Junior B Merchants
The next exhibition for the St. Albert Merchants is Sunday against the Edmonton Royals.Game time is 8 p.m. at Confederation Arena.
The Merchants skated into the pre-season against the host Sherwood Park Knights and Friday’s score was unavailable at press time.
The Merchants and Knights meet again Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The season-long 35th anniversary celebrations for the Merchants in the Capital Junior B Hockey League start with the Sept. 21 home-opener against the Beverly Warriors at 8 p.m. as the Money Men unveil their anniversary edition jerseys.
Beverly, the 2018 CJHL finalist and provincial bronze medallist, swept the Money Men in the best-of-five quarter-finals.
Highlighting the pre-game tailgate party at 6:30 p.m. is the Original Joe’s charity food truck providing hamburgers and hotdogs to the first 150 fans in exchange for donations to the Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada.
The classic car winners at this year’s Rock’n August event in St. Albert will also be on display.
The Merchants are launching a Kids in the Crowd initiative for all home games for the opportunity to win one of the meet-and-greet autograph sessions with the players throughout the season.
Kids in the Crowd tickets are available at school offices in St. Albert for free child admission when accompanied by a paying adult ($5 for adults and $2 for seniors).
Visit www.stalbertmerchants.com for more information.
Midget AAA Raiders
The first of two exhibitions in three days for the St. Albert Nektar Data Systems Raiders at Bill Hunter Arena is Monday against the KC Pats.Faceoff is 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday’s start time against the Sherwood Park Kings is 8:15 p.m.
The five-game pre-season schedule for the Raiders wraps up Sept.19 against the Leduc Oil Kings at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Raiders also host Leduc in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League opener Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. The pre-game ceremony will honour the St. Albert Raiders Hockey Club alumni killed in the Humboldt Broncos' bus crash April 6, and will include the raising of the Humboldt Strong banner, a memorial unveiling and Smitty Kingston will also be performing.
Bantam AAA Sabres
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres face off against the Sherwood Park Flyers in today’s exhibition in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.Puck drop is 3:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The teams played in Sherwood Park on Sunday with the Flyers winning 3-1 as Aidan Taylor scored for the Sabres.
The first of four games in five days in the John Ferguson Memorial Tournament at Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre is at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the SSAC Southgate Lions.
The season-opener for the 2018 provincial finalists is Sept. 22 against SSAC at 12 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Bantam AA games
St. Albert’s three teams in the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League play each other in exhibition action.Dates and times are as follows.
Saturday: Elite Promotional Marketing Blues versus Bears, 6 p.m., Go Auto Arena.
Sunday: Comets versus Blues, 3:45 p.m., Akinsdale Arena.
Monday: Bears versus Comets, 8:15 p.m., Mark Messier Arena.
The Bears are the 2018 ERBHL finalists and the Comets were the 2017 playoff runners-up.
