It may have only been an intra-squad game, but head coach Terry Keogh is already impressed with his team.
The hardest part will be picking the final roster.
Keogh and his Airdrie Xtreme coaching staff will be faced with that task this week, following the Bantam AAA team’s annual Labour Day Tie-Dye game, which wrapped up training camp at the Ron Ebbesen Arena on Sept. 5.
“In camp, there were some easy decisions, but in today’s game, there are no easy decisions,” Keogh said. “Guys really battled hard and showed that they want to play on this team.”
In jerseys used during the Xtreme’s inaugural season during the 1990s, Team Pink used three third period goals to outlast Team Black 5-3. Ryan Barrow had the game-winning goal, while Colton Buckler, Jordan McConnell, Cory Kohut and Zach Giroux also scored for the winning side.
Jared Bainbridge, Kyle Antochow and Ryley Smith countered for Team Black.
Airdrie’s Marshall Burr, who was a defenceman with Team Pink, will be one of the Xtreme’s second-year players when it opens the season at home on Sept. 17. The 14-year-old said he’s looking forward to his sophomore year with the club.
“You know what is expected of you from the coaches (this time around),” he said. “You try to set the tempo as much as you can and just be a leader out there.”
“Coming back as a second-year, it’s easier to get into the speed of the game,” added fellow returning defenceman Tristan Thompson. “As a first-year, it was hard to get ready because everybody was so fast.”
Keogh said he was happy with the development of his veterans and knows they will be relied upon early in the season.
“Your veterans that are familiar with your systems – at the start of the year, they play a big role in helping everyone get up to the level they need to be at,” he said.
“We just have to keep going the way we’re going,” Thompson said. “It’s going to get better as the team gets closer and closer to being finalized.”
The Xtreme, which plays in an exhibition tournament in Calgary this weekend, will look for a repeat of last year’s regular season first-place performance, but try to avoid the first-round playoff upset from a year ago.
“We were concerned somewhat coming into camp about some goal scoring and there’s some players that demonstrated today that, not only do they have some talent around the net to create some opportunities, but that they can play a gritty style as well,” Keogh said.
“A lot of good things came from today.”
“We’ll just try to catch our stride here before the tournament and make sure we’re ready,” Burr said.
“It will be good to see how we stack up against the other teams. I’m pretty excited for that.”
