Saints And Oil Barons To Meet In AJHL Enerflex Cup Final:

The Winner of the Powell River Kings & Vernon Vipers will advance to the Doyle Cup & face the winner of either Fort McMurray or Spruce Grove. The AJHL is now down to their two final teams in the Enerflex Cup. Here's a article I copied off the AJHL website on the #1 ranked Sprue Grove Saints & the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.


Saints and Oil Barons to Meet in AJHL Enerflex Cup Final

March 27, 2010

AJHL Enerflex Cup Schedule will be officially announced on www.ajhl.ca.

Saints off to AJHL final

By CON GRIWKOWSKY, Edmonton Sun

SPRUCE GROVE — The Saints have marched on the Alberta Junior Hockey League final.

Playing more like the team that dominated the AJHL this season, the Spruce Grove Saints coasted to a 4-1 win over the Camrose Kodiaks at Grant Fuhr Arena Friday night.

“It was one of those games where they (Camrose) didn’t have a ton of shots,” said Saints coach Steve Hamilton, whose team finished with a 43-16 shots advantage. “We had our chances to extend the lead, but we didn’t and kept it tight.”

Spruce Grove won the series 4-1, setting up an all-north final against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, starting here on April 2. The MOB clinched their series with a 5-2 win in Okotoks Friday.

Spruce Grove won all six regular-season meetings over Fort McMurray.

“We’re going to have our hands full,” said Hamilton about the rapidly-improving Oil Barons. “Regular season means nothing.”

If there was any question about the Saints’ ability in the first three games of the AJHL semifinal, they were answered last night.

It didn’t help Camrose’s cause when goalie Dalyn Flette could not answer the bell for the second straight game (flu) and head coach Boris Rybalka was banished from the building after being suspended by the league.

Kodiaks assistant Doug Fleck took over coaching duties, but it wouldn’t have mattered.

By the time the Saints had taken a 3-0 lead on a powerplay goal by David Glen at 3:36 of the second period, they were already ahead on the shot clock by a 21-3 count.

Josh Koper and Brett Cameron scored first-period goals two minutes apart in the first.

“It was a good feeling,” said Cameron, who added an assist after scoring the series-winning goal. “We didn’t want to go back to Camrose.

“It was the right time and the right place for me to get that goal. I thought (Camrose goalie Kris) Moore played a lot better tonight. He hadn’t played in a long time. He was put in a tough position to step in like that.”

Fort Mac could be a different challenge.

“We just have to keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing during the playoffs and we should be all right,” said Cameron.

Joel Paiment scored the only goal for Camrose and Saints sniper Adam Henderson scored his 12th playoff goal in the third.

Jordan Draper and Carson Cooper chipped in a pair of assists each for the Saints, who opened up the contest with a forechecking clinic to dominate the smaller and less experienced Camrose defence.

“We just stuck to our game plan of hard forechecks early,” said Draper. “Tonight, it was going all game long. In the first period, our forecheck was pretty relentless and I don’t think they could handle it.”

Although the Fort Mac defence is also undersized, their blue-line is a bit more experienced and have helped the team tighten up their goals against this playoffs.

“They’re a really quick team,” said Draper. “They have a lot of depth up front, but they’re kind of small, so we have to use our physical play.”