The St. Albert Hit repeated as Hockey Alberta female A provincial champions in Sunday's final at Go Auto Arena.
The St. Albert Hit repeated as Hockey Alberta female A provincial champions in Sunday's final at Go Auto Arena.
Meagan Edworthy-Beer, Regan Ackroyd scored in the first period, Sophie McKinley struck halfway through the third and Layla Hood posted the 3-0 shutout against the Calgary Kaos.
The Hit finished 5-0-1 in the 10-team tournament and the Kaos were 4-2.
In pool A, the Hit defeated the Calgary Jets 3-1, battled the Lloydminster Blazers to a 1-1 draw, blanked the Grande Prairie Knights 5-0 and beat the Strathcona Stars 5-2.
Mikayla Sarapuk potted the tying marker against Lloydminster with three minutes left in second frame. Chiara Knowlton was between the pipes.
In the semifinals, the Hit downed the Sherwood Park Force 4-1 and Kaos stoned the Blazers 3-0.
Bronwyn Boucher tallied twice, Sarapuk and Ackroyd also scored and Sykora Thornton picked up two assists against the Force (3-2). Hood was in net. She also pitched the shutout against the Knights.
The Hit have six returning players in the lineup from last year's 5-0 (23 GF/2 GA) showing at provincials in Calgary.
Sandro Pisani coached the Hit to back-to-back championships.
The season is over for the St. Albert Merchants after losing the Capital Junior B Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal against the Wetaskiwin Icemen in five games.
Brenden Passek's sixth playoff goal opened the scoring in Friday's 4-2 setback in Wetaskiwin.
The Icemen replied with three in a row before Taylor Lotoski potted his team-high seventh goal with 4:35 left in the second period.
The third empty-net goal of the series by the Icemen wrapped it up with two seconds to go.
Shots were 22-13 in the second, 18-10 in the third and 47-35 overall for the Icemen. Ty Clelland (6-6, 3.72 GAA) of the Merchants started his 12th consecutive playoff game.
Casey Reid, a fourth-year Merchant, led the team in playoff scoring with 14 points.
The Icemen beat the Merchants 7-2 in Wetaskiwin, 5-3 in St. Albert and 4-1 in Wetaskiwin before losing game four 4-2 in St. Albert last Wednesday.
The Merchants (24-12-2), third in the west division, defeated the Icemen (24-10-4), tied for first in the east standings, twice in league play.
Zach Tisi's overtime winner for the St. Albert Crusaders forced a third and deciding game in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League playoff against the Sherwood Park Oilers.
Tuesday's score in St. Albert was unavailable at press time.
The winner advances to the five-team provincial tournament, March 24 to 27 in Calgary, and the best-of-five Fountain Tire Cup, April 1 to 10, against the Wainwright Polar Kings.
The Oilers won game one 4-3 in overtime after letting a 3-0 first period slip away Saturday at Akinsdale Arena.
Jacob Waldbillig, Gavin Barter and Tisi scored for the Crusaders. Parker Waseylenko (40 saves) replaced starter Elliot Saive (four saves) after the third goal by the Oilers.
Waldbillig tallied his league-high 10th playoff goal Sunday in Sherwood Park. Robert Putt and Jacob Bennett also scored in game two before Tisi notched his seventh of the playoffs.
Shots were 34-26 for the Oilers and Waseylenko (4-1, 2.05 GAA) was in net.
The Crusaders, last year's Fountain Tire Cup finalists and 2014 champions, finished first in the Clean Harbors division at 21-8-3 and the Oilers placed fifth in the Investors Group division at 14-12-6.
Both teams were 7-1 in the playoffs before game three.
The St. Albert Bears and Beaumont Braves will compete for the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League championship after winning their respective semifinal series.
The schedule for the best-of-three final was unavailable at press time.
The Bears finished third in the Metro Red division at 13-13-6 and are 7-1 in the playoffs.
Beaumont tied for first in the Rural White division at 21-6-4 and are 7-1-1 in the playoffs
The Bears swept the St. Albert Comets, second in the Metro Blue division at 26-4-2, in the best-of-three Red-Blue division series and Beaumont needed three games to eliminate the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, second in the Rural Black division at 17-6-7.
The Bears defeated the Comets 3-2 and 1-0 last weekend.
The game one stats were not available but in the second game Zachary Chizen scored in the second period and Brady Kobitowich stopped 14 shots in the third and 29 overall for his second playoff shutout.
The Comets finished 5-3 in the playoffs.
The St. Albert Royals were down but not out in their third consecutive playoff series in the Rural & Edmonton Midget 15AA Hockey League.
The Royals edged SSAC Dolce Vita Homes 5-4 Sunday in Bill Hunter Arena in game three in the best-of-five final
Game four is 7:45 p.m. tonight at Akinsdale Arena.
Game five, if needed, is 8:15 p.m. Thursday at Callingwood Arena.
The Royals were pushed to the brink of elimination by third-place SSAC (21-5-4) after losses of 6-3 at Terwillegar and 4-3 on a very late goal at Troy Murray Arena.
The seventh-place Royals (8-17-5) also rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to knock off the first-place SSAC Southgate Lions Mustangs (23-3-4) in the best-of-five semifinal and beat the second-place Sherwood Park Senators (21-5-4) after dropping the series opener in the best-of-three opening round.
