Saints To Face Snakes:

This was in Fridays Edmonton Sun Newspaper:

Saints to face snakes

By CON GRIWKOWSKY, Edmonton Sun

Last Updated: April 8, 2011

SPRUCE GROVE — Snakes alive!

For the second straight year, AJHL champion Spruce Grove Saints will face the Vernon Vipers in the Doyle Cup.

Spruce Grove wrapped up the title Friday night with a convincing 5-1 win over the Camrose Kodiaks before 1761 fans at the Grant Fuhr Arena.

It was the most lopsided win in what had otherwise been a close series.

“They were ready to play,” said Spruce Grove coach Jason McKee. “We knew we had a great challenge at hand. They’re a good team, but the kids really rose to the occasion.

“It’s a great feeling.”

Even though the Saints did not have one playoff scorer in the top 20 heading into last night’s game, they used their familiar formula to wrap up the series 4-1.

They outplayed, outshot and outhustled the Kodiaks. Their balanced attack did not give the Kodiaks any star player to key on as the Saints find the scoring touch from a variety of players every night.

And even though the Saints were outplayed in the second period, the writing was on the wall when they answered Camrose’s only goal to win going away.

“They get one there, they get a bit of momentum,” said McKee. “That’s been the strength of our team. We get a huge goal (from Koper) going into the break. The message was to keep going forward and we kept the momentum going in the third.”

Friday night, the Saints got goals from five different players, including the winner from captain Bryce Van Brabant and series MVP Scott Allen.

“It’s a full team effort,” said Allen, who leads the team with seven playoff goals. “All four lines were going tonight. They all contributed, they all locked down defensively and they played a compete game.

“Our main goal is the RBC Cup. We’ve been here before (against Vernon) and we know not to get too high off this win. We’ll have a good celebration and enjoy what the boys did but keep in mind our main goal is to get into the RBC Cup.”

Josh Keizer, Josh Koper and David Glen also got goals for the Saints while Tyler Jewitt replied for Camrose.

“It’s kind of ironic,” said Van Brabant, who’s been blanked since the Fort McMurray series. “I haven’t scored in a while, so it was nice to give the team a boost. Everybody chipped in tonight, everybody scored. We just worked hard, executed and played a good game.”

Now, the Saints travel to Vernon, where they’ll play Games 1 and 2 against the defending RBC Cup champion on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s nice that we have a familiarity with them,” said Van Brabant. “They’re well-coached and they know how to win. It’s not going to be easy. It’ll be tougher than it was here.

“It’s indescribable. All the hard work you put into it and at the end, it’s all worth it.”