SAHA with strong start at Circle K Classic

By JAMES TUBB on December 29, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

Two games into the Circle K Classic, the South Alberta Hockey Academy men’s team is firing on all cylinders.

The U18 local hockey academy is 2-0 through the first two days of competition at the 32-team invitational tournamrnt in Calgary. SAHA beat the Saskatoon Blazers 4-2 on Tuesday before shutting out the Calgary Northstars 5-0 on Wednesday.

Head coach Brayden Desjardins says this year feels similar compared to the same time in the April tournament they won, the only difference being they are 2-0 this time around. He says it’s just about not settling with their early success.

“We just have to make sure we don’t get complacent and don’t get comfortable, keep our foot on the gas and make sure we’re going,” Desjardins said. “Both teams were heading in the right direction and were going through a little bit of adversity at this point, so it’s been really good.”

SAHA’s opening win was led by a hat-trick performance from captain Elias Eisenbarth. Desjardins says that win against Saskatoon was the best SAHA has played as a team so far this season and credited Eisenbarth’s performance for calming the bench down.

“We were a little nervous, playing a really good team in our first game back. A lot of guys went home and had a couple days off so we were a little rusty to start that first period,” Desjardins said. “But to get an early one and then every single time they scored it seemed like we answered right back and it was always Elias. It doesn’t surprise me, he’s a consistent guy, he’s been like that for us the whole year, so it’s nice to see him show up on the score sheet a little bit more.”

Gavin McKenna also scored in the win and had three assists in SAHA’s shutout against Calgary. He was one of four players with multi-point games as Matthew Paranych (one goal, two assists), Brett Calhoon (two goals) and Noah Dziver (two assists) were a constant on the score sheet. Desjardins says getting scoring up and down the roster like that is a testament to the team’s depth.

“We have a lot of really good players and it’s easy looking at our lineup and just see the (Ryan) Millers, Paranychs and McKennas, but we’ve got really, really good depth throughout the lineup,” Desjardins said. “Dziver had a really good two games, it’s been nice to see a complete team effort where we can just continue to roll and it’s super important in a short tournament like this. We can’t be riding one line, it has to be a team effort. So it has been good to see all the guys executing.”

Desjardins says he’s enjoyed seeing local players like Sammy Hynes (Dunmore), Miller and Esienbarth (Medicine Hat) and others find early success on the big stage.

“I could go down the list and I could talk about every single guy on our team to this point, they’ve been unbelievable these last two games.”

SAHA’s best player through their first two games has been goaltender Zach Zahara who made 28 saves against Saskatoon before turning aside all 13 against Calgary for the shutout and a .953 save percentage and a 1.00 goals against average. Desjardins says the 17-year-old goaltender has been a rock for them all season and isn’t surprised by his strong play.

“He’s a cool, calm guy who doesn’t get rattled,” Desjardins said. “Against Saskatoon he made about seven highlight reel saves that very easily could have changed the whole complexion of this tournament for us.

“He’s been unreal for us and he’s destined for big things in the game of hockey. So it’s really nice for him to be able to perform on a stage like this, it’s super exciting.”

SAHA has one more game left in the round robin, as they face the St. Louis Blues this afternoon at 4 p.m. Regardless of the result, with SAHA’s win Wednesday, they have clinched a spot in the Division A quarter finals. The Saskatoon Blazers are second place in SAHA’s pool and could tie them tomorrow with a regulation win and a SAHA regulation loss, but because the tiebreaker is head-to-head, SAHA holds the edge.

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