Hockey Digest

The season ended sooner than expected for the first-place St. Albert Merchants in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.

Last year's Founders Cup finalists and fourth-place finishers at provincials bowed out 2-1 in the fifth and deciding game in their quarter-final series against the Stony Plain Flyers in front of a full house at Akinsdale Arena.

The Flyers struck twice during a 2:57-minute span in the second period to snap a scoreless tie.

Merchants captain Dan Rombough broke Courtney Lane's shutout bid with 2:14 left in regulation time.

Down by two goals the Merchants were unable to score on a five-minute power play in the third.

The shot count was listed at 6-2 in the third and 25-19 overall for the Merchants.

Ty Clelland (2-3, 2.73 GAA) was tagged with the loss.

The Merchants were 17-2 in league play in the Akinsdale barn before losing all three home games in the playoffs to the host team for provincials. The Flyers won the series opener 2-1 in overtime and game three 6-2 and the Merchants replied with victories of 3-1 and 6-3 in game four in Stony Plain.

The Merchants forced a fifth game by outscoring the Flyers 5-1 in Friday's opening period on goals by Andrew Clark, Blair Macuch, Casey Reid, Karmen Ward and Mitch McNamara.

Mike Roeleveld made it 6-2 in the second.

Shots were 15-7 in the first and 32-19 overall for the Merchants.

The repeat winners of the Challenge Cup as the top team in the league play at 32-6 were 3-1 against the Flyers (23-12-3) in their season series.

The Merchants rattled off nine consecutive wins while going 19-1 in their last 20 games before the playoffs kicked off.

The Morinville Kings are in the driver’s seat in the race to the North Central Senior AA Hockey League final after defeating the Devon Barons twice last weekend.

The Kings lead the best-of-five semifinal 2-1 after wins of 7-3 at Dale Fischer Arena in Devon and 6-2 at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.

Game four is 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Devon and game five, if needed, is 6:45 p.m. in Morinville.

Devon, the two-time defending NCHL champion, won the series opener 8-4 in Morinville.

Chris Sharkey (2-0, 2.50 GAA) backstopped the Kings to the series lead by stopping 55 out of 60 shots in back-to-back wins.

In game two the Kings exploded for six unanswered goals during a 7:57-minute span before the halfway mark in the first period as Neil Tarnasky, Keegan Arcand, Tim Nolte, Brayden Arcand, Wayne Gatza and Glendon Macklem found the back of the net.

Shamus Graham posted the team's seventh goal with 15:19 left in the game.

Joel Pelletier collected three assists and Brayden Arcand and Riley Miller picked up a pair each.

The next night Miller sniped the winner 14 seconds after Devon rallied from an early two-goal deficit to even the score with 4:46 left in the middle frame.

Brayden Arcand notched his second goal of the game and Macklem also scored before the period ended.

Josh Lafleche opened and closed the scoring for the Kings.

Graham chipped in with three assists and Dalen Paul and Miller both had a pair of helpers.

In league play the Kings (13-4-1) finished second and the Barons (10-7-1) placed third.

The series winner will play the first-place Westlock Warriors (16-1-1) in the best-of-five final.

The NCHL champion advances to the Hockey Alberta AA/A provincials, hosted by the Daysland Northstars of the Battle River Hockey League, March 27 to 29 at Camrose.

Last year the Kings were crowned the provincial A champion as the host team for the tournament.

The North Sutter Cup starts Thursday for the St. Albert Flyers in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.

Games will be played at the new Meadows Community Recreation Centre in northwest Edmonton.

It's a qualification tournament for the March 18 to 22 provincials in Leduc.

The top eight teams in the north are split into two pools and after round-robin action the teams ranked first and second in both pools advance to the crossover semifinals.

The two finalists join the host Leduc Oil Kings (11-20-6) as the north reps at provincials.

In pool B the second-place Flyers (27-5-5) play the seventh-place Lloydminster Rage (13-13-10) at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, the fifth-place Camrose Red Wings (17-14-6) at 3 p.m. Friday and the third-place Sherwood Park Squires (24-7-6) at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Pool A consists of the first-place SSAC Bulldogs (32-3-2), fourth-place CAC United Cycle (21-15-1), sixth-place Maple Leafs (16-15-6) and eighth-place Grande Prairie Storm (13-18-5).

Saturday's semifinals are 4:45 and 7:15 p.m. and Sunday's final is 12:45 p.m.

Visit www.ammhl.ca for the schedule and results.

The Flyers storm into the playoffs after registering their third shutout in a row, 7-0 over the last-place Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (2-32-3) last weekend on the road.

Nate Reinhart (11-2-2) recorded his second shutout and the team's sixth of the season.

Game stats were unavailable at press time.