The St. Albert Comets lit it up at the 37th annual Edmonton Invitational Bantam Tournament of Champions.
Ryan Holmes struck twice and Luke Aston chipped in with three assists in Saturday’s 6-1 final against MLAC United Cycle at Callingwood Twin Arenas.
Carter MacDonald, Owen Bourque, Dylan Leslie and Palmer Strang also scored and Graziano Grozic added two assists.
Shots were 35-24 for the Comets and Matt Clements was in net.
The Comets finished 4-0-1 and MLAC was 3-1-1.
The Comets advanced to the final after wins of 6-1 against SSAC Alberta Sportswear, 4-3 against the PAC Broncos of Spruce Grove, 7-1 against the Alaska All-Stars and settled for a 4-4 tie against the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers.
Hudson Ketsa and Leslie led the team in scoring with nine points apiece and Ashton, Grozic, MacDonald and Strang had seven apiece.
Ketsa also scored a team-high four goals.
Holmes was the recipient of the most valuable defenceman award and MacDonald received one of the tournament’s academic scholarships.
The 14-team tournament consisted of 13 clubs in the Edmonton Rural Bantam AA Hockey League, including the Comets (10-4-3), the top team in the Blue division, MLAC (8-9-2), Rangers (8-7-1), Broncos (7-11-2) and SSAC (10-6).
The St. Albert Bears (14-3) are first in the Red division as the ERBHL’s overall leaders and St. Albert Elite Sportswear Blues (12-3-1) are third in the Red standings.
Friday the Comets host SSAC at 8:15 p.m. at Troy Murray Arena.
The Bears also play SSAC at 7 p.m. Sunday at Millwoods Arena and Monday the Blues face-off against the KC Shamrocks (6-9-2) at 8 p.m. at Castledowns Arena.
The midget elite and bantam elite rosters have been finalized for the inaugural Alberta Female Hockey League all-star games.
Representing the midget elite St. Albert Sharks on the north division roster is netminder Natasha Borrett, defenceman Bria Fewchuck and forwards Payden Bialowas and Aidan Soltis.
The bantam elite north division all-stars from the St. Albert Raiders include netminders Holley Borrett and Elle Boyko, defenceman Robyn Short, forwards Jessica Kormysh and Libby Langenhahn and coach Sandro Pisani.
The Jan. 14 all-star games will be played at Penhold for midget elite and Strathmore for bantam elite.
League play resumes this weekend for both teams. The Sharks (6-9-1) have two games on tap in Grande Prairie against the Storm (12-1-1) and the Raiders (12-2) host the Lethbridge Cyclones (6-8) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Mark Messier Arena and the Edmonton Pandas (6-5-2) at 8:15 p.m. Sunday at Go Auto Arena.
The Sharks are third in the midget elite north standings and last month’s record was 0-4-1.
The Raiders are winners of 10 in a row, including five by shutouts, as the top bantam elite team in the north.
