The Barrhead Steelers outshot St. Albert 38-27 at the Agrena on Sunday.
Yet their marksmanship lacked the precision to do justice to their aggressive instincts.
In a frustrating night, they went down to a 4-2 defeat in this provincials encounter. Now they must hope they can lift themselves by Thursday for a road game against the same opponents.
Sunday’s match was barely 15 seconds old when the Steelers conceded a goal.
It was an indignity from which they never seemed to fully recover. They were unable thereafter to dictate the tempo or impose their will.
Nevertheless, twice in that first period they managed to scramble from behind to score. Twice it was Jordan Smith who tipped in – at 11:06 and 0:53.
After the Steelers’ second goal, St. Albert’s goalkeeper was sent off following an exchange with the referee. But the setback seemed only to inspire the away team and their replacement keeper made some superb saves.
At the other end, goaltender Breann Dutchak was also in fine form as St. Albert kept her busy.
With the game tied 2-2, the second period proved a foul-laden affair, although this was far from a dirty game. And so the match entered the third with little to separate the sides, other than the shots on goal tally.
When St. Albert scored soon after the restart, they seemed to get a second wind.
You felt there were to be no more Steelers’ comebacks – something confirmed when St. Albert scored a fourth.
Coach Daniel Lefebvre was left ruing the Steelers’ failure to take their chances. It is something that has dogged the side this season.
Lefebvre believed the Steelers may have been a little nervous playing in the provincials.
However, he was pleased with their overall play.
“We played a decent game, although we did not get all the bounces,” he said.
Lefebvre picked out little areas that could be improved, such as winning battles for the puck and attacking the net.
Earlier, on the Bantam Tier 4 side, the Wolverines battled to a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Westlock.
Roared on by vocal coach Alan Measures, they showed plenty of hunger against their old rivals, not allowing the setback of a first period goal to get them down.
Peyton Measures, assisted by Lukas Weeks, got them back on track with a goal at 16:41 in the second period. Brayden Bujold then scored at 4:27 to give the Wolverines the lead. This time the assists were from Kyle Sommers and Tristan Cameron.
Weeks put the match beyond Westlock’s reach with a goal at 18:25 in the third period. He was assisted by Cody Wegewitz and Measures.
