Building a winning streak is a work in progress for the St. Albert Steel.
The most wins the Steel stacked together in a row are three while going 12-8 to start the season.
"We want to chain together as many wins as we can. That would be perfect," said Rhys Hadfield, netminder for the seventh-place Steel in the north division.
After winning two of the last three games during last weekend's homestand, the Steel pulled themselves to within two points of the sixth-place Sherwood Park Crusaders with a whopping five games in hand. They also trailed the fifth-place Grande Prairie Storm by five points with four fewer games played.
"We have to use these games in hand to our advantage and get wins out of them," said Steel newcomer Brandon Fagerheim. "We have to show people that we're a really good hockey team and we can do some damage this year."
The Steel have multiple games in hand on every team above them in the standings.
"The north is really bunched up so if we're going to make a move we've got to hop on it right now and get after it," Hadfield said. "There is more pressure now because of the games in hand but we're just trying to win more than we lose. That's the way you climb back up the ladder."
Friday night the Steel hosted the fourth-place Lloydminster Bobcats but the score was unavailable at press time.
Tonight the Steel travel to Bonnyville to play the third-place Pontiacs at 7 p.m.
"After last weekend everyone is pretty positive in the room and we're looking good for this weekend," Hadfield said. "We want to keep it tight on defence like we did last weekend over the last two games and hopefully we get more production out of the offence like we had Sunday [in the 5-1 win over the Calgary Mustangs]."
After last weekend's performance, the Steel are looking good with four wins in five games. The 4-0 loss to the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion Spruce Grove Saints was followed by a hard-fought 3-2 overtime decision against the Storm. In the lopsided affair with the Mustangs, the Steel capitalized three times on the power play in period three.
"Spruce Grove [18-2-0-3] is a good team but we can definitely play with them, we just have to realize that," Fagerheim said. "Overall it was really good to get two out of three wins. We've just got to keep that going. We have a really good hockey team with a lot of potential."
The Steel were also outshot in all three games: 39-24 by the Saints, 50-36 by the Storm and 29-19 by the Mustangs. Hadfield (12-7) was between the pipes against the Saints and Mustangs.
"Friday [against the Saints] was a good game, I thought personally. Sunday I almost had a shutout. That would've been nice. I had enough shots, just that one goal squeaked in [at 10:09 in the third on the Mustangs' 24th shot]," said Hadfield, 19.
He replaced starter Chris Sharkey against the Storm when the Steel backup was injured in goalmouth collision with 2:21 remaining and the scored deadlocked at two. Sharkey (0-1, 4.85 GAA) was impressive stopping 48 shots before Hadfield took over from his fallen comrade. Other than one close call when the Storm fired a puck off the iron, Hadfield didn't have to stop a shot as Bacon scored on a four-on-three power play with 1:46 left in the five-minute OT session for his third point of the night.
"I was a little nervous going in with about two minutes left in the game. I was pretty cold too. I had been sitting there the whole game, not expecting to go in," said Hadfield, who ranked 25th out of 34 AJHL goalies with a 3.65 GAA. "Defence really shut them down so I didn't really have much to do but when they rang that one shot off the post, that really got my heart going."
New player
Another bright light for the Steel last weekend was Fagerheim. The 19-year-old made his St. Albert debut against the Saints after the Steel shipped the AJHL rights of Kootenay Ice centre Steele Boomer to the Victoria Grizzlies in exchange for the graduate of the Edge School academy in Calgary.
"Being from Calgary I wanted to come closer to home and back to Alberta for my last year of junior. I talked with management and they respected that. They decided to help me out and get me where I so desired," Fagerheim, said. "I'm glad to be here and it's worked out so far."
The versatile forward set up Bacon's two goals on the power play against the Storm, including the OT winner. Bacon and Fagerheim were teammates at the Edge School and last season in Victoria.
"He is a real good friend of mine through hockey," said Fagerheim, who skated alongside Bacon on the power play unit last weekend.
He scored his first AJHL goal against Mustangs goalie Jared Anderson in the opening period of play. In the third he picked up an assist on Thomas Ward-Cardinal's marker on the power play to make it 4-1.
"Last weekend was a good start to my time here in St. Albert," Fagerheim said. "When you join a new team you just want to play your hardest and do your best. The points are important but the team wins are more important."
In 18 games in Victoria prior to the trade, Fagerheim tallied twice and had nine assists. He broke into the British Columbia Junior Hockey League with the Nanaimo Clippers in 2008/09 and last season was dealt to Victoria, where he posted 19 goals, 31 assists and 59 penalty minutes in 55 games. In 131 games with Nanaimo and Victoria, he recorded 26 goals, 49 assists and 116 PIM.
"I'm a hard working player. I like to leave it out there every game. I think I have some skill as well and I try to use that to the best of my ability but at the end of the day it's my work ethic that's my main strength," said Fagerheim, a five-foot-10 and 180-pound skater who joins captain Mike Giese and forward Spencer Pommells as the only players on the Steel roster in their final junior campaign.
ICE CHIPS: The Steel and Bobcats pulled off a trade this week involving forwards. St. Albert sent forward Topher Flanagan, 19, to the Border City for Bryce Sauers, 17. Flanagan collected three goals and six assists in 19 games with the Steel. The Edmonton resident played the past two seasons with the Canmore Eagles. The six-foot, 190-pound Sauers hails from Fort Saskatchewan. He had one point and 29 PIM in 17 games with Lloydminster.
