The St. Albert Merchants were on the brink of elimination in the Capital Junior B Hockey League playoffs after Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to the Stony Plain Flyers.
The first-place Merchants had to beat the Flyers on Friday night in Stony Plain to force a fifth and deciding game in the quarter-final series. The score was unavailable at press time.
If needed, game five is 8 p.m. Sunday at Akinsdale Arena.
The Flyers opened the series with a 2-1 overtime win in St. Albert and the Merchants won game two 3-1 in Stony Plain.
Wednesday the host team for the junior B provincial championship tied it at one in the first period, made it 2-1 in the middle frame and in the third rattled off four unanswered goals while outshooting the Merchants 18-6 in the period and 36-27 overall.
Blair Macuch scored the Merchants’ first goal at the 1:56 mark and Braeden Farge closed out the game with a power-play marker with 23 seconds to play.
Ty Clelland (1-2, 2.87 GAA) was in net for the Merchants.
The repeat winners of the Challenge Cup as the top team in the league play at 32-6 were 17-2 at home before the playoffs.
Last year’s Founders Cup finalists and fourth-place team at provincials had won nine in a row while going 19-1 in their last 20 games to close out the regular season.
The Merchants were 3-1 against the Flyers (23-12-3) in their season series.
The puck drops Tuesday night in Sherwood Park for the St. Albert Slash in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League playoffs.
The best-of-five series opener against the Sherwood Park Fury starts at 8:30 p.m.
Next weekend game two is 5 p.m. Saturday at Sherwood Park and game three is 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena.
If needed, game four is March 10 at 8:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena and game five is March 15 at 1 p.m. in Sherwood Park.
The series winner advances to the March 19 to 22 provincial tournament at Spruce Grove.
The Fury (17-12-3) and Slash (15-12-5) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in league play.
The Fury beat the Slash 3-1, 1-0 and 4-3 before losing 4-3 in St. Albert on Jan. 30.
The last game for the Slash before the playoffs was Feb. 7, a 4-3 loss to the Spruce Grove PAC Saints (15-14-3) in St. Albert. The Saints are hosting provincials.
The Slash are 1-5 after going 2-1-2 as semifinalists at the Mac’s tournament in Calgary during the Christmas break.
The St. Albert Flyers visit the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers today in the last game before the Sutter North Cup playoffs in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Game time is 5 p.m. between the second-place Flyers (26-5-5) and the last-place Rangers (2-31-3).
Last weekend the Flyers set a team record by going undefeated on home ice at 17-0-2 after blanking the Lloydminster Rage 3-0 and the Camrose Red Wings 5-0 at Akinsdale Arena with Chris Curr between the pipes.
Curr (16-3-3, 2.32 GAA) was peppered with 39 shots by the Rage (13-12-10) and stopped 30 shots against the Red Wings (15-14-5) while posting his fourth shutout and the team’s fifth of the season. He leads all AMMHL goalies in save percentage at .931 and is tied for the league lead in shutouts.
Aidan Steinke was the top scorer during the weekend homestand with three goals and two assists.
The Sutter North Cup starts Thursday in Edmonton and is a qualification tournament for the March 18 to 22 provincials in Leduc.
