The St. Albert Steel are the real deal this season with a winning record that is impressive by team standards.
"It's the best the Steel have done since they've been here, especially before Christmas," said Taylor Fraser, a third-year Steel veteran and the team's top scorer.
The red-hot Steel ranked 16-9 overall, prior to hosting the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion Spruce Grove Saints (23-2-0-3) Friday. The score was unavailable at press time.
"A big part of our success is everybody is buying into the system," said captain Mike Giese. "Everybody is starting to realize that we do have a really good team here and we can definitely do some damage."
Despite playing the least number of games of all the 16 AJHL teams at this stage of the season, the Steel were tied for seventh defensively (95 GA) and ninth offensively (93 GF).
"Our D zone, O zone and neutral zone is all coming together," Fraser said. "There are still things that need to be tweaked but definitely they are things that are fixable."
In the last 10 games the Steel stockpiled eight wins, highlighted by a season-high four-game winning streak with two overtime decisions.
"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now, especially for a young team. We have a lot of 17- and 18-year-olds and it's positive to see everyone doing good things," Fraser said. "We've still got to keep it going into the Christmas break. We can't get too high. We've got to stay on a nice, even keel and know what the task at hand is and keep going."
After sweeping last weekend's home stand, the Steel pulled within two points of fifth place and were three back of fourth spot in the north with multiple games in hand.
"We played pretty well. With games in hand it's really important to get those points," Giese said.
The Steel knocked off the second-place Bonnyville Pontiacs 4-3 in a shootout and hung on to defeat the Canmore Eagles 6-5.
"That last game wasn't our best game, especially giving up a 5-1 lead," said Fraser.
Offensive weapon
His team-leading 15th goal, and eighth on the power play, at 4:53 of the opening period knotted the count at 1-1. The first line right-winger also notched his 31st point with an assist on Reed Linaker's goal in period two to make it 5-1.
"I'm looked at to produce points and so far it's been going well," said Fraser, tied for 15th in the AJHL scoring race.
He is one goal away from matching his career high of 16 and recently surpassed last season's point total of 27 in 56 games.
"It's nice to have success finally," said Fraser, who has registered 37 goals, 42 assists and only 112 penalty minutes in 141 career Steel games. "It's definitely a change in roles this year as opposed to me being a third or fourth line checking line guy. There is a little more responsibility and it feels good."
Fraser, 19, believes he has a good shot at sniping 30 goals. The last time he racked up more than 20 was in midget AAA with the St. Albert Raiders with 24 in 36 games in 2007/08.
"I would like to think I can get to that mark but that is not the focus right now, it's obviously the team doing well and hopefully get one of the top four spots for home ice advantage in the playoffs," said the former Raiders captain. "How you start the season is one thing but a lot of times it's how you finish is what really counts."
Record breaker
The Steel's most dangerous offensive player last weekend was Giese with two goals and two assists as the team's player of the game in both wins.
The fourth-year centre not only potted the game winner against Canmore, he also set a team record for most games played with 180. The previous record holder was Bryce Williamson.
"It's definitely cool to have been around here for that long that I can set a record like that. It's definitely a career highlight for sure," Giese said. "Anytime that you can play well enough to get a game star is nice and it was neat to have that happen on the same night I set the record."
His sixth goal and 12th point in 25 games made it 6-3 against Canmore with 12:30 remaining in the third.
The sixth win in seven games was also the ninth game in a row the Steel were outshot.
"Obviously we still need to tighten up on the defensive end of things. That was pretty evident against Canmore," said Giese, 20, who has 22 goals, 30 assists and 320 PIM with the Steel.
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. the Steel visit the Camrose Kodiaks (18-10-0-2), the host team for the 2011 Royal Bank Cup.
Next weekend the Steel play the Grande Prairie Storm in Leduc at 7 p.m. Friday. At 6 p.m. Sunday they host the Drayton Valley Thunder. It's also the annual Teddy Bear Toss game in support of the Kinettes' Christmas hamper drive.
