-minute mark as the Storm racked up a slew of penalties.
Before the period ended the Storm struck twice, with the second goal coming in the last minute of play. Prior to the goal, Fraser was unable to convert Linaker's slick pass during a two-on-one — the second time in the game the dynamic duo failed to click with the Storm out-manned in their zone. Fraser also dented the crossbar with a wrister with one minute left in the period.
At 5:19 in the third, Kochan banged the puck in from in tight on a play orchestrated by Ward-Cardinal and Derek Bacon.
Down by two the Storm amped up the pressure as the Steel spent way too much time in their end trying to protect the lead. With less than five minutes to go, the puck was deflected past Steel goalie Rhys Hadfield (21-13-2, 3.51 GAA) but it hit the post and stayed out.
With the goalie pulled for the extra attacker, the Storm lucked out with goals at 18:29 and 19:26 on shots that Hadfield should have stopped.
Kochan could have iced the game away prior to the Storm's third goal while tracking down a puck in the Grande Prairie zone. However, an opposing player slid in front of the empty net to block the shot.
In the five-minute three-on-three extra period, both teams had glorious chances to bury the game winner. Spencer Pommells rang the puck off a post after a giveaway sprung the Steel forward loose.
The play of the game wasn't Bacon's OT goal with 45 seconds remaining, but Ward-Cardinals' deft puck-handling moves around the Storm net that put the wheels in motion for Bacon's 19th goal of the season and team-leading fourth game winner. Bacon and Ward-Cardinal finished with three points apiece. Pommells and Brandon Fagerheim had two assists each.
The home team was outshot 12-5 in the first, 18-11 in the third and 43-31 overall.
The Steel are now 10-2 after regulation time in overtime or shootouts.
"We're pretty happy with the win, especially for the first game back after a long break [during the holidays] against a quality team like Grande Prairie," said Fraser, the Steel's third leading scorer with 39 points in 37 games.
