South Alberta Hockey Academy General Manager Darren MacMillan speaks with CHAT News about the Circle K Classic. (Bob Schneider/CHAT News)

By Jesse Gill

Strong tournament for South Alberta Hockey Academy, but no three-peat

Jan 2, 2024 | 3:47 PM

The South Alberta Hockey Academy came up short in their bid to win three Circle K Classic tournaments in a row this year in Calgary.

SAHA won all three of its pool games to get into the A side of the the 32-team event.

The first contest a 5-2 win over the Chicago Mission was supported by a three goal effort from SAHA forward Brayden Ryan-MacKay, a sixth round pick of the Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2023 WHL Bantam Draft.

Three point efforts in the game also came from forwards Josh Evaschesen and Carter Cunningham who each had a goal and two assists.

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SAHA was down 2-1 midway through the second period before tying the game up, then hitting the back of the net three times on the power play in the third period.

The second game a 3-2 win over South Kent School out of Connecticut was largely in part to the 47 save performance of Marek Schlenker.

SAHA only fired 19 shots on the South Kent School goaltender and never trailed in the game, scoring the only two goals in the first.

Game three against the Edmonton Jr. Oilers Blue was a 2-0 win to finish out the pool games.

Ben Polhill made his first ever start in net for SAHA and got a 27 save shutout in the contest.

In the A side quarter-final game against Edge School out of Calgary things did not go well for SAHA as they dropped the contest 6-1.

This snapped a 13 game winning streak the team had at the Circle K Classic, and 14 games undefeated streak over that stretch after they had tied their first ever game at the event.

Darren MacMillan, general manager of SAHA, said the level of competition at the tournament was even stronger this year, so making it to the top eight is still a big accomplishment.

“To go undefeated in the pool play is pretty impressive,” MacMillan told CHAT News.

“You see two American teams in the final, and we played two American teams in our pool play in our round robin,” MacMillan said.

“Now those are bigger stronger teams, and the reason is here in Canada we play U-18 hockey which means 15, 16, 17 year olds. In the [United] States they play 18-U.”

“So they are actually 18 year olds. A whole bunch of 2005’s on their team. To go into pool play and to beat the Oilers and then beat two American teams is pretty impressive.”

The Shattuck-St Mary’s Sabres out of Faribault, Minnesota won the Circle K Classic this year.

The Sabres posted a 3-0 victory over the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes.