The push for the Sutter Cup continues, as the Airdrie-Cochrane (AC) Avalanche put in one of their most dominant performances of the season, crushing NWCAA Stampeders 5-1 in AMMHL action on Feb. 13 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
Avs (13-10-7, 8th South Division) went into the game winless in their last two (1-1, 3-3) looking for retribution after the last time these two teams met (a 5-3 victory for Stamps).
“It was nice to get back in the win column,” said Avs head coach Kenton Levesque. “It was such a dominant performance. I’m very proud of the boys, they’ve been working hard and they deserved a game like this. They finally got some gratification.”
On-fire forward Austin Wong opened the scoring for Avs with a snap shot to break a deadlock which lasted for most of the first period. Less than a minute and a half later, the home side doubled their lead through Ryan Ries going into the second period.
Avs struck a third time in the second with Eric Van Tetering getting on the board, before Stamps grabbed a goal back when it was four-on-four hockey, making it 3-1.
Kyle Lappin smacked in a power-play goal for Avs before Wong continued the onslaught, grabbing his second of the game less than a minute later to make it 5-1. The third period was ripe with chances, but no side made any headway, as Avs were guaranteed the two points.
Did Levesque think that losing such a close game the last time around played any part in his team’s performance?
“Absolutely,” he said. “With playoffs coming up, we’re not really in the spot we think we should be. We’ve got a bit of a chip on our shoulder which is a good thing going into the playoffs. We’re really determined to claim as many points as we can until the end of the season.”
After the previous week when his team played three stressful games, Levesque believed another factor in his team’s dominant performance was having to play only one game over the weekend this time around.
“It was huge,” he said. “Getting some rest for these guys was a big thing. We’ve got kids who come from Three Hills and Canmore. Some of them drive two hours to get to practice. You start accumulating that, along with school, and being a 15-year-old kid. It can become pretty tiresome, but now we’ve had a good break and have three games coming up.”
Between Feb. 19-28, Avs play their remaining six games of the regular season. Due to the fact everyone above them in their division has played at least 32 games (Avs only have 30) the team has a great opportunity to make up ground going into the Sutter Cup.
“We think we can climb up the standings,” Levesque said. “Most importantly, we want to try and replicate the way we played against Stamps. If we can do that more times than not, we’re going to be in a good position at the end of the year. We’re excited to be playing meaningful games in February and March. That’s all we could have asked for when we started in September.”
