The St. Albert Steel staggered into the Christmas break as losers in three out of four games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“We packed it in too soon for the break, which is too bad,” centre Derek Bacon said after the Bonnyville Pontiacs whipped the Steel 8-4 Wednesday in front of 319 fans at Performance Arena.
When play resumes in the new year, the Steel have 24 games remaining to prepare for the playoffs.
“Hopefully the break is a good thing, a good reboot for everyone. The excitement for the game should be back to where we want it to be,” said Bacon, who scored his 17th and 18th goals in a losing cause against Bonnyville.
The Steel (20-14-2) are stuck in sixth place with the Sherwood Park Crusaders (19-16-4) but have three games in hand. They also trail the fifth-place Lloydminster Bobcats (23-6-1) by five points with four less games played.
“The goal is to get a good playoff spot,” Bacon said. “Now that we can see the end is in sight, maybe that will kick things back in gear and we’ll get back to the way we were playing before,”
The Steel wrapped up their December schedule with a 3-4-2 record and were outshot in every game but one. Wednesday’s shot count was 48-23 for Bonnyville (25-8-7), ranked third in the north with 15 more points than the Steel. They were also outscored 19-9 in three straight losses at home.
“Our team defence isn’t there right now,” Bacon said.
Steel netminder Rhys Hadfield should hire a lawyer and sue his teammates for non-support after Bonnyville scored once on 14 shots in the first period and led 5-2 after two periods with a 33-14 shot advantage. In the last period Hadfield (20-13-2, 3.50 GAA) was mercifully pulled after 46 shots and Bonnyville’s eighth goal and third on the power play with 6:45 to play.
“It was our work ethic. They just worked harder than us for longer times,” Bacon said. “We had five guys going tonight and we need 20 because there is never going to be an easy game in this league.”
Hadfield’s replacement, Chris Sharkey (0-1, 4.72 GAA), was making his first appearance in net since suffering an injury late in regulation time in the Steel’s 3-2 overtime win against the Grande Prairie Storm (23-13-3) Nov. 6 in St. Albert.
Bacon, 19, opened the scoring with his seventh power-play goal. Before the period ended, Bonnyville tied it up on a backhander in traffic past a sprawling Hadfield that was set up by a turnover in the Steel zone.
In the middle frame Bonnyville struck twice on the power play before the five-minute mark. The Steel pulled to within one with the man advantage, when a shot deflected off Reed Linaker’s skate and past Julian Laplante. The Bonnyville goaltender was hot under the collar after the goal, claiming Linaker intentionally kicked the puck in and whacked his stick against the glass in a fit of rage.
Before the period ended, the Steel were out-manned in their end on a pair of goals, including a four-on-two assault at 15:43 to make it 5-2.
Thirty-eight seconds into the third, Bonnyville scored off a faceoff in Steel territory. Goals by Taylor Fraser and Bacon cut the deficit to 6-4 before Bonnyville sealed the deal with a pair of insurance markers.
“It was a tough game to play, just with the break coming up and everyone wanting to go home. You’ve just got to have fun with it and work hard and if you do that you will get the results you want. Unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight,” said Bacon.
The Calgary product finished the game with three points for 39 in 36 games for second place in Steel scoring. Linaker is the team’s top scorer with 42 points in 27 games. He extended his goal-scoring streak to eight games Wednesday with his 22nd of the season. The scoring spree included 10 goals and four assists.
The next game for the Steel is Jan. 3 against the Storm at 7 p.m. in St. Albert. It’s the last home game until Jan. 19, as the Steel have seven road games scheduled over 12 days because of the World Financial Group Continental Cup, Jan. 13 to 16 at Performance.
