The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets will pack the stands at the Ray McDonald Sports Centre on Sunday, when the Capital Junior B Hockey League rivals face-off for the third time this season.
Puck drop is 6:45 p.m.
The Merchants (13-9-2) and Jets (10-13-1) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the west division before Friday’s games. The Merchants played the Chiefs (13-9-1) in Beaumont and the Jets challenged the Hawks (12-9) in Fort Saskatchewan. Scores were unavailable at press time.
The Merchants have won the last four tilts with the Jets, dating back to last season, and are 8-1-1 since the 2013/14 campaign.
This season the Merchants beat the Jets 6-2 Oct. 16 in St. Albert and 7-3 Nov. 21 in Morinville.
The second loss in three games for the Merchants was Wednesday’s 4-2 setback to the North Edmonton Red Wings (16-6-1) at Londonderry Arena.
The Merchants opened and closed the game with power-play goals by Mason Kenny in the first period and Brendan Bow with 5:54 remaining. Daniel Spatafora assisted on both goals.
The Red Wings led 3-1 after the first and added their fourth goal midway through the second.
Shots were 36-25 for the 2015 Founders Cup and provincial champions and Keystone Cup western silver medallists. Ty Clelland (11-9, 3.59 GAA) was in net for the Merchants.
Matt Murray of St. Albert was selected to the Team Canada West lineup for the 2015 World Junior A Challenge in Cobourg and Whitby, Ont.
The Spruce Grove Saints’ netminder is among 10 Alberta Junior Hockey League players on the 22-man roster.
Sixty players, including six goalies, were invited to the selection camp that wrapped up Tuesday in Leduc from teams in the AJHL, British Columbia Hockey League, Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League and Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Murray will share goaltending duties with Bo Didur of the Langley Thunder.
Canada West, United States and Czech Republic are in group B and group A consists of Canada East, Russia and Switzerland.
The score from Friday’s exhibition between Canada West and Russia was unavailable at press time.
Canada West’s first game is Sunday against the Czechs.
Visit www.hockeycanada.ca/wjac for the schedule and results from the 10th annual tournament.
Murray, 17, is a second-year Saint after playing for the 2013/14 St. Albert Flyers in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
This season Murray is 15-3 with a 2.38 GAA, two shutouts and .919 save percentage for the first-place Saints (27-5-2) after going 14-1 in his AJHL debut with a 1.72 GAA, two shutouts and .920 save percentage for the 2015 playoff champions.
Bret Mossing’s third goal of the game was the overtime winner for the midget AA St. Albert Blues in Sunday’s final at the Banff Hockey Academy Challenge Cup.
Mossing scored unassisted six seconds into the extra period as the Blues defeated the midget AAA Winnipeg Hawks 5-4.
The Hawks led 2-1 after the first period and 3-2 after 40 minutes.
Jack Lastwika opened the scoring on the power play and Bryce Sturm made it 4-3 at the six-minute mark of the third period.
The Hawks potted the tying marker with their fourth power-play goal with 5:56 to play.
Shots were 42-30 for the Blues and Chris Curr was in net.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
The Challenge Cup consisted of 16 teams from across Western Canada. The Blues posted wins of 8-0 against the West Kelowna Warriors, 2-1 against the Camrose Red Wings and 6-4 against Prince Albert Raiders in conference play and 5-3 against the Vernon Vipers in the playoffs.
The Blues (8-6-2) returned home to play the CAC Butchers & Packers (9-3-3) Monday in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League and lost 7-3 at Mark Messier Arena. CAC tallied four unanswered goals in the middle frame to lead 5-1.
Josh Porter scored at even strength and Sam Smith-Ackerl and Lastwika struck on the power play.
The Blues were outshot 52-35 and Brandon Boughen and Curr split time in net.
Today’s game against SSAC Don Wheaton (10-3-2) starts at 5:15 p.m. at Confederation Arena.
Sunday the Blues host the Sturgeon Sting (4-8-1) at 8:15 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The Blues are 5-2 in league play since beating the St. Albert Crusaders (13-3-1) 6-3 Nov. 4.
The St. Albert Crusaders have road games on tap in Whitecourt on Sunday and Leduc on Monday in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League.
Start times are 3:45 p.m. against the Whitecourt Wolverines (5-9-1) and 8:15 p.m. against the Leduc Roughnecks (4-9-1).
The last game for the Crusaders (13-3-1), the top team in the Clean Harbors division, was Thursday against the Strathcona Warriors (9-1-5) in St. Albert but the score was unavailable at press time.
The Crusaders were 7-1 in their last eight games before Thursday’s contest.
Last weekend the Crusaders finished 3-1 at the Banff Hockey Academy Challenge Cup. They posted wins of 6-2 against Prairie Storm and 2-0 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes, lost 4-3 to the Winnipeg Hawks and beat the Calgary Northstars Minor AAA Blazers 8-1.
Nine players from the St. Albert Lady Raiders in the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League made the Zone 5 (Black Gold/Yellowhead) roster for the 2016 Alberta Winter Games.
The team consists of Bria Fewchuk, Robyn Short and Emma Sundar on defence and Payden Bialowas, Kylie Foisy, Isabelle Lajoie, Libby Langenhahn, Makenna Schuttler and Katelynn Wagner at forward.
The winter games are Feb. 13 to 16 in Medicine Hat. The multi-sport event is for developing athletes 11 to 17 years old.
Meanwhile, the Raiders (5-3-4) are in Grande Prairie this weekend for two games against the Peace Country Storm (6-6-2). The teams are tied for fourth place in the north division.
