The St. Albert Merchants avoided a playoff sweep by the Wetaskiwin Icemen in the best-of-seven Capital Junior B Hockey League semifinal Wednesday.
The 4-2 win forced a game five Friday in Wetaskiwin, but the score was unavailable at press time.
If needed, game six is 8 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena and game seven is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Wetaskiwin.
The winner advances to the Founders Cup final against the North Edmonton Red Wings, the defending champions, or Fort Saskatchewan Hawks. The two finalists also qualify for provincials, March 31 to April 3 in Red Deer. The Red Wings won provincials last year and finished second at westerns.
After losses of 7-2 in Wetaskiwin, 5-3 in St. Albert and Sunday’s 4-1 setback in Wetaskiwin, the Merchants rebounded with a game-high 34-save performance by Ty Clelland (6-5, 3.79 GAA) and goals by Jared Kwasney in the first period, Matt Havens (power play) and Brenden Passek in the second and Casey Reid in the third.
Period scores were 1-1 and 3-2.
The Merchants beat the Icemen twice in league play by scores of 3-2 Nov. 1 in Wetaskiwin and 2-1 on captain Dan Rombough’s overtime winner Jan. 21 in St. Albert.
The Merchants (24-12-2) placed third in the west division and the Icemen (24-10-4) shared top spot in the east standings.
The St. Albert Crusaders are two wins away from their third-straight trip to the Fountain Tire Cup in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League, when the Metro north conference final starts today against the Sherwood Park Oilers.
Faceoff is 4:30 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Game two in the best-of-three series is 6:15 p.m. Sunday in Sherwood Park and game three, if needed, is 7 p.m. Tuesday at Akinsdale.
The winner advances to the five-team provincials, March 24 to 27, and the best-of-five Fountain Tire Cup, April 1 to 10, against the defending champion Peace River Royals or Wainwright Polar Kings.
Last year the Crusaders lost the final to the Royals in five games after beating the Royals in five games in 2014.
The Crusaders finished first in the Clean Harbors division at 21-8-3 and in their division playoff tournament went 6-0 with two shutouts against the Leduc Roughnecks, including the 4-0 decision in the final, while outscoring the opposition 29-10.
The Oilers placed fifth in the Investors Group division at 14-12-6 and won their division playoff tournament with a 6-0 record.
Jacob Waldbillig led the Crusaders in the playoffs with eight goals and 10 points.
Zach Tisi notched five goals and eight points and Mattias Neset added seven assists.
Neset was fifth in league scoring with 53 points in 31 games and his 22 goals was tops on the team.
Elliot Saive (3-0, one shutout, 1.33 GAA and .965 save percentage) and Parker Waseylenko (3-0, one shutout, 2.00 GAA and .912 save percentage) split net time in the playoffs.
The St. Albert Royals rallied from the brink of elimination to knock off the first-place team in the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League for a berth in the playoff final.
The seventh-place Royals (8-17-5) lost the first two games to the SSAC Southgate Lions Mustangs (23-3-4) by identical 3-2 scores in overtime before posting victories of 7-2, 4-2 and 5-0 to complete the comeback.
The Royals also battled back from a 3-0 game one loss to the second-place Sherwood Park Senators (21-5-4) with consecutive 2-1 decisions to win the best-of-three opening round.
The best-of-five final against the third-place SSAC Dolce Vita Homes (21-5-4) started Thursday and the Royals lost 6-3 at the Terwillegar Community Rec Centre.
Darrien Wesley potted a pair and assisted on Stu Dovey’s goal.
Game two goes tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Troy Murray Arena and game three is 4:45 p.m. Sunday at Bill Hunter Arena.
If needed, game four is 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at Akinsdale Arena and game five is 8 p.m. Thursday at Terwillegar.
Wesley leads the Royals in points with eight and Dovey, an affiliate, has six.
Noah Fayad is the top goal scorer with five and Wesley has tallied four.
Michael Davis is 3-4 with a 2.33 GAA and .922 save percentage in the playoffs.
Brett Price led the team in scoring in the regular season with seven goals and 15 points in 28 games and Davis (6-7-3) ranked seventh among goalies with a 2.46 GAA.
The playoff series between the Bears and Comets will determine which St. Albert team will compete for the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League championship.
The score from Thursday’s series opener in the best-of-three Metro Red-Blue division’s final was unavailable at press time.
Game two goes tonight at 7 p.m. and game three, if needed, is 5 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena.
The winner plays the Fort McMurray Barons or Beaumont Braves in the best-of-three championship final
The Bears placed third in the Red division at 13-13-6 and the Comets were second in the Blue division at 26-4-2.
The Bears and Comets won their respective division playoff tournaments and both finals were decided by shootouts.
The Bears rallied from a 3-0 deficit against CAC Golden Arrow (11-16-5) on goals by Graziano Grozic at 17:45, Adem Olsen at 19:21 and Josh Klassen at 19:39 of the third period in the 4-3 decision.
Cameron Thomas of the Comets scored against PAC Comets (18-6-8) in the 2-1 outcome.
The Bears and Comets finished 5-1 in their division playoffs.
The playoffs started Friday for the host team at the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League championship tournament.
The score between the St. Albert Lady Raiders and the Peace Country Storm from Castledowns Arena was unavailable at press time.
Game two in the best-of-three north division opening round goes today at 2:15 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
Game three, if needed, is 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto.
The Raiders (16-10-4) finished fourth and the Storm (12-14-4) placed fifth in the north standings.
The winner plays the 2015 AMBFHL champion Edmonton Lightning (20-6-4) or Sherwood Park Royals (19-6-5) in the best-of-three north semifinals.
The AMBFHL provincials are March 24 to 27 in St. Albert.
In league scoring, Isabelle Lajoie and Andrea Gauchier tied for 10th with 26 points apiece.
Lajoie led the Raiders in goals with 16, followed by Gauchier with 13, Payden Bialowas with 12 and Aidan Soltis with 10.
The St. Albert Slash are in Sherwood Park tonight to play the Fury in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League playoffs.
Game two in the best-of-five series starts at 7:30 p.m.
The Slash lost game one 4-1 Wednesday in Sherwood Park.
Brooke Serdachny opened the scoring in the first period and the Fury tallied twice in the second and third periods.
Shots were 28-19 for the Fury and the Slash goalie was Hannah Clark.
The Slash are now 0-5 against the Fury this season.
The loss was also the sixth in a row for the Slash, including four against the Fury.
Last month the Slash went 0-5 to end league play and three of those loses were against the Fury.
Game three is 8:15 p.m. Monday at Go Auto Arena.
If needed, game four is March 17 at 8:15 p.m. at Go Auto and the date and time for game five in Sherwood Park has not been announced.
The winner goes to five-team AMMFHL provincial tournament, March 24-27 in Grande Prairie.
The Fury (21-5-6) are seeded second and the Slash (10-16-6) are seventh in the playoff bracket.
Danielle Cox led the Slash in scoring in league play with 13 goals and 19 points in 30 games.
The Slash were the second-most penalized team and the second-lowest scoring team in the nine-team AMMFHL.
