SAHA takes control in 5-1 win over NAX

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on November 7, 2020.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

South Alberta Hockey Academy’s U18 male prep squad kicked off a three-game swing in Edmonton with a commanding 5-1 victory over the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s reigning regular season champion Northern Alberta Xtreme.

Five of SAHA’s seven Medicine Hat Tigers prospects in action hit the scoresheet, including a two-goal performance from Tyler MacKenzie and a goal and an assist from both Teague Patton and Cayden Glover.

“They’re our leaders in this room and they took it upon themselves. They didn’t maybe have the weekends they wanted to against Edge, and they worked really hard over the last two weeks to make sure that didn’t happen again,” said SAHA U18 male prep head coach Brayden Desjardins. “We left (Thursday) night at midnight and drove through the night – got in at 6 a.m. then we played at 2 p.m. That’s a really hard thing for those guys to do, but that’s what they do in the Western Hockey League. It was important for them that they came out and showed what they could do with a little bit of adversity, and to do it against a team like that – I couldn’t be more proud of the character they showed.”

Fellow Tabby prospect Ryan Nolan added an assist from the back end, while Hatter Vann Yuhas added two helpers up front.

MacKenzie opened the scoring just over 13 minutes into regulation when he finished off a play set up by Matthew MacPherson and Ethan Machan.

Patton added to the advantage early in the second period before Levi Fesyk answered back for NAX – but Patton responded by setting up Roman Cherniak on a power play to carry a two-goal lead into the third.

MacKenzie struck again less than two minutes into the final frame, then Glover put the game away with a late power play tally.

Bodee Weiss stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced to secure the win and push SAHA to 2-2-0 on the CSSHL regional series season.

“He made saves when we needed him to,” said Desjardins. “In the first, we were a little bit scrambly trying to find our game a little bit and he was a really good backbone. He made some really key saves when we got up 1-0. He’s a really calming presence in the net.”

NAX’s Matthew Malin took the loss on 21 saves.

SAHA and NAX continue a three-game set in Edmonton, Saturday at 5:15 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.

“It’s really easy to be good one night, it’s really hard to be good two-out-of-two nights or three-out-of-three nights,” said Desjardins.

“We’ve just got to come with consistency. That’s one game we’re really proud of, but it’s can we do it multiple nights and make sure our effort’s there and our systems game is there. We did a really good job coming in with a game plan and executing, so we’ll see if we can do it again.”

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