Help needed for indoor ice rink shots

[April Does Photography]

I have a Canon Powershot A40 (yippie for me). I freelance for our local paper and am currently muddling through hockey and basketball seasons for our local high school for our sports section. I have read previous threads regarding capturing fast action shots and shutter lag problems. While it is so much easier to write my copy and email my photos after editing in one fell swoop when I get home, I am still forced to use my reliable, trusty, Canon SLR to get halfway decents pics suitable to print, which means getting the film developed to a CD from a local shop. The auto mode on the Powershot A40 just doesn't cut it as my hockey shots are all dark, too dark to edit. I went to program mode and pushed the ISO to 100. My shots were a little better, albeit pretty grainy. Would the spot flash mode work better as it concentrates on the subjects rather than collectively the players and ice? I haven't gotten around to figuring out what the exposure adjustment will produce, and can I get instructions from somebody regarding the shutter priority mode? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am going to upgrade to what I don't know but a D SLR looks like my only option as the shutter lag on my powershot is insanely slow.