The U16 AAA St. Albert Tetz Powell CPAs Flyers hockey club continued their torrid pace this past weekend, adding two more wins to their record.
They defeated the Parkland Saints on Saturday and followed that up with a Sunday victory over the Sherwood Park Squires.
They improved to a 12-1-0 on the season, good enough for 24 points on the year and first place in the U16 AAA Alberta Elite Hockey League North Division.
Head coach Carson Fleming said that despite the fantastic record the team is still looking for ways to improve their game.
“We are happy with the result of course, but our job is to make sure we have a plan and are prepared for all situations in each zone,” said Fleming. “It’s our goal to make sure we are playing the right way and staying committed to our plan and our style of hockey no matter what the results are.
“There are games we can play where we can be happy how we played even if it’s a loss and we’ve had wins we can reflect on and not be very happy about how we played.”
One they can feel happy about was Saturday’s game against Parkland. The game started close as the Flyers got first-period markers from Cooper Michael and Cohen Daoust to lead 2-1 after the first period.
Then things exploded in the final 40 minutes as the Flyers added seven unanswered goals. Daoust added two more to complete a hat-trick while Karson Kerbes, Connor Shymoniak, Cash Carter, Rylan Hamstra, and Luke Christian also found the score sheet.
Hudson Sedo turned aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced in the St. Albert net. The final score read 9-1 in favour of the Flyers.
Sunday’s game against Sherwood Park was a much closer affair. It was a little deja-vu to begin the game as the Flyers led 2-1 after the first period with goals from Michael and Daoust once again. Daoust added another in the second to make it a 3-1 heading into the third.
Ryder Boddez added some insurance 11 minutes into the final frame to make it 4-1, but the game wasn’t over. Sherwood Park mounted a late-game comeback, notching a pair of shorthanded goals in the final minutes to make it 4-3. It would be too little too late, however, as the Flyers held on for the victory.
Luca Giordano was excellent in the Flyers goal, stopping 37 of the 40 shots he faced.
Boddez chalked up the team's success to a complete buy-in of the coaching staff’s game plan.
“It’s just some great coaching first of all and everyone is so motivated to win games and work hard,” said Boddez. “We really try to bring the same energy and intensity no matter who we are playing because in this league anyone can beat anyone, so you always have to be ready to play.
“We were playing our hearts out [against Parkland] and it ended 9-1 and we still played our hearts out [against Sherwood Park] and it ended 4-3.”
Such a good start can put a team at risk of becoming complacent and losing focus, but Boddez said that while they have struggled with that mindset at times, they are aware they can’t be satisfied just yet.
“We try to treat everything like a 0-0 game 7,” said Boddez. “It’s hard sometimes when we go into a game knowing [our opponent] is not as strong of a team and that can be our problem, but we’re really just trying to forget about the standings and stats and just play our hearts out.”
