SAHA beats St. Louis in OT thriller Thursday
By James Tubb on December 29, 2022.
The South Alberta Hockey Academy’s final Circle K Classic round robin contest was full of dramatics. SAHA scored four unanswered goals in the third period before winning 8-7 in a shootout over the St. Louis Blues Thursday afternoon. Gavin McKenna had two goals and three assists and Kade Duell scored a hat trick and added an assist to lead the way offensively. The win gives SAHA a clean 3-0 record through their round robin action as they advance to the Division A quarterfinals on Friday. Head coach Brayden Desjardins credited the Blues’ play in the game and says it was a learning experience for SAHA. “St. Louis was really good to start the game and it was hard for us to get going a little bit, we played two pretty tough games back to back and I thought we started a little slow,” Desjardins said. “It’s a good learning experience for our guys, we can’t get complacent and think just because we played two games things are are just going to go smoothly. “We’re going to have to battle every single night and and we’re a team who won our first year and now we’re going to get everyone’s best games.” Thursday’s win was a back and forth affair with St. Louis getting on the board first with a goal 2:52 into the contest. SAHA answered back a little over six minutes later when Kadon McCann scored his first goal of the tournament. Kade Duell and Gavin McKenna had the assists on his goal. St. Louis’ Carson Webber scored 1:35 later to regain their lead before SAHA scored the final goal of the period, when Sammy Hynes found the back of the net for his first of the game. Hynes opened the scoring in the second with a power play goal 4:51 into the frame. Noah Dziver and Kolby Gapter had the assists on Hyne’s third of the tournament. After that, St. Louis scored fours straight goals to carry a 6-3 lead into the third period. But SAHA was not out of the contest yet. In the first 10 minutes of the third period, Duell scored two goals to bring SAHA within one. McKenna and McCann had the helpers on the first goal and Dziver and Hynes on the second. McKenna scored to tie the game up with 8:07 left before putting SAHA ahead 7-6 3:03 later. Brett Calhoon with the assist on his first goal and McCann on the second. With 15 seconds left the Blues tied the game and forced overtime. With a late power play, McKenna fired a shot and a second later, Duell competed the hat trick, scoring to give SAHA the 8-7 OT win that sends them into the Division A quarter finals with a perfect 3-0 record in the round robin. Between the pipes, SAHA goaltender Owen Pettipas made 22 saves and across the ice from him, Isaac Meja-Troop turned aside 34 shots. See Friday’s Medicine Hat News for SAHA’s quarter-finals opponent and game time. 14-13
