The Final Five Provincial Championship, hosted by the St. Albert Lady Flyers, continues today at Servus Credit Union Place.
The round-robin portion of the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League tournament ends today with games between the Raiders and Edmonton Lightning at 9:45 a.m. at Go Auto Arena and Calgary Rangers and Rocky Mountain at 10 a.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
The Sherwood Park Royals round out the five-team draw.
The top team receives a bye into Sunday’s final at 11 a.m. at Go Auto Arena.
Teams finishing second and third qualify for tonight’s semifinal at 6 p.m. at Go Auto.
Visit www.haprovincials.ca for results.
The Lightning are the defending champions and in the north division semifinals swept the Raiders in the best-of-three series.
The Lightning (20-6-4), Sherwood Park (19-6-5) and Raiders (16-10-4) placed first, second and third, respectively, in the north standings and Rocky Mountain (21-5-4) and Calgary (19-6-5) led the way in the south.
The St. Albert Merchants remain busy off the ice after their season ended in the semifinal playoffs in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
The first annual Merch Madness Golf Tournament tees off June 10 at the Sturgeon Valley Golf & Country Club.
Registrations for individuals, teams and sponsors can be done through www.stalbertmerchants.com.
A number of professional hockey players will be in attendance, which will provide opportunities to “Beat the Pro” on certain holes.
Proceeds will support the Merchants Hockey Club and the Gord Hollett Memorial Scholarship Fund.
The Merchants’ awards banquet is May 7 and details are available on the team’s website.
With 16 new players in the lineup, the Merchants placed third in the west division at 24-12-2 and finished 6-6 in the playoffs after losing game five in the best-of-seven semifinal to the Wetaskiwin Icemen.
“This past season has been a positive season on many fronts and I suspect that many people didn’t think we would do as well as we did given the significant turnover of players from last season,” said head coach Scott Rodda. “I believe our success was a testament to many factors coming together at the right time and in a positive manner. As a coach all you can ask for in your players is to work hard and make the necessary commitments to be successful and I think for the most part that is what they did.
“I look at the season from beginning to end and our improvement was significant, in part due to some strong leadership from our returning players and it certainly began with the four over-agers: (Dan) Rombough, (Ty) Clelland, (Jared) Kwasney and (Casey) Reid. I can’t say enough about these four young men; outstanding commitment, leadership and passion and above all of their contributions on the ice they are just really fine gentlemen who it has been a real pleasure to coach. I know coaching for me is far more than the game itself and these four guys constantly reminded me of the privilege it is to coach.
“You add returning players’ (Thomas) Rotundo and (Mike) Bruni and collectively that core provided the basic nucleus of which we built our team on. Their leadership and commitment was also unwavering and as returning players next year, they will be heavily counted on to continue carrying the Merchant torch for new players coming in.”
Rodda will meet with the board of directors and his coaching staff before deciding on returning for a third season.
“Our success this year bodes well for a few seasons to come if we can continue to solidify this group and augment it with some new talent,” Rodda said. “Finishing third in our division and advancing to the third round of the playoffs, while positive, also sets high expectations for even more success next year.”
