Everyone loves an underdog.
After stunning the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League (AMMHL) by winning silver at Sutter Cup South, the Airdrie-Cochrane (AC) Avalanche are looking to take the fairy tale one step further and win the 2016 Provincial Championship taking place March 23-27 at Max Bell Arena in Calgary.
“It’s going to be a pretty hectic schedule,” said Avs head coach Kenton Levesque. “We’ve got a game on Wednesday, two Thursday, two Friday, then if everything works out, we can make the semi-finals on Saturday and final on Sunday.
“Hopefully the schedule will do us some good though, since we don’t have time to relax and keep going. When you’re hot, you’re hot so we’re looking to get a streak going that we can carry through to the gold medal game.”
Avs (who finished eighth in the South Division during regular-season play), are the only team participating in the tournament that didn’t finish in a top-four position during divisional play (apart from hosts NWCAA Stampeders), but Levesque believes that gives his team an edge much like at the Sutter Cup.
“There’s no expectations or pressure on us,” he admitted. “We can just go out and play, since everyone else has the pressure on them. They’re supposed to be the teams that are going to win.
“We’re confident with the group we have. We’ve been talking about this being our goal all year. I think losing the Sutter Cup and watching CBHA Rangers hoist it in front of us lit the fire in our guys. It’s given us the motivation to get the job done this time around.”
Despite the fact Avs will be playing teams like SSAC United Cycle Bulldogs (who finished with the best regular-season record in the league), and Rangers, the team hasn’t done anything differently to prepare for the tournament and is more concerned with sticking to their own game plan and structure than worrying about what-ifs.
“We practised quite a bit this week just to make sure everyone is as fresh as possible,” Levesque said.
“We know if we stick to our game and make other teams play our way, we’ll have the best chance of success, and hopefully by the end we’ll be lifting that championship banner.
“We can’t wait for it to begin.”
Avs played their first game on Wednesday, March 23 at Max Bell #1 against Bulldogs.
For the complete Provincial Championship schedule, visit ammhl.ca
