Tonight’s playoff lid-lifter between the St. Albert Raiders and Grande Prairie Storm starts at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Game two in the best-of-three north division series in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League is 6:45 p.m. Friday at Grande Prairie.
Game three, if needed, is 1:15 p.m. Sunday at St. Albert.
The Raiders dropped both games against the Storm this season by scores of 5-3 Oct. 26 at St. Albert and 7-3 Jan. 17 at Grande Prairie.
In league play the Raiders (18-9-7) tied for second place with the Lloydminster Bobcats (19-10-5) and the Storm finished in the sixth and last playoff spot.
The top two teams in the north and south earned first-round byes.
The Raiders skate into the playoffs after blanking the visiting Red Deer Chiefs 3-0 Sunday to snap a four-game winless streak.
Joshua Dechaine (12-6-5, 3.35 GAA) stopped 35 saves against the Chiefs (11-18-5) for his first shutout of the season.
Ryan Cox, Ryan Peckford and Kaidan McDonald scored as the Raiders recorded their second win in eight games.
In the league scoring race Parker AuCoin finished tied for ninth with 40 points in 33 games while posting a team-high 21 goals.
A conference call Monday overturned the North Central Senior AA Hockey League decision to declare the Morinville Kings the winners of the best-of-five series against the Slave Lake Winterhawks after game four Friday in Slave Lake was cancelled because of freezing rain.
The league had initially decided that if games were cancelled due to weather the series would be a best-of-three playoff.
The Kings held a 2-1 series lead going into the weekend. Scores were 10-2 Kings in Morinville, 4-3 Winterhawks in Slave Lake and 6-1 Kings in Morinville.
Game four and if needed, game five, have to be completed by Saturday. Dates and times were unavailable at press time.
In league play the second-place Kings (13-4-1) outscored the last-place Winterhawks (4-14) by a margin of 22-7 in three wins.
If the Kings win they will play the third-place Devon Barons (10-7-1), the two-time defending NCHL champions, in the best-of-five semifinals.
The 2014 Hockey Alberta senior A champions beat Devon 6-5 and 7-4 and lost 4-2 in the regular season
Devon swept the sixth-place Edson Ice (5-13) in the best-of-five opening round.
The first-place Westlock Warriors (16-1-1) and the fourth-place Whitecourt Wild (9-9) are hooking up in the semifinals.
The league champion advances to the AA/A provincials, hosted by the Daysland Northstars of the Battle River Hockey League, March 27 to 29 at Camrose.
Visit www.northcentralhockeyleague.com for the playoff dates and times.
The season is over for the St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres after losing the opening playoff series for the second year in a row to the SSAC Southgate Lions in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League.
The nitro north division best-of-three playoff ended with the 7-1 SSAC triumph in the third and deciding game Sunday at Millwoods Arena.
SSAC won the first game 4-3 Friday at Callingwood Arena and the Sabres rebounded with a 5-2 decision Saturday at Akinsdale Arena as Eddie Gallagher tallied twice and added three assists.
The Sabres (16-12-5) finished six points behind second-place SSAC (20-10-3) in the standings but were 3-2 against the Lions in league play, including a 4-0 victory in St. Albert in the second-last game before the playoffs.
Last year SSAC swept the Sabres in the first round.
