The puck drops next week for the St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League pre-season.
The Raiders and KC Pats face-off Monday at 5:45 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena.
Four of the team’s five exhibitions are scheduled for Bill Hunter and Wednesday’s match against the Maple Leafs also starts at 5:45 p.m.
The last exhibition before league play is Sept. 21 against the Sherwood Park Kings at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
Thirty-three players were listed on the team’s website after Sunday’s blue/white intersquad games.
The new head coach of the Raiders is Jack Redlick.
The Edmonton police constable served as an assistant coach for the Drayton Valley Thunder in the Alberta Junior Hockey League last season.
Redlick is a St. Albert product and former defenceman for the Kamloops Blazers (17 games), Vancouver Giants (49 games) and Regina Pats (five games) in the Western Hockey League and Victoria Tigers (26 games) in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and in 2003/04 piled 304 penalty minutes in 52 games with the Grande Prairie Storm in the AJHL.
Last season the Raiders (7-24-3) finished ninth out of 10 teams in the north with the third-lowest point totals in the 18-team league while averaging 4.17 goals-against per game under head coach Craig Goebel.
The St. Albert Gregg Distributors Sabres host CAC Lehigh Cement tonight in bantam AAA exhibition action.
Game time is 6 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
The annual John Ferguson Memorial Tournament starts Tuesday for the Sabres and their first game is Tuesday against the SSAC Southgate Lions at 7:30 p.m. at Callingwood Arena.
The Sabres opened the pre-season with wins of 7-2 and 4-1 against the Sherwood Park Flyers.
As of Wednesday, the Sabres had four goalies, eight defencemen and 14 forwards in camp under the direction of new head coach Lee Zalasky.
The bench boss of the PAC Saints of Spruce Grove the last two seasons in the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League has strong ties with Alberta Golden Bears as an assistant coach and as a former player won University Cup championship teams in 2006 and 2008 during a 139-game university career.
The Lloydminster product also played for the Moose Jaw Warriors (110 games), Calgary Hitmen (136 games) and Prince George Cougars (30 games) in the Western Hockey League and spent time with the Evansville IceMen in 2010/11 in the Central Hockey League.
Last season the Sabres (23-6-7) placed second in the nitro north standings and lost the best-of-three opening playoff round in two games to Southgate with T.J. Woodward at the controls.
The midget AAA St. Albert Slash in the new Alberta Female Hockey League have two exhibitions on tap this weekend at Go Auto Arena.
The Slash skate today against the SFX Academy at 2:15 p.m. and Olds College Broncos on Sunday at 12:15 p.m.
The Slash will also participate in the MacEwan University Tournament, starting Thursday, and the NAIT Ooks Gold/Gold Tournament Sept. 22 to 25.
Dan Auchenberg was brought on board to coach the Slash in the first season of the Hockey Alberta female development model.
The former head coach of the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the Alberta Junior Hockey guided the Sherwood Park Fury to second place in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League and a berth at provincials in his second season with the Fury. However, Sherwood Park is no longer part of the revamped midget AAA female division as Hockey Alberta decided to go with six teams instead of nine. St. Albert, Edmonton, Calgary, Okotoks, Red Deer and Lloydminster remain as midget AAA female communities.
The Slash (10-16-6), coached by Darren Short last season, tied for sixth in the AMMFHL standings and were swept by the Fury (21-5-6) in the best-of-five playoffs and a berth in the league’s provincial tournament on the line.
Meanwhile, the Hockey Alberta midget female elite league consists of 12 teams and the St. Albert Lady Raiders are among 12 bantam elite teams in the province.
Bernie Gratton is coaching the Sharks and Sandro Pisani was promoted from the peewee A female St. Albert Hit to coach the Raiders after the former head coach of the midget AAA St. Albert Raiders and KC Pats led the Hit to back-to-back provincial championships.
Tonight the Sharks are in Sherwood Park for an exhibition at 8 p.m. and the Raiders have a pre-season contest scheduled next Saturday at 7:15 p.m. at Troy Murray Arena.
