Humiliation sums up the St. Albert Steel's embarrassing performance in Monday's season-ending 13-2 rout by the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in the Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs.
"It was a pretty devastating game tonight," said a shell-shocked Greg Parks, the Steel's head coach and general manager. "It was one of those nights where anything that could go wrong did go wrong."
The fourth-worst defensive team in the AJHL couldn't stop a nosebleed in game three in the best-of-five opening round series. The Oil Barons punished the Steel in the second period with seven unanswered goals on 25 shots for an overwhelming 10-1 lead in front of a Fort McMurray-dominated crowd of 369 at Performance Arena.
"We got down a few and then the wheels kind of fell off," said Mike Giese, the Steel's classy captain, while fighting back tears after the final game of his junior career. "The bounces weren't going our way. We just couldn't catch a break."
Justin Rose, a former Steel forward from Gibbons, racked up three goals and two assists in the blowout.
In the third period the Steel tried their best to limit the damage on the scoreboard.
"Obviously it's tough when you're down nine goals but you've still got to come out hard and play every shift," Giese said. "It was definitely a hard way to finish it."
Shawn Proulx's second goal of the game, a shorthanded breakaway marker to make it 11-2 with 12:24 remaining, gave Steel fans something to cheer about.
"It was pretty obvious the game was over [after the second period], so it was just play with some pride, play hard and just try and win the period. That's all we could do," Parks said.
Nasty business
The last 20 minutes was painful to watch as the Steel tried gooning it up. In separate incidents, Jordan Abt and Baxter Niziol attacked Brendan Wright of the Oil Barons with a flurry of punches in the Steel zone. It was 11-1 when Matthew Koebel rushed to the defence of Wright and took one for the team against Abt at 6:33. The Steel defenceman was tagged with an instigating minor, fighting major and game misconduct. Koebel also got tossed. While announcing the penalties, the Steel public address guy made fun of the one-sided tilt, describing Abt's actions as a "good old-fashioned beat-down."
Niziol started raining punches at Wright at 10:23, while the Oil Baron was on his knees in the corner of the rink after he was crosschecked by the Steel's enforcer. For his actions, Niziol received two minors and a 10-minute misconduct and was ushered off the ice.
Credit the Oil Barons for keeping their cool against the Steel's roughhouse tactics.
"We just wanted to make sure we were being classy out there," said defenceman Colton Parayko, an Oil Barons' rookie and St. Albert minor hockey product.
The Oil Barons were on a mission to sweep the series after posting convincing victories of 5-1 and 7-1 in Fort McMurray.
"We came out ready to play. It was good to win like that," said Parayko, 17.
Road woes
The Steel struggled mightily in the AJHL's most intimidating rink.
"We went in there with a game plan and we didn't execute it to our full potential," said Giese, who turned 21 during game two Saturday in Fort McMurray. "It's a tough building to play in. They've got a pretty wild atmosphere there with a lot of diehard fans."
Parayko said the Oil Barons capitalized on the opportunities presented to them at home.
"We had a couple more bounces and a couple more chances that we put in," said the Western Hockey League property of the Edmonton Oil Kings. "Both games were pretty much the same; hard hitting and fast paced. They were good."
Outshot by massive margins of 49-29 and 68-24 in Fort McMurray and 56-24 in St. Albert, the Steel finished the series with a woeful 0-for-11 effort on the power play.
"Special teams killed us," Parks said. "In Fort Mac we gave up way too many power play goals against [Oil Barons went 4-for-12 at home] and we took too many penalties and that's partly from chasing all night. They're a pretty good hockey club and they had a lot of possession and we spent a lot of time trying to get it back."
In game one, the Oil Barons held period leads of 2-0 and 4-1. The next night they led 3-0 after the first and added three more goals before Spencer Pommells scored late in the second.
"In the second game we got off to a real good start in the first 15 or so minutes. We hit a couple of posts and could've got the lead and then they came back with a lucky deflection to make it 1-0 and it just seemed like the guys got deflated a little bit," said Parks.
He was confident the Steel would stave off elimination after the two losses.
"I still felt pretty good coming into this game. We've had good success in our building and the mood seemed really positive before the game," Parks said. "It's just a real shocker tonight, that's for sure."
Graduating juniors
The most lopsided playoff loss in Steel history also marked the end of the line for Proulx, Pommells, Brandon Fagerheim and Giese, a fourth-year Steel centre and the franchise leader in games played with 214.
"I feel bad for all the guys, particularly the 20-year-olds that had to end their junior careers this way," Parks said. "The one good thing is that they're all quality people that are going to go on to do some good things in life, whether it's hockey, business or family."
The loss of defenceman Thomas Ward-Cardinal, the Steel's quarterback on the power play, late in the regular season and all-star centre Reed Linaker with 10 games left in the schedule — both with lower body injuries — also played a role in the Steel's playoff demise.
"It's a huge factor for sure but it's certainly not an excuse," Parks said.
In addition to a leaky defence and questionable goaltending by Rhys Hadfield and backup Chris Sharkey in the series, the Steel's top two scorers — Taylor Fraser (35-32-67 and 14 PP goals) and Derek Bacon (27-36-63 and 12 PP goals) — failed to light the lamp against the Oil Barons.
It's also the second year in a row the Steel were swept by the Oil Barons in the opening playoff round and the fourth straight year they started the playoffs on the road.
The seventh-place Steel (26-31-3) limped into the playoffs with six straight losses and only three points in their last 10 games while going 1-8-1.
"We showed a ton of promise early [in the season] and then got into a little bit of a funk in January [4-8 record, while going 1-7 on the road]. Injuries certainly didn't help us either, but that's part of the game," Parks said.
The Steel have yet to win a playoff series under his direction.
"We're losing only four players, so the future does look pretty good for this team," Parks said. "We've got a good group of kids and it was a pleasure to come to the rink every day coaching these guys because they're all quality, quality people."
Promising rookie
As for Parayko, he was excited to play his hometown team in the playoffs.
"It was good, hard hockey. This is my first playoff series so I got a little taste of it. It was lots of fun and exciting," said the former midget AA Crusader, who blasted a point shot past Hadfield to make it 10-1. "I'm really lucky to be out in Fort McMurray with such a great coaching staff and team, especially with these boys around me."
The Oil Barons (43-16-1) finished second in the north with 32 more points than the Steel.
"We were really strong. We had lots of commitment from everyone and all the guys got along really good. We all did a lot of bonding and that made everything a lot better," said the former Paul Kane High School student.
Parayko said the jump from midget AA to the AJHL has been a work in progress.
"The guys are quicker and there are 20-year-olds here that are pretty strong and big and you have to battle against those guys," said Parayko, who credits his midget AA coach, Wes Werhun, for pointing him towards the Oil Barons. "My foot speed is one of the big things that I've improved on. I've still got to keep working on that, as well as my vision. I've just got to keep on improving."
