The slumping St. Albert Steel continues to forge ahead towards the playoffs one shift at a time.
Losers of five of their last six games, the sixth-place Steel (16-21-1-3) have 18 games to get their act together after hosting the fourth-place Bonnyville Pontiacs (23-17-2-1) Tuesday. The score was unavailable at press time.
"It's a matter of taking a step forward every time we're on the ice," captain Ryan Edens told the Gazette at Monday's practice. "We want to peak when playoffs come. We still feel we have a good group here that can do something and we just need to keep getting better as each game goes by."
The Steel stumbled into their first home game of 2010 winless in four straight, including three defeats in a row against the second-place Fort McMurray Oil Barons (29-12-12), a potential first round playoff opponent. The last two losses in Fort McMurray last weekend were by margins of 4-1 and 8-4.
"We came back with a lot better effort than in the game before Christmas against them," Edens said of the 9-0 pounding by the Oil Barons on St. Albert ice. "They're a good offensive team and in both games last weekend we played a lot better defensively."
In the first game it was 3-0 Oil Barons when David Carr scored against his former team on the power play with 7:22 left to play. Shots were 40-30 for St. Albert, including a 12-8 edge by the visitors in the first period despite giving up two goals, including a man advantage marker, in the opening five minutes. In net was Steel rookie Chris Sharkey.
The next day, goals by all-star Bryce Williamson tied it at 1-1 at 12:13 of the first and 2-2 at 3:29 of the second. His hat trick marker, and team-leading 29th goal, was sniped 11 seconds into the third as the Steel cut the deficit to 4-3. The Oil Barons went on to outscore the Steel 4-1, with a pair on the power play doing the most damage. It was 6-3 when Carr potted his 14th goal of the season with 3:30 to go in regulation time.
Special teams weren't that special for the Steel in game two. They came up empty six times on the power play while the Oil Barons clicked three times on six chances and scored once shorthanded. Shots favoured the home team by a 44-41 count. Making his first Steel start was Chad Ketting, 19. His previous teams include the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League and Powell River Kings of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.
"Overall it was a step forward although we lost. It wasn't really an 8-4 game until the last 10 minutes and that's when we started taking stupid chances trying to get goals and they capitalized," said Edens, who sat out the 4-1 loss to complete a two-game suspension for fighting while another was in progress in a 6-5 loss Dec. 20 against the last-place Drayton Valley Thunder (11-27-2-2) at St. Albert.
Weak defence
The Steel returned home with the dubious distinction as the worst defensive team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. At the 41 game mark, their 183 goals against was one more than the Calgary Royals (11-21-1-8) had given up as the seventh place team in the south.
"When we get down a couple of goals, especially later in games, we start taking stupid chances to try and get back into games and because of those stupid chances the other teams run up the score a little bit higher," said Edens, one of four returning defenceman from the AJHL's 13th-ranked defensive team in 2008/09. "We could be losing some of those games by fewer goals but we're trying to take chances to get the goals for and it hasn't been working for us. We need to stick to doing simple things. We also need to come out harder and get right into the game early so that we're not trying to fight back in the third period."
The 8-4 loss marked the fifth game this season the Steel let in eight or more goals.
"We've got to continue to simplify our game and get pucks out of our zone. They can't score if the puck is not in our end," said Edens, 20, the recipient of the Steel's top defenceman award in 2009.
He expects the Steel will tighten up defensively under Shawn Martin, the Steel's new assistant coach. The bench boss of the junior B Fort Saskatchewan Hawks was in charge of the Sherwood Park Crusaders' defence last season.
"With the new coach it's going to be a lot better. The defence definitely has a different outlook and you're going to see different things," Edens said.
Downhill slide
The Steel were one game away from a .500 record when their season went up in smoke. A week before Christmas, starting goalie Mark Kotylak, 20, walked out on his hometown team and 2010 NHL draft prospect Dan Carr requested a trade to a contender. Carr, 18, a high-scoring left-winger and the first goal getter in Steel history, was shipped to Powell River in exchange for forward Steve Axford, 18, and future considerations.
"It's definitely been a lot of adversity for us but the team is pulling together and we're all heading in the right direction," said Edens, the Steel's all-time career penalty minute leader with 671 in 155 games. "The goaltending situation is really tough, especially with our starter quitting. Right now we're scrambling to get a couple of guys in [Ketting and junior B affiliate, Richard Gagnon] who haven't played for a while."
The Steel head south this weekend for three games in three days against the Canmore Eagles (17-16-2-4) Friday, Okotoks Oilers (23-15-0-2) Saturday and the Olds Grizzlies (19-18-2-3) Sunday.
ICE CHIPS: Williamson's hat trick was his second of the season. The right-winger is fourth in the AJHL scoring race with 70 points in 41 games.
Bachewich joined the Steel at the start of 2008/09 campaign. He is the second assistant coach to leave the team this season. In late October, Barry Rimmer bolted from the Steel in a move that coincided with the trade of his son, Tyler, to Bonnyville for future considerations after the promising goalie was let go by the Brandon Wheat Kings after he started the season as the backup for the 2010 Memorial Cup host team.
