Bantam AAA Sabres
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres have three games remaining before the 41st annual John Reid Memorial Tournament starts Jan. 17.The Sabres skate into the new year against the host Sherwood Park Flyers (14-8) Jan. 6 at 5:45 p.m.
The Flyers (14-8) are first and the Sabres (5-12-4) are fourth in the nitro north division of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
The Sabres are coming off a 2-4-1 effort in December after tying the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers 1-1 Dec. 22 at Akinsdale Arena.
The teams exchanged goals in the second period as the Rangers (13-3-4) knotted the score on the power play.
Elijah Pool notched his first of the season and netminder Luke Roberts (3-3-2, 3.03 GAA) was tested 39 times compared to 18 shots for the Sabres.
The Rangers and Lloydminster Bobcats (14-3-4) of the charger north division, Calgary Flames (14-4-4) and Calgary Bisons (14-4-3) of the challenger south division and Red Deer Rebels (14-4-2) of the ram south division are the AMBHL reps along with the Sabres at the Reid tournament.
Delta Wild Academy Green, Rink Hockey Academy Nationals of Winnipeg, Burnaby Winter Club Academy, Los Angeles Kings, Yale Hockey Academy Lions of Abbotsford, West Van Academy, Okanagan Hockey Academy of Edmonton, Notre Dame Hounds, Phoenix Coyotes and St. George’s School of Vancouver are also competing.
In pool play, the Sabres face off against Burnaby, Los Angeles and Yale.
Visit www.johnreidmemorial.com for more information.
Food bank game
The big winner of the Dec. 23 bantam AA game between the Bears and Elite Pro Marketing Blues was the St. Albert Food Bank.The final tally was 1,042 pounds of non-perishable food items as the St. Albert hockey community rallied around the fundraiser initiative at Akinsdale Arena.
The score between the blue division teams in the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League was 7-2 for the second-place Bears (12-6-2).
The second of three goals by Evan Zazulak was the winner with one second left in the first period.
The Bears led by six before Tysen Tomlinson of the third-place Blues (10-8-2) struck on the power play at 4:28 of the third.
Kieran Strauss also scored as the Blues were outshot 31-26.
Nathan Elaschuk (4-4-2, 2.68 GAA), the starting netminder, and Rhys MacGillivray (3-4, 3.00 GAA) shared duties for the Blues while Lucas Cadger (7-3-1, 2.74 GAA) went the distance for the Bears.
Adam Browton, Jaden Beauchamp, Logan Paquette and Noah Haney (power play) also potted goals for the Bears.
Bowton, the team’s leading scorer with 11 goals and 22 points, added three assists and Beauchamp and Sebastian Laurent had two helpers apiece.
The Bears ended December with a record of 4-3 and the Blues went 5-3.
Next weekend the Bears are in Kamloops and the Blues are in Winnipeg for tournaments.
The next league games are Jan. 9 for the Blues against the St. Albert Comets (3-12-6) at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena and Jan. 12 for the Bears against the host Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (5-11-3) at 5:15 p.m.
The Blues doubled the Comets 4-2 Dec. 5.
The Comets, seventh in the blue division, closed out December with one win and one tie in six games.
